Introducing the Pause Fest 2012 Program Guide! Inside you will find everything you need to know about the festival including tickets and festival features. The interactive guide is displayed on an amazing Issuu spreadsheet and has 77 pages of Pause-y goodness.
Pause Fest is throughout the Melbourne CBD, November 8-11th. If you're either looking for inspiration or just simply want to be amazed, buy a ticket to one of the many events going on.
Here's where I make up some lame excuse as to why I haven't been posting. Something that you'd accept but don't really buy, because we both know I've just been lazy- but I mean well and that counts for something.
You can have this Nero song about Promises and we can pretend it's relevant.
Making news, Andrew Hibbard of Pause Fest has been OS doing something kickass and workrelated. During his travels he's been lucky enough to stay at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas,.
The hotel partnered with Digital Kitchen, to create an interactive experience through innovative digital content.
Last year the hotel took home the prestigious Grand Prix at Cannes 58th International Festival of Creativity, as well as the Gold Pencil Award at The One Show.
The Columns in the lobby seem to be a crowd favourite, Michael Bay and Martha Stewart re among its admirers. Eight Columns made up of digital screens broadcast content non-stop but the kicker is that it's ad free. What the what?! Talk about creative possibilities. Curating the content for that would be insane, in both a negative and positive way.
The most recent production by Digital Kitchen is a series of vignettes set in an elevator featuring "a cast of eccentric characters". The viewer catches only a moment of each story, much like the elevator experience where the only clues about each person are revealed in the 30 seconds of shared space. The Cosmopolitan are using the footage as part of their TVC.
There's so much more to say about the hotel, but I've never been there so I really don't know. Digital Kitchen have a whole profile on their work here including press and the like.
Andrew, you stayed there, hit us up with a little review!
The Autodesk Inc. 'Blockbuster Tour 2012' is happening in Melbourne and Sydney in early July! The tour features film superstars Alex Kim from Industrial Light & Magic Singapore and Ian Cope from Rising Sun Pictures discussing the visual effects behind films such as 'The Avengers' and 'Prometheus'. Colin Renshaw from Alt.vfx, will also be there sharing his experience with the award winning Tooheys Extra Dry commercial ‘Nocturnal Migration’.
Register now for the opportunity to meet the guys and be inspired.
Why hello Buyologers, we meet again. What say you to another scheduled date, say Friday the 22nd of June? Come join me for Autodesk M&E Webinars- Meet the Expert Series.
Friday's webinar will feature Smoke 2013. ANZ Creative Finishing Specialist Rob O'Neill, will talk you through the in's and out's of Smoke 2012. By then end you'll be a whizz bang pro at getting a professional editorial finish out of Smoke for high quality commercials and broadcast projects. Wee!
So if Final Cut X just didn't do it for you, or you'd like to pack that CV a little more. You'd better register. Go on ~Gain Wisdom~
Smoke 2013 Reviews?
Sure! Find them here & here.
Youtube Videos?
No Sweat! Nyan Cat.
I always watch stop motion and think "Holy Jeebus, that is so tight. I'm wanna do that." Then I realise that I'm probably not cut out for the workload, tediousness and precision shooting of stop motion. Which makes each little film I watch that much more enjoyable.
Here is a behind the scenes of Julia Bourke's short film GLOSSY.
Can you imagine crafting 288 hands? That means shaping 1152 fingers!!! Yeah... I'll definitely be leaving the animation to her.
GLOSSY will be screening at MIAF in Panorama #4: Australian, on Friday 22 June, 6.30pm. Get tickets here. Go on, get cultured.
This little animated gem by Gavin Edwards was an entry into the Literary Platform's international competition which asked creative to animated Douglas Adams' audio clip recorded for his publisher tracking the evolution of the book.
The winner was named Eleanor Stokes with her animation. The scroll bit is pretty lolworthy.
Check out the Sourcery for the full story and more linkage concerning 'prophecies'. The Francis Ford Coppola one is particularly eerie/interesting.
Don't you love it when you start a post about one thing, then while searching for links/references/whatever, you get swept up by something completely different?
This video is so just so freaking cool! It's only just popped up on my radar (and you know I'm such a tastemaker...) despite being out for a good few months.
The level of creativity, and the concept of taking google earth creating a dramatic piece with it is just astounding. I've got no idea how he did it, and so well! The audio is linked brilliantly with each frame. I'm not sure why this is so awesome, I think I'm still getting past the fact that he used Google Earth! Whaaaat?!
Alright, I'll stop raving. Watch This. Seriously It's Cool.
Artist: Remo Raucher
Oh my gosh, what a hectic work week but despite that let's get to it. I took an extended weekend so don't hate me for that. Let's get into it shall we?
There's a video doing this rounds at the moment created by The Viral Factory for Diesel (that should be enough information for you to google it) that's piqued my interest in this company. They've touted themselves as a social video agency and on their wiki page a full service viral marketing agency. After clicking around I was surprised to learn that they were the geniuses behind this brilliant Westfield campaign, which I watched at least 5 times despite not living even remotely close to London.
As well as the HUGELY popular Skype Laughter Chain.
