Neil Roberts of RedShark News writes: OK so file this under ubergeeky but I thought some of you might want to see this...
At the Saatchi & Saatchi new directors showcase in Cannes last year there was a performance using 16 Quadrotors, Vari-lites and music that has to be the most technically amazing thing I have ever seen.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
Open Culture writes: To some fans of his not-exactly-a-sitcom Louie, Louis C.K. simply appeared a few years ago, fully formed and acclaimed by his peers as perhaps the most skilled, dedicated comedic craftsmen working today. But he does have a past, stretching back well beyond his voice role on the animated series Home Movies and his direction of the film Pootie Tang, and he has offered up entertaining fragments of it online. Above you’ll find his earliest known short film, Ice Cream. Begin watching this black-and-white meditation on the vagaries of disaffected twentysomething love in the nineties — one which opens in a convenient store, no less — and you’ll immediately think of Kevin Smith’s Clerks. But C.K.
Joe Berkowitz of Fast Company's Co.Create writes: The song, "Thrift Shop," which currently has nearly 250 million views on Youtube and has gone double platinum, is not by Macklemore; it’s by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. The fact that both the rapper, whose real name is Ben Haggerty, shares attribution on everything with his producer is a testament to their mutual belief in collaboration. That belief is on full display in the duo’s latest video, and especially its credits.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
Dan Farber of CNET News writes: After evaluating more than 4,000 submissions and commissioning more than a dozen half-hour pilots, Amazon Studios is ready to roll. The "Hollywood" division of the online shopping giant is making 14 pilots available on Amazon Instant Video in the U.S, and the Amazon subscription services Lovefilm UK and Lovefilm Germany, to watch for free and rate and review them.
The pilots include shows from established talent and studios, as well as up and comers who cut their teeth online.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
Filmmaker Magazine writes: In the seventh part of Filmmaker‘s interview project with prominent figures from the world of transmedia, conducted through the MIT Open Documentary Lab, Ingrid Kopp, Director of Digital Initiatives at Tribeca Film Institute, answers our questions. Kopp oversees the TFI New Media Fund, runs Tribeca Hacks and produces TFI Interactive during the Tribeca Film Festival.
For an introduction to this entire series, and links to all the installments so far, check out “Should Filmmakers Learn to Code,” by MIT Open Documentary Lab’s Sarah Wolozin.
In honor of this past weekend's record store day, MGMT harkened back to the days of the cassette tape and released a cassingle of their new song "Alien Days." To promo that, they created an appropriately retro stop-motion starring one groovy sock puppet.
Watch below. (via Stereogum)
The Mill writes: Last week Sonos Studios Los Angeles was over-run with BUGS. I caught up with Mill LA Head of Production, Arielle Davis, on her pet-project and how this collaboration of creative and innovative minds was born.
1. How did you first get involved in BUGS?
We collaborated with Tom Kuntz in 2011 on the 1st instalment of BUGS which was displayed at The Sydney Opera House. In the original iteration, we were exclusively the animation partner.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
Jason Zinoman of The New York Times writes: It was mid-October, and six stand-up comedians were working on a sketch in the writers’ room of the new series “Inside Amy Schumer,” trying to come up with funny ways to commit suicide. “What if it was something with a low level of success, like throwing yourself down stairs?” Tig Notaro suggested.
The head writer, Jessi Klein, said she liked the idea of a “hipster suicide,” leading to a splatter of thoughts: With a revolver? Arrow to the face? Jumping off the Williamsburg Bridge?
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
R. Kurt Osenlund of Filmmaker Magazine writes: One great journalist salutes another in Which Way is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington, a moving combat documentary premiering Thursday, April 18 on HBO.
Philip Harder directs the music video for Low's "Just Make It Stop" which starts out with extreme close-ups of the band recording in a studio until a leafy jungle eventually grows around them.
Watch below. (via Stereogum)
