Four Eyed Monsters: New episodes (ep 9 to 12)
It has been a while since we heard from the Four Eyed Monsters (filmmakers Arin Crumley & Susan Buice). We have interviewed them in the past. I have fond affection and respect for them and their work. Many times, since all hoopla died down, I found myself defending them, their work, their way of doing things.
The biggest objection I hear is that they teeter on the obnoxious. A feeling akin to an older person feels to a younger person describing their lives as a grand-new-once-in-a-lifetime event when it is actually commonplace and repetitive. If you are in your late 20’s or later, these podcasts and the drama it revolves around remind you how silly, shallow life is in your early 20’s. But that could be intriguing in its own right.
These new podcasts will not change any of those perceptions. We are in our middle 20’s. The relationship is past the film and focused on itself. The big twist is that Susan has decided to be a stripper. I am a little confused on the reasons. Money, sexual exploration and a bigger-middle-finger-fuck-you to Arin are thrown in the mix. One reason, not touched upon, but in the mind of the viewer, would be that Susan, like Arin, are exhibitionists. It does boggle the mind how much recording taking place. Newest fetish: videoblogging!?
Like all of their earlier podcasts, they are honest about what is going on but not truthful. What I mean is that they are stating and describing what is going on. But nothing else. They have added what must be the most annoying cutaways to enhance these statements. But they stop there. What could be incredible conversations are cut short by a montage of beat-over-the-head physical illustrations of what has already been said.
Still following, still interested. As I have plead to the creators of Lost in the past, be easy with the fill.
Episodes nine, ten, eleven, twelve.
Photograph from Susan’s flickr account.
Case Tape 347
Home video made by two hikers - on the day they went missing. The truth is out there…
Watch it. (Flash Video)
Download available on Atom Films.
If you have any clues, contact Tacoma County’s Sheriff Dept.
Bullet Proof Vest
The black & white cinematography beautifully highlights the harsh realities of a “lost generation.” As always, when you let kids ramble on, you get the most truthful assessment of what a situation feels like. This is a classic.
The New Pop - Frenchie
A little gym holds out against the commercialization of Williamsburg. What a character!
P.S. their New Years videos are insanely fun.
Terminus
Incredible graphics for this short that works on many levels. Is it about emotional baggage? ghosts? people? bullies?
Watch low quality at Youtube or high quality quicktime (200mb!)
What would Jesus Buy?
Is this really a documentary? Where did they find this guy? Can’t wait. Produced by Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me).
Watch the trailer
Dunder Mifflin Ad - greatest ad of all time or greatest moment in television history?
Alright, I’ll admit, the title is a lot of hype. With that being said, I loved this segment from The Office! Part of the magic is that if you followed the show for any length of time, you expected the worst but got the opposite.
The ads works brilliantly in two modes: suspension of disbelief featured turned 1) on and 2) off. In the “on” mode, the ad created by the employees of Dunder Mifflin is not only genuine but incredibly creative. In the “off” mode, nothing in this ad is impossible for the amateur filmmakers to create. Everything is achieved in the editing and with, I daresay, an elegant voice-over. In the end, it is a wonderful celebration of the raw creativity that people possess.
Skins
Hot, hot and yuck.
Finishing The Game Trailer
The trailer is hilarious, I wonder if they have any jokes left for the feature. The plot:
The unexpected death of Bruce Lee, a worldwide phenomenon and established movie star, came at the zenith of his popularity. Having already shot scenes for his upcoming movie GAME OF DEATH, studio heads decided to complete the film by launching a search for his replacement attracting hopefuls from all around the world. FINISHING THE GAME is an uproarious, poignant, unpredictable and action-packed re-imagining of that casting process for Lee’s replacement and examines the leaps and bounds Asians have taken in media representation - or have they?
Part of Sundance 2007, sounds very promising.
Walker
For too long, the citizens of the Middle East have lived in the midst of death and fear.
Our friends at RSA sent the link to this viral video for moveon.org
Watch it. (Flash Video)
Josh Oakhurst - Lights Out
Watching this short documentary (falls closer to a vlog post), I had an odd sense of nostalgia for horses and stables, though I have never spent much time in that world. Part of the beauty is the filmmaking, especially the cinematography, and part of it is to combine mundane work with play.
HBO Voyeur: The Watcher Film
Ajit already posted about the beautiful website. Here’s a short movie in the same campaign, from the same people (RSA Films‘ director Jake Scott and Asylum VFX)
The watcher gets watched, and things go awry.
Watch it. (Quicktime)
Download. (MPEG-4)
Jack Black Doing Late Show Top 10
Top ten things you don’t want to hear in a music store, as performed by Jack Black.
From David Letterman.
Watch it. (Flash Video)
21-87
Much like Jem Cohen, the Lipsett finds the splendor in the mundane. Fred Camper:
Few films are as movingly bleak as Arthur Lipsett’s little-known 21-87 (1963). This stunning evocation of dehumanization juxtaposes found footage from several cities. Cuts between images that don’t match - crowds seen from different camera angles or under different light - subtly express alienation. The editing also creates surrealistic illusions - for example, jumping from a man looking upward to an image of a monkey. Shots of anonymous crowds are combined with shots of people playing roles central to the era - models at a fashion show, a man in a space suit, kids shaking like automatons to (one assumes) rock ‘n’ roll. Such identity-alternating roles steal the idea of the soul; everyone in the film seems tragically removed from any possible authenticity. Lipsett uses sound ironically; at midpoint and again at the film’s end a voice seems to declare that everyone is proud to have a number rather than a name, announcing, “Somebody walks up and they say, ‘Your number is 21-87, isn’t it?’ Boy does that person really smile.” The fear of being reduced to a number was more intense in 1963 than today in the age of PINs, and the voice on the sound track equates identity with a number that’s as arbitrary as the rag-and-bone shop footage from which Lipsett assembled his film. Not surprisingly, the Canadian Film Board, for which it was made, hated it and later threw most of the prints in the garbage. Lipsett committed suicide in 1986.
Tragic. How can anyone deny its brilliance? The photography alone, without context, is incredible.
Watch it - via Metafilter (great story in there about George Lucas being influenced by this film)
Dear Stranger
I have posted my short film on Squigglebooth. I am going to let it sell itself.
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