Chris added a lot to the original idea, making the whole project more majestic and cinematic. We strive to give as much creative space as possible to great directors that are involved in our projects so we avoid setting limitations at the outset. Chris developed the initial storyboard by adding his own principles and aesthetics.

He also remixed Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ with his unique musical interpretation. And is that Natalie Portman’s voice at the end?

Read the entire article over at Dazed Digital

I thought about writing a post purely on movie trailers that make you desperately want to see the film in question rather than just go “Eh. I’ll wait for the DVD”. But there are some interesting developments elsewhere in the pop culture world that you might have missed. And there are some rather pointless one’s as well. Enjoy!

Film Trailers:

Batman Begins (Trailer B). The other trailers haven’t got me as pumped as this final one. Casting Bale was pure genius. Medium-level geekdom and I love it.

Land of the Dead (trailer) – The granddaddy of zombie movies George A. Romero returns after a 20 year absence from the genre to show us how a real zombie movie should be made. The zombies look great, the atmosphere looks even better. Go Georgey!

Domino (trailer) – This could be interesting since it’s written by the one and only Richard “Donnie Darko” Kelly. The other famous ‘Scott’ director, Tony Scott, has taken the reigns here and it looks like a typical Scott movie. MTV style editing, lots of action and over-the-top performances. What’s with Mickey Rourke nowadays though? He must have a new agent what with Sin City and now this. Keira Knightly continues to play the tomboy role.

The Fearless Freaks – Now that Metallica: Some Kind of Monster became hugely successful, we’re now seeing a bunch of docos on bands and this one about the acid \endash induced exploits of The Flaming Lips looks pretty decent. It’s doing a few rounds on the festival circuit but it’s available to buy on DVD on May 15th in the US. I’m off to see the other notable music doco Dig! this week too. Heard great things!

Shorts:

Debil Dead – Another film with ‘dead’ in its title only this is more a fanboys excursion into claymation. It’s essentially a short film pitting Ash from the Evil Dead films against Connor Macleod from the Highlander films. It’s nicely done but not overly funny or as good as I had hoped. Still it’s worth a download!

Rubber Johnny – This is Chris Cunningham’s latest project, a short film about a shape-shifting mutant child, kept locked away in a basement with his dog and his own imagination. Trailer (Well ‘teaser’ by the looks of it) looks creepy but that’s what we’ve come to expect from Cunningham. Music by Aphex Twin. Should be hell interesting. The million dollar question however, is when is he going to direct his first feature?

Commercials:

Orange Gold Spot – Darth Vader – Now entering the world of TV commercials, this one is major geeky and pretty funny. Is that James Earl Jones providing the voice?

CareerBuilder.com – Titanic – I love monkeys. My brother loves monkeys. I was once a monkey. I will inevitably be a monkey once again.

FedEx – Top Ten – Groin kick. I must remember that for my debut TV commercial.

Pointless and Funny: (and it will be Friday by the time most of you read this)

Numb Chuck – “Dangggg!” as Napolean Dynamite might say after watching this clip.

I’m off to see HGTTG. Peace!

UPDATE!:

Hitchhikers is a hellva lot of fun. Go see it! If you like Python-esque humour, you’ll enjoy it greatly 3 1/2 stars!

Speaking of DVD, the Director’s Series DVD’s have been spinning hard over the past week, fuelling all sorts of creative juices. As soon as you start playing their music videos, you can see why these guys are at the top of their game. I bought the Spike and Michel one’s first and two days later the Chris Cunningham one was sitting proudly in my collection. Although not as jam-packed as the other titles, Cunningham’s videos are the absolute shit! Windowlicker is one of my favourite videos of all time. And his commercial work is just brilliant.

To quote Spike Jonze:

“As a feature film director you’ve got to be a guarding dog of the whole production. You got to be able to hold 100 script pages in the head at the same time. If you miss a detail it’s wasted. I don’t know how the music video generation can affect the movie business, but I’m curious what feature films the English Chris Cunningham and the Swedish guy Jonas Åkerlund are going to make.”

I can see these DVDs doing particularly well at parties too, projected on the wall. I can see people now going “WTF was that? That shit is creeping me out!”.

In a related topic in a ‘seven degrees of music video directors’ kinda way, I’ve had the opportunity to get an early listen to the new Björk album, Medulla. If you thought some of her music was a little out there in the past, this is definitely her most experimental record to date. Not my favourite but I only had a few listens. One thing I admire about her music is that it takes you on a journey to the unknown and unexpected. That’s why the music videos are so open to interpretation. She also has great management because all of her visual identities and properties are first class – her website, album covers (see above) and photography just to name a few.

I caught her performance of Oceania during the opening ceremony at the Olympics and of course the Channel 7 commentators didn’t know what to think of it. But that was to be expected. She’s an acquired taste but I’ve always liked her music and her performance was fitting. Acting wise, her portrayal of Selma in Dancer in the Dark was unforgettable. I (and several others) remember having a lengthy argument with my film lecturer about that film and her performance. To cut a long story short, he hated Bj’f6rk and her music so he couldn’t put aside his reservations while watching the film. But like her or not, you can’t say her performance was nothing short of amazing.

Onto something completely unrelated, did you ever have posters on your wall when you were younger? I suspect most of you had a least one or two. I used to have my room covered in yep you guessed it, film posters including this one, this one, this one, this one, this one and this one just to name a few. But the time came when I felt like I outgrew that phase and so I took them down. But I’ve been feeling like I’ve taken away a part of my soul so if today was any indication, it seems like I’ve managed to get it back. I bought this and it’s now resting proudly on my bedroom wall. I think when I move suburbs soon, some of those old posters will make a reappearance too.

Finally, I’ve been editing pretty hardcore today. I’ve managed to make some rather banal footage entertaining enough for foreign viewers with the aid of some fitting music. It’s all going along pretty smoothly and it’s always good to continuously refine my editing skills. I also bought a new set of Seinnheiser headphones so I can edit into the wee hours of the morning and they’ve just reinforced my belief that they make some of the best audio gear on the planet. Just ask anyone who has used a Seinnheiser microphone.

I’m also writing the first draft of the online music documentary I mentioned a little while back although due to limited time and facilities, it won’t be the ‘cinematic masterpiece’ I had hoped. If however this version turns out to be of something of substance, I might re-film it at a later stage and get the interviews I need.

And how’s the Melbourne weather? Finally some sun! Me thinks I’m going to enjoy it in a beer garden on the weekend!