Video killed the Photographer

Gregory Crewdson is the one that looks like a dairy cow

The New Yorker has posted a fascinating time-lapsed video of Nicholas White, who was trapped in an elevator for forty-one hours. Mr. White stays remarkably calm during his ordeal.

some Watts - some Williams- a Watts Williams Stack

<

Altman -- The Company : "My Funny Valentine"

Welcome April 1st -- Day of the Fools

Quick Survey

If you are reading this blog, please leave a comment below (preferably your name). I just want to see how many people are actually reading.

Rule # : Documentation is Performance

Final Class Projects

Group 1
_______




Group 2
______

Poor Documentation

Group 3
______

Skateboard Ballets and Indie Cult-ure

This was originally part of an art performance. That idea originated in the mind of German artist Johannes Wohnseifer. He enlisted skateboarder Mark Gonzales. Cheryl Dunn them document this performance and turned footage and interviews into a film called "Backworlds for Words." Jason Schwartzman got permission to remix the video footage and sync it to the music for a music video for his band Coconut Records. The song title is "West Coast."

Check out some of the original footage at Dunn website in bio below (interesting hearing new soundtrack).

Johannes Wohnseifer (1967- , Germany)
In 1998, he produced an exhibition at the Abteiberg Museum in Germany. He came up with the idea of exhibiting minimal artworks and having a professional skate boarder skate between them. His approach to incorporating street culture directly into artistic context has been highly successful.

Mark Gonzales (1969- , USA)
Most recently, Mark Gonzales was also featured in the music video, "West Coast" by Jason Schwartzman's (Rushmore's Max Fischer) band, Coconut Records. This was a skate video sequence originally filmed in 1998 at a German Museum, but was edited and synced for this music video with his permission.

Cheryl Dunn (1960- , USA) http://www.cheryldunn.net/films/back_worlds_for_words.html
Her second film, Backworlds for Words (1999), is a documentation of a skateboard ballet, choreographed by artist/professional skateboarder Mark Gonzales for the Stadtisches Museum in Monchengladbach, Germany. The film includes footage of the actual performance as well as candid interviews and documentation of Gonzales performing poetry readings around Germany.

Jason Schwartzman (1980- , USA)
Prior to acting, he was the drummer for the band Phantom Planet (best known for their hit single "California," the theme song for The O.C.). In 2007, he created the pop/rock solo act Coconut Records. The first CD was released on iTunes on March 20, 2007. Songs include "West Coast," "Nighttiming," and "This Old Machine."

Scott Kildall

Paradise ahead, in which he explores the possibillities of performance art in Second Life or Uncertain Location, about which he writes:

In the summer of 2006, NASA announced that the original Apollo 11 moon landing tapes were missing. The video broadcast on television was transmitted through space and then shot off a video monitor in Houston ground control. The originals were better resolution, higher contrast and crisp in detail. No one has seen then this footage. Many have asked questions about the truth of this event.

I have completely recreated a 1-minute segment of the original — where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin plant the American flag with the lunar lander in the background. At exhibitions, I give or sell prints from the recreated video. As the public takes home prints, I erase the corresponding frames from my own.

from uncertain location © scott kildall

Sweded -- Gondry Revolution

• American Beauty.
• Air Force One.
• Alvin and the Chipmunks.
• An Inconvenient Truth.
• A Nightmare on Elm Street.
• American Pie.
• Apocalypse Now.
• Around the World in 80 Days.
• Armageddon.
• Back To the Future Part 2.
• Bambi.
• Batman Begins.
• Be Kind Rewind.
• Big.
• The Big Lebowski.
• The Birds.
• Blade Runner. And again.
• Boogie Nights.
• Boys In The Hood. Official.
• Braveheart.
• The Breakfast Club.
• Bridget Jones Diary.
• Charlies Angels.
• Children of Men.
• Cliffhanger.
• Contact.
• Crazy/Beautiful.
• Die Hard. And again.
• Dirty Dancing. And again.
• Easy Rider.
• Edward Scissorhands.
• Exorcist.
• Face Off.
• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
• Fight Club.
• Forest Gump. And again.
• The Forty Year Old Virgin.
• Freaky Friday.
• Full Metal Jacket.
  
