Of Montreal – Wraith Pined to the Mist
An animated music video that celebrates optimism in a world of cruelty.
Kung Fu vs Yoga
This video clip from the movie “Kung Fu vs Yoga” has some of the funniest and best action scenes I have ever seen. The Indian man/ Yoga guy is more of a disjointed human being than a Yoga practitioner. He escapes the Kung Fu holds with disabling his joints instead of flexibility but it is all in good fun. The most disturbing aspect of the video is the enhanced bone-cracking noise that goes with every disjointing. Someone was having a lot of fun with the sound effects.
The Beauty and the Beast
Oh, well, there’s a new Be seduced category, so here’s something that fits in.
It’s a collection of three stop animated commercials playing on the same joke.
Dino Time, is the work of no other than Ray Harryhausen himself. We’re not worth it!
The Robot, is part of a big campaign for Snapple, directed by Spencer Susser at Bob Central.
Kong’s True Love, is a commercial for Vespa from Banana Park.
If I missed something good, feel free to drop a comment.
Afra – Digital Breath
This is not your regular video for your regular song.
You may know the director +cruz for his work on Hifana animated videos, like Wamono and Fat Bros, but almost everything he did deserves to be seen, so pay a visit to his reel on Love website.
But first, take a look at this brilliant fusion of animation, motion graphics and live action. Well, I would have been happier without the guy, but sometimes that is not an option.
Watch it. (Flash Video)
Download from Love. (Quicktime)
Bellydance Videos
Bellydance has always intrigued me. I grew up in India and there were plenty of bellydancing in the musicals. However, I am very far from an expert. Here are couple of links that I found relevant.
The different styles of Bellydancing are briefly explained in this video titled “Styles of Bellydance Defined.” It seems to have been cut down from its original length.
Two Rachel Brice’s videos of her performance at Tribal Fest:
- 2005 performance
- 2006 perfomance
Beautiful women galore in this group piece — Bellydance Superstars Performance.
There is videos of gorgeous Sonia here and here. There is also an Ansuya performance here.
Stewart and Colbert present at the 2006 Emmys
Colbert’s first words to the Emmy audience “good evening, godless sodomites.” And it only gets more wicked from there.
Man vs
This online comedy series actually lives up to its Don Quixote creed:
MAN VS. believes every one of us has a hero inside, a hero inside, every one of us has a hero inside…
Watch it at MySpace – via Daily Reel
The Libertine
By luck, my Wife and I happened to be in Blockbuster, I hadn’t been there in about 9 months (Netflix has been all that!!). And by luck, I found The Libertine starring Johnny Depp, Samantha Morton and John Malkovich. I was less excited than my wife, I dread period pieces but because I usually hog the Netflix queue, I decided to give in. The movie was incredible, one of the best I have ever seen. The acting was brilliant, no one, I repeat no one in the cast was even a slightly bit off. The camera moved unlike other period pieces — handheld, moving, breathing. The lighting was mostly candlelight. There was film grain everywhere. It was more ugly than pretty but it worked.
Of course, the movie is not available online but the beautiful opening prologue is.
Watch the prologue – Watch the trailer – Buy the movie on Amazon
Les Processus
This animated piece is a short version George Orwell’s 1984. The use of umbrellas is brilliant (I feel like I have seen some of this before).
Watch it – via Shortsville
Great American Soups
  
An all dancing all singing commercial for a ready made meal. There’s almost everything you could think of, condensed in the 60 seconds of the spot, including overhead coreographies.
Starring Ann Miller, directed by genius Stan Freberg and choreographed by Busby Berkeley.
Watch it. (Flash Video)
Les saumons
A rainy day. On a schoolbus, three children take us along in the imaginary worlds of their games, where they dream to be salmons swimming upstream.
Another sweet short from Supinfocom archives. The authors are: Marc Etienne, Lambeline Aurelie and Dumont Bance Brice.
Watch it. (WinMedia)
Films of Matt McCormick
At Res ’03 in NY, I saw one of my favorite short programs. One after the other, the films were breaking the walls of possibilities with short film form. A lot of what I saw then is now slowly coming around to mainstream media. One of the standouts of that program was a film titled:
The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal
It is no coincidence that funding for “anti-graffiti†campaigns often outweighs funding for the arts. Graffiti removal has subverted the common obstacles blocking creative expression and become one of the more intriguing and important art movements of our time. Emerging from the human psyche and showing characteristics of abstract expressionism, minimalism and Russian constructivism, graffiti removal has secured its place in the history of modern art while being created by artists who are unconscious of their artistic achievements.
The full version of the film is not available online but an excerpt (6 minutes) is. Get a taste, if you like it, order it on DVD.
While checking out the other work by the same director, I found another beauty, a music video for The Shins titled The Past and Pending:
In this music video for The Shins, a young man and a grand-fatherly figure drive through the country side taking snap-shots of the passing landscapes.
It is hard to do videos for songs that do not have strong beats or sparse instrumentation but this video manages quite beautifully. Taking its time with the length of the cuts, using the stillness of its characters and a simple plot to create resonance.
Other work:
- Towlines (excerpt)
- Jumpers (slow beginning but it leads up nicely to the end)
Not the Nine O’Clock News, part II
Three more skits taken from the British comedy show:
- The McEnroe Home: Griff Rhys Jones as John McEnroe at the breakfast table with his parents, throwing a tantrum because his mother has accused him of slurping his orange juice.
- That long, that thick: One of the many short porn shop skits. Just a little intermission.
- Nice Video, Shame about the Song: A take on late 70s / early 80s music videos.
More Not the Nine O’Clock News: NtNoCN part I and Kinda Lingers.
The Scary Door
After the original, here’s the spoof from Futurama.
- The Gambler: a predictable (…) tale of hazard and horror from outer space.
- The Last Man: It’s not that easy to be the last man on Earth: all the bad luck in the world is concentrated upon you!
- The Ultimate Evil: a mad scientist combines the DNA of the world’s most evil animals…
The clips are hosted on YouTube, so they’re likely to die very very very soon…
The Twilight Zone
You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension – a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into the Twilight Zone.
Some selected episodes:
- Living Doll: Telly Savalas plays a man with anger issues and takes it out on his stepdaughter as well as her new doll.
- The Long Morrow: Before leaving on a mission that will take him away for 40 years, an astronaut meets a woman.
- The After Hours: Marcia discovers that the floor of a department store sells only the item she is looking for.
- Nightmare At 20,000 Feet: Yay, gremlins! The uber classic based on the short story by Richard Matheson and starring William Shatner.
Much more here. Thanks to to spam vigilante.