Now simply naming yourself The Viral Factory raises eyebrows. Obviously you'd want to be able to deliver on that promise and it seems that The Viral Factory have got a firm grip on the dynamic nature of what makes a video go viral, but what makes a video go viral? This is a fundamental question that not many can answer and that's probably because each viral video is so different.
In researching this little post, I came across thousands of articles and even research papers (I read the abstract and if you've got time definitely give the paper a once over) which makes it painfully clear that this concept has been done to death and there's still no definite answer. However this article by Stephanie Buck gets a pretty good run down from Beau Lewis of creative agency Seedwell. Lewise identifies three common factors among viral videos.
"Theme: Most “viral videos” fit into one of three thematic categories: 1) parody of something popular and timely, 2) cute as hell, and 3) did that just happen? (It usually didn’t.)
Structure: There’s a compelling case for a progression that starts by surprising the viewer, avoids interjecting much advertising, and takes the viewer on an emotional roller coaster. Viewers’ screen time may be going up, but attention span appears to be going down, which means that the video needs to repeatedly earn the viewer throughout its duration.
Tastemakers: Almost all viral videos get their legs after being discovered by tastemakers and digital influencers. These are celebrities with built-in audiences the size of cable channels. Kevin Allocca gives a good TED talk on the subject, and the Kony 2012 video was perhaps the best example of engineering it to date."
The aforementioned Kevin Allocca does indeed give a great TED talk on viral videos and the ingredients he defines of a viral video overlap with those of Lewis'. Allocca credits, tastemakers, communities of participation and unexpectedness. So let's takes Westfield's 100 years of style as a little case study shall we? And because we're all short on time let's dot point it. Theme/Uniqueness- Style Progression through Music and Dance. What a winning concept. The marjority of Youtube's Most Viewed videos are in fact Music Videos so we're off to a flying start here AND backtracking, the title itself is a drawcard. To see 100 years of style trends in 100 seconds? That's a challenge that people were intrigued to see. Need more proof? Evolution of Dance. Yep. Ya Burned! Structure/Communities of Participation- It's pretty damn cool to see the change in clothing style and dance. You could probably take it a step further and take a look at how the clothes affected the dance or vice versa. Either way the story has a beginning (The 1910's), a middle (...self explanatory), and an end (today! wee!). Ba-Da-Bing Ba-Da-Bum! Tastemakers- Youtube sites the Boing Boing as it's "As Seen On" but the video was also featured on Forbes resulting in 194 FB shares, 38 retweets, and 21 LinkedIn share (who shares on LI?). As well as The Guardian (188 FB shares and 117 retweets) and Buzzfeed (1000 FB shares, 184 retweets, 46 +1google), just to name a few.
All in all The Viral Factory are definitely doing something right. I think the most interesting thing for me is that, I've seen and shared so many of their videos and not realised that they were ads. In marketing terms, that's got to be a good thing. They've got a hold of my subconscious mind. In terms of being an active consumer... that's kind of scary... Keep an eye out for these guys cos they'll get you.
Oh and for the TL;DR crowd, here's Kevin Allocca's TED talk. You love a good TED Talk.
Our friends over at Bored Panda have compiled a list of Mac decals for your laptop. Unfortunately for my I own an iMac and not a macbook so this is kind of irrelevant to my interests. But how weird is this, seeing these actually makes me want to BUY a macbook. Man that branding is strong.
May the force be with you. [VIA]
It's that time of the year! Vivid Festival is back and it officially opens today! Huzzah! If you're in Sydney over the next two weeks, you'll definitely come across many of the public events on show but if you can grab a ticket and check out a show. If you're not in Sydney, fear not my child, because through the power of technology you can stream shows on YouTube. I for one will be tuning in to see Imogen Heap, Temper Trap and also check out Seekae's latest offering. In the lead up to the festival, the band has released this stunning sunrise session.
UUUGH! SO GOOD! CANT HANDLE!
But really now, head on over to Vivid's site to get the low down on events and what's on around you.
I found this little gem on Coudal's blog. This blog is a time warp so be prepared to find yourself in the wierd part of the internet after opening one or two of their links. It's a great resource of all their inspiration, and that as a consumer is interesting to see. I always wonder what the creatives do behind their desks and this blog ladies and gentlemen is the answer.
This short film Hobbies is something I could see being submitted for Pause. It has an interesting commentary on how attention span is constantly shrinking especially now where one minute you'll be reading an article about Siri sending all your requests to a black box and the next you'll be watching "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" wondering how that happened. So I can understand this guy's frustration.
So incase you didn't know, Thom Yorke is a major modeselektor fan. He's pretty vocal about getting his public to listen to their stuff and finally he has joined forces with the neo electro untaggable band. Those lucky enough to attend Coachella got a preview of what this collab might sound like. UK Based agency Future Deluxe are the ones behind 'This'. The Making of "That" Promo
Future Deluxe have a pretty massive client reel as as far as digital creatives go, they know exactly where the gaps in the market lie and how to fill them. Check out their website here. They're based in Brighton so on a superficial note, not only are they intelligent and creative they are thuper thexy thurfer types with british accents. Get a google alert on happening on any positions going here because this a place you defs want to be. They worked with Thom Yorke, is there really a bigger selling point?