• Ghost.
• Ghostbusters. Official.
• Goldfinger.
• Goodfellas.
• Gone with the Wind.
• Groundhog Day.
• Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire.
• Home Alone.
• Hook.
• Indiana Jones.
• Jaws.
• Jurassic Park. And again.
• The Karate Kid. And again. And again. And again.
• Kill Bill. And again.
• King Kong.
• koyaanisqatsi
• Labyrinth.
• Lars and The Real Girl.
• The Last Samurai.
• Lethal Weapon.
• Lolita.
• Lord Of The Rings. Part 1 & Part 2. And again.
• The Matrix. And again. And again.
  
• My Fair Lady.
• Predator.
• Pretty Woman.
• The Princess Bride. And again.
• Psycho. And again.
• Purple Rain. And again.
• Pulp Fiction. And again. And again.
• Rambo.
• Repo Man.
• Reservoir Dogs.
• Robocop. Official.
• Rocky. And again.
• Run Lola Run.
• Rush Hour 2. Official.
• Say Anything.
• Scarface.
• The Science of Sleep.
• Scream. And again.
  
• Shaun of the Dead.
• The Shining. And again. And again.
• Sideways.
• Silence of the Lambs.
• The Sound of Music.
• Speed. And again.
• Star Wars.
• Star Wars Episode IV.
• Taxi Driver. And again.
• The Thing.
• Titanic. And again.
• Top Gun. And again.
• Total Recall.
• Twister. And again.
• Waterworld.
• When A Stranger Calls.

via http://snacked.blogspot.com

1927: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Created by the new British theater company 1927, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea combines live music, performance and storytelling with films and animations. Using the aesthetic of silent film, a series of comic vignettes unfold in which the performers interact with the animations.


1927


The dark whimsy presented in these ten vignettes is fun for the whole family.

Reviewed by Ellen Wernecke

A cursory description of "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" would only pigeonhole it as the ur-Fringe show: A combination of hand-drawn animation, silent-movie acting and live vaudeville piano, invoking fairy tales and Satan, it seems (on paper) like the kind of show destined to stay on the edges of popular theatre, despite its award as the Best of Edinburgh at last year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. But no one who caught "Between the Devil..." at its short stay at PS122 would have described it as morbid or Gothic; even though it occasionally touches those poles, this deeply weird show was far more funny than creepy.

The show, created by the performance group 1927 (actresses Suzanne Andrade and Esme Appleton are seen on stage, with Lillian Henley at the piano, and filmmaker and co-director Paul Barritt behind the scenes), consists of 10 "terrible tales" told through film and live acting, often simultaneously. The stories aren't related, although two of them are narrated by very similar pairs of creepy sisters. Some deal directly with death, as in the opening vignette, "The Nine Lives of Choo Choo le Chat," which depicts how each of the nine lives of an unlucky cat ended. Others apply the show's magical-realist logic to subjects like door-to-door salesmen ("Sinking Suburbia") and the allure of the deep fryer ("Home Sweet Home").

These vignettes feel (and thanks to Henley's accompaniment, sound) like a series of lost shorts unearthed from a five-cent carnival booth. Andrade and Appleton have the faces and mannerisms of silent-movie actresses, and perform with impeccable timing to the films shown behind (and around) them. But the night's funniest gag was the kidnapping of an audience member to pose as "Grandma," who is dressed up by the actresses and then taken behind the screen as the film shows the tortures two sisters enact on her. Even without that participatory interlude, "Between the Devil..." is a lively and inventive little show which, pending 1927's world tour, will hopefully gain a larger audience than Fringe-goers.

Improv Everywhere

On a cold Saturday in New York City, the world’s largest train station came to a sudden halt. Over 200 Improv Everywhere Agents froze in place at the exact same second for five minutes in the Main Concourse of Grand Central Station. Over 500,000 people rush through Grand Central every day, but today, things slowed down just a bit as commuters and tourists alike stopped to notice what was happening around them.