Tag: animation

I’ve been working on…

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There are several difficulties with keeping up with a blog:

  1. There is finding content and the time to post the content.
  2. The perfect timing to share what you’ve been working on yourself and
  3. Actually getting the nerve up to share your recent work, or at least in my case there’s a lot of getting up nerve.

I know, point number three seems completely ridiculous as the reason for all of this is to share my portfolio and to share what inspires me but somehow sharing other people’s work seems to so much safer.  I’ve always been someone that prefers to work behind the scenes, never wanting to draw attention to myself.  I rather like being a kind of ghost in the creative process – have some exciting role, but then when it’s time for recognition I get cold feet.

I’m trying to be better at putting my work out there – otherwise it’s rather useless actually producing it in the first place, right?

So this is what I’ve been up to:

HFOBD Banner emfirno wide

www.humanfaceofbigdatafilm.com

  • Yes, admittedly I’ve been working on The Human Face of Big Data for a while, but the new part is that after several weeks, there is now an official website with the trailer, official screening dates and bios of all the major contributors!  Check it out for details on upcoming screenings – yes, this film could finally be coming to a theater near you in the next few months… This is a  very long awaited release of the film and I hope to announce the official dates soon.
  • You may have also noticed that this site has a slightly different look and format in the last month or so.  I’ve finally had a chance to do the major overhaul that I’ve been wanting to do for a while now.

    What do you think?  Comments? Anything that you think could be better?  I’m all ears.

  • The film, Crazywise, is moving forward in post production!  I’m still doing the odd research, but mostly helping with keeping things running on the post production front and keeping their project manager sane.  There are so many moving parts that it definitely takes a team!  For more information on that film, be sure to check out their Facebook, Twitter and Blog for updates.  The Crazywise team is pretty amazing at keeping their followers up to date on the progress of the film so be sure to check them out – there are some amazing interviews on their blog already and they are always adding more!
  • And last of all, I’ve been working on pitches for several new projects and getting ready to start another promotional film for one of my clients.  However, for now I can’t share the details but I look forward to sharing updates as everything moves forward.

Enough about me today and back to my usual posts later this week.  Happy Tuesday!

Raincoats still available!

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I can hardly believe that Sonja Silver’s raincoat Kickstarter is complete!  If you remember, I made the campaign video and we’ve been fundraising ever since the completion.  This has been the least stressful campaign that I’ve ever worked on – woo hoo for people with an online following and a great campaign team!

In case you were hoping to order a coat or any other items but didn’t get your order in in time, you can still get your name in before they run out.  There are 94 coats still available and Sonja is willing to take fill orders over the phone.  Please contact me if you’re interested.

And in case you haven’t heard about this fabulous coat that I’ve been involved with, check out the video below:

Thank you for everyone’s support and for all of those who have contributed!

Statistics – Motion Graphics Style

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It’s been a while since I posted something that inspires me.  I’ve been swept up in a whirlwind of film screenings and getting other projects underway, and thus, had little time to share some of my findings.

So during a break the other day,  I came across this little beauty:

Neil Halloran

Now it may not be the most uplifting of topics but it’s informative, visually interesting and even better, the visuals enhance the message.  Sharing such devastating statistics and making it interesting would have had me puzzling over how I would even begin to tackle this project for all of eternity.  Well probably not, but because I’m tired as it’s the end of the week, it would seem like all of eternity if I attempted it right now.  It certainly wouldn’t turn out as cool.

I have always had an appreciation for good motion graphics but have become even more enamored by the really good stuff since having to do my own for my last project, A Raincoat by Sonja Silver.  I doubt that I’ll be moving towards using motion graphics exclusively in documentary projects in the near future, but I’d sure love to include something like this.

Happy Friday!

A Raincoat for the PNW Woman

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Today, I can finally share something that I’ve been working on since the beginning of March!

I’ve been collaborating with Sonja Silver Designs and Chandler O’Leary on their creation of a new raincoat, exclusively designed for fashion conscious women on the go.  My role had little to do with the design of the coat – instead I’ve been working on the Kickstarter video:

EMFIRNO

A contemporary raincoat with a constellation print lining illustrated by Chandler O’Leary. Useful + Beautiful. Made in the USA.

Sonja and Chandler’s Kickstarter campaign runs May 17-June15. Fore more details on this amazing product, please check out the details at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1284565607/a-raincoat-by-sonja-silver-with-chandler-oleary

Championship Season

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February, for whatever reason is blessed with several big events when it comes to trophies and red carpet events.  It’s the end of the film and tv award season, ending with the Oscars.  It’s also the end of football season, ending with the Superbowl.  The Superbowl is one of those events were sports fans and non-sports fans alike, gather, eat copious amounts of junk food and watch the TV for two reasons.  1) To watch the championship football game and 2) to watch the commercials.

This sounds silly, I know – especially to those who have never witnessed such an event.  The commercials. Once a year companies pay an obscene amount of money to show 30 seconds of advertising during peak commercial breaks throughout the game and then the public review and scrutinize them for months afterwards.  Get ready for a lot of puppies, scantily clad men and women, cars and lots and lots of beer.