And I must apologise for the untimeliness of my blogging. I crashed my car... That's my excuse. Check back for daily updates!! I know I promise a lot of things, but I promise to keep this promise. Promise.
What's that? I can showcase my innovative work to an international crowd?, Hundreds of people will view my work? I could extend my creative network and make new contacts results in collaborations? HELLS YEAH!
That's right, we are calling all creative to get on board, making this year's festival our biggest and brightest yet. So if you are treading new ground with it comes to animation, motion graphics, stop-motion, robotics or anything digitally creative we would love to here from you.
Not sure if what you do counts? Hit up the Pause info line at info(at)pausefest(dot)com(dot)au
And those asking "Where do I sign up?" You can view sample submissions here, then go on and post your through at submissions(at)pausefest(dot)com(dot)au Done! Happy Brainstorming and Best of Luck! DB.
When you sit down at your PC, open up your 'Apple Mac' or play around on your smartphone, you are actively contributing and feeding your personal information into the hands of your service providers and into the ever-growing information technology cyberspace. 'Network' by Michael Rigley is not only a visual stunning physical representation of how our personal data is created and built, but also somewhat disheartening in our active participation within this. Rigley perfectly puts this into a tangible form, using clarity and simplicity of explanation to convey his message. It's amazing after watching just a 3 minute animation, how you can begin to re-think our voluntary contribution to companies profiting off our data. Maybe it's time to take back our personal information from ISP's. Occupy the internet, anyone?
So if you haven't seen this trailer by now, you should probably just get off the internet forever.
Prometheus is the HIGHLY anticipated prequel to Alien. The cast is stellar; Noomi Rapace, Aussie Guy Pearce, Charlize Theron and the incriedible Michael Fassbender (mmm... Fassy...) and Ridley Scott is helming the project, so you know it's going to be good.
Now, I'm not gonna lie I haven't seen Alien (I know, the shame) but this movie is everywhere. Literally everywhere and everyone is talking about it. However success is not a stranger to Sydney based VFX studio Fuel VFX.
Born in 2000 Fuel boasts a client list of Baz Luhrmann's Australia, Cowboys & Alien, Mission Impossible and have clearly found dedicated clients in the Marvel universe, working on the whole Avengers crew; Iron Man 2, Captain America, Thor and of course this year's blockbuster The Avengers.
So what have we learnt? Two things specifically. The first, if you need VFX these guys should probably be your first port of call. Remember that the next time you and your friend thumbtack a sheet to your garage wall in lieu of a green screen, I'm sure they do pro-bono work.
The second, safe to say if they weren't already dominating, Fuel is definitely making paper thus bringing more and more of the entertainment industry to our humble country and for this I thank them.
Now discuss, Alien SEQUEL, dnw or...? I wonder if little Fassy will make a sophomore appearance?
With Facebook recently acquiring Instagram for roughly $1 billion, this leaves two options for camera and photo sharing app companies. Either see Instagram's success as inspiration, or view the colossal buy-off as a symbol of market-domination.
I'm sure the guys at Visual Supply Co would say they have been left with nothing but illumination and motivation to create their very own app. Introducing 'VSCO Cam'. It showcases a similar style to Instagram, but also offers some noticeable differences upon viewing the introductory video above.
It's the simplistic design that catches your eye and how it utilises colour filters as opposed to Instagram's named filters. It also differs through the ability to implement 'precision filtering' including fade, fill and saturation.
Strategically speaking, releasing 'VSCO Cam' now is clever as we can only expect some changes to come within Instagram, changes that may not please all users who may look to go elsewhere.
This creation is from Japanese artist Takuya Hosogane. He's the featured artist on Pause Fest today. The young talent's work creates a dialogue between flash animation visuals and sound cues. Vanishing Point in particular, triggers memories of watching Windows Media Player visualisations, except Hogosane's animations are much more iTunes in my opinion. He has a great way of really hitting those nuances in the music using image.
As Down mentions, Hosogane lists video anime series FLCL and Noein among his inspirations. Thoughts? Can you see the parallels in his animation style? Or is has his process drawn him closer to resemble more post modern works? I can see a definitive line between his work and David O'Reilly's.
Among the projects featured, you'll see footage from Amon Tobin's sensational "ISAM Live" (as shown in the above image), Drake's 2011 OVO Festival, the studio's recent work helping to dramatically introduce several exciting new models at major automotive shows, and more collaborations with innovative agencies for major brands, including HP.
After participating in last year's Leo Burnett Leovative innovation event, Leo Burnett production consultant Richard Blanco shared these words about Leviathan: "Their work in the digital space, particularly projection mapping, was the perfect marriage of art and science that embodied everything Leovative was about… technology, techniques, delivered. Leviathan delivered two stunning pieces: A beautiful animation piece projected onto a custom, faceted sculpture, and an amazing xBox 360 Kinect interactive piece that wowed the crowd."
Regarding the latest developments and the new reel, Leviathan's executive creative director Jason White says, "For a new studio, to see this collection of some of our most innovative work completed over the last year makes us all very proud and excited about what's to come."
