Norman McLaren explains how he makes synthetic sound on film. With an oscilloscope he first demonstrates what familiar sounds look like on the screen; next, how sound shapes up on a film’s sound track; and then what synthetic sounds sound like when drawn directly on film. This technique is also demonstrated in Dots and Loops.
Videos
Judex (1963)
“The French fictional character Judex is a mysterious avenger who dresses in black and wears a slouch hat and cloak, created by Louis Feuillade and Arthur Bernède. Originally conceived as a heroic version of the criminal character Fantômas, Judex appears to have been an inspiration for the American pulp hero The Shadow, who was himself an inspiration for Batman.”
Frank Zappa Explains Why Cartoons Today Suck
“Want to understand why entertaining cartoons are all but impossible to produce nowadays? You can have the answer in just two short minutes by watching the first part of this interview with Frank Zappa. Though Zappa is explaining the decline of the music business, everything he says is applicable to the animation world as well.”
(via CartoonBrew)
“How much is the fish?”
Star Dust – Hoagy Carmichael
“Beside a garden wall
When stars are bright
You are in my arms
The nightingale tells his fairy tale
of paradise where roses grew
Though I dream in vain
In my heart it will remain
My stardust melody
The memory of love’s refrain”
Attempting to explain the song’s “eternal popularity,” Carmichael biographer Richard M. Sudhalter credits “some combination of young Carmichael’s heartland upbringing, Bix’s uniquely bardic sensibility, and the unself-conscious emotional directness that characterizes much non-urban American pop music.”
In Casino Royale, novelist Ian Fleming has René Mathis, one of James Bond’s fictional fellow secret agents, make a remark about Bond looking like Hoagy Carmichael. Later in the novel, after looking at his reflection in a mirror, Bond disagreed.
British Style Genius
Recently at BDH, myself and the very clever and splendid Orla Handley made the titles for the up coming BBC series “British Style Genius“. The first episode of which goes out 21:00hrs, 7th October on BBC TWO (that’s in the UK only as far as I know).
Handley did the designing, editing, crazy-bonkers stop frame animation etc. I made CGI threads, worked out how to fit them with the stop frame, some compositing, a bit of camera holding, frowning, pointing, and occasional fetching stuff.
After the initial building of the sequence Handley went on to produce five separate colorways, to match the style of each episode of the series, which all deal with different sections of British fashion history.
This means everyone must watch all five episodes to fully appreciate the total awesomeness of this title sequence.
Update 1: BSG Featured in Broadcast
Update 2: On Cartoon Brew (Thanks Amid)
Update 3: YouTube Link
Update 4: British Style Genius wins the RTS
Earth
Had a part to play in this planetary compilation from BDH.
Vegas Baby Vegas
Something we did a while back for Proper Telly (Saturday night, Vernon Kay, etc etc):
Boy with The Incredible Brain
“…One is like bright light. Two is a movement from left to right. Five is like a clap of thunder or the sound of a wave against a rock.”
Daniel Tammet is known as an “autistic savant” and has often written about his life with high-functioning autism and savant syndrome, this film aimed to illustrate his mental process and synaesthetic mental process with numbers.
“Daniel can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head, and learn a language in a week. ‘The Boy With The Incredible Brain’ follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar
abilities in everyone. He also meets the world’s most famous savant, KIm Peek, the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman’s character in the Oscar winning film ‘Rain Man’”
At BDH we were challenged to find a visual language to illustrate Daniel’s thought patterns for this, and my contribution were the numbers themselves.
Paul Greer 