Usually, I’m more of a college football fan, but when your local professional team makes to the Superbowl for the second straight year after winning the year before (for the first time ever), it’s a pretty big deal.  In fact, it’s a huge deal and one can’t help but jump on the bandwagon.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the professional football but until I started playing Fantasy Football two season ago, I’d never been this devout a fan.  And when I say devout, I mean that I pay attention to scores and best players each week, but I still don’t watch very many games.

So for those who have no idea what this game is about, here you are.  The basics of American football:

Cub Studio

Yes, the pace is a little fast, but I love the graphics and it explains the whole thing so well in such a brief amount of time that you really have to admire this little short.  I could have used this back in high school when I was moving back to the US and really didn’t have much of an idea of what happens in a football game.

I am going to miss football season when it’s over tomorrow, but then I can move on to other things. Like hockey!  And hopefully, with my fingers and toes crossed, winter will finally come and we’ll finally get our usual snowfall in the mountains so that I can hit the slopes.  This is the first time in a long time that I’m able to head to the mountains for ski season and we’re having a severe shortage of snow during this very mild Pacific Northwest winter.  Humph.

Come back next week for the first of the “Championship” series.  Until then… GO HAWKS!

Escapade :: Advantage

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Getting the “birds eye view” can be very advantageous in certain situations.  When photographing a panoramic view for instance, or mapping out an area. Being chased, or trying to ensure that you stay ahead in some sort of distance race, this rule certainly applies.  Or in this film, all these circumstances collide and prove the point perfectly:

Advantage the movie

What I love most about this film comes in three parts:

  1. I love the color contrast.  Everything is a shade of orange, grey and dark grey and it all seems to meld together, yet contrast so beautifully that you have to wonder how much of it is planned and how much of it is natural surroundings.
  2. I love the movement of the camera.  Something like this could be very stagnant even though the car is moving but the movement of both the camera and the car gives the audience the feel of being part of the chase.
  3. I love the graphics.  They move as vividly as the rest of the film and tie in with the story well, taking it further than the final shot of the driver looking down over the cliff. Very “James Bond”.

Makes me want to go out and see a action film.  A classy action film.

For the Foodie :: BBQ Bible

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As the days grow shorter we lose our precious after hours time out in the sunshine and with that, our ability to barbecue without a trusty assistant holding a flashlight.  For those with the right set up, with a nice well ventilated covered area with outdoor lighting to prolong the outdoor grilling season, there are couple months ahead before it will be too cold for parts of the Northern Hemisphere to cook their food outside.

Whether we are heading slowly towards winter or entering the summer season, this video can only make you want to start warming the coals:

Antfood

 

Books have many wonderful features but I believe this one beats them all.  It’s probably the most interactive book that I’ve seen and it doesn’t even sing, light up or have moving images.  It literally creates an event to remember!

The filmmaking is very nice, but I don’t know if there is anything extraordinary about it.  I am going to take a moment to say that I really like the graphics and that the lighting is beautiful.  Food is deceptively harder to light when photographing than one would think.  What really steals the show is the book and trying to figure out as a viewer how the book is going to provide an essential barbecue tool with the next turn of the page.

This video just proves that books can not only share ideas, but be interactive as well.  Who knew that food could interact so well with a volume of pages.

Feet Up! :: Dorian Gray

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Part of “putting my feet up” this summer is trying to read a bit more and spend less time in front of my computer.  I sometimes feel like my computer has become an extension of me and would very much like to rectify that and go back to old fashioned entertainment such as reading.  I have a huge list of books that I would like to read and why not knock off a few of those during the long warm days of summer?

So far, I’ve managed to read the following:

And I’m hoping to tackle a few more by the end of the summer.  These long afternoons in the sun are the perfect time to catch up on my reading list while working on my tan.

Of course, I can’t stray too far from the visuals of video and film.  After all, that’s what I do for a living isn’t it?  I found this little beauty a few weeks ago and couldn’t help but share it with you:

Gergely Wootsch

 

It’s been years since I read this book but I remember it fondly mostly because before I read it, I thought I was going to hate it.  I’m not a big fan of this era of literature but was on vacation, had read everything else that I had brought with me and someone happened to have this lying around.  So I read it and I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it and was equally astonished at the themes that it addresses considering the date at which it was written.

I love this little animation because for once the story hasn’t been turned into a corny horror film and actually looks at the social and political stances at the time that the book was written.  It condenses it all into just a few minutes concisely and most importantly, it leaves me wanting more- always a good thing in a book review.

Reincarnation :: The Barbican

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Persistent Peril

While I was in grad school, I spend a lot of time around the Barbican.  There is this great market that has food from all areas of the world and it was a great place to grab a quick bite or gather picnic food.  I spend many hours with friends on grassy knolls along the Thames with a view of the Barbican and this video makes me appreciate it all the more.

London has a very interesting array of architecture thanks to its many wars, especially the Blitz, and therefore a video like this is special.  It may not be the most beautiful that I’ve posted, but I think it encapsulates the history of a place extremely well- and in a short amount of time.  Impressive, considering it goes back to 200 A.D.  How well could you tell 1800 years of history in only 3.5 minutes?