I stumbled onto these videos by Keith Loutit sometime last year and thought I’d blogged about them back then. But apparently not. I should’ve done though, because they’re great. Then I saw them mentioned again last week and I’m captivated again.

I’m assuming that they’re made from video footage which has been split into frames which have then digitally edited to look like tilt-shift photography, and then put back together again as a complete film. Regardless, they look brilliant and every one is worth a watch.

Go and take a look at the series on vimeo. Superb stuff.

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I really wish I could draw. Like really. If I could, I’d spend all day everyday drawing things like this. Except it probably wouldn’t be my job, and no-one does illustrated posters anymore so I’d have to make up the films. Stuff like “Revenge Of The Badger Lord – He Came From The Undergrowth To Take You To HELL!!!” or “The Creature With Poor Eyesight But An Insatiable Hunger For Blood. And Death! Lots Of Death!!” and they’d be awesome. But as it is, drawing things by hand is not my strong point, so I’ll just admire these from afar.

They’re taken from a couple of posts simply entitled 100 Illustrated Horror Film Posters Part 1 and Part 2 (you might be able to see where I stole this post title from) and as a whole suite, they’re a fairly impressive collection. Some of the films are well known (Jaws, Dawn of the Dead), others sound mental and make me want to see them (The Giant Leeches, Fiend Without a Face) but all of them are worth a look.

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1. atari modern classics

So you already know what Pixar are about. They’re the animation studio with major skillage who used mess with Lucasfilms, Steve Jobs and Disney but now roll dolo. Their catalogue is pretty much the most solid collection of films from one studio ever. I still haven’t seen Wall-E yet but everything else gets a two thumbs up from me. Even Cars.

There’s tonnes of images and whatnot covering their work out there but I bumped into this site and particularly like the stuff they’ve collated. It’s not extensive by any means but there’s something to be said for being selective. Just a wee collection of artwork from the films, and links to other sources. It’s a nice selection, worth a look.

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You’d have to have been living under a rock at the bottom of a particularly large and intriguing cliff on Mars for the past year or so to not know that there’s a new Batman film out. And if that were the case, you’d be a fool. Some sort of alien fool in fact. I’ll presume that’s not the case and therefore urge you to go to see The Dark Knight as soon as you possibly can. It’s batfreaking awesome.

I don’t really do reviews – just ‘mentionings’ really – so when I say that the film pretty much lived up to the expectations I had (and more), that the Joker is unfuckwitable, that Batman kicks ass, and that I haven’t enjoyed a film so much in a long time – take that as a 5 popcorn boxes, two thumbs up and a certified fresh tomato rating.

I didn’t see it on IMAX due to the general retardedness that seems to surround our local eyesore in Bournemouth but still, thanks to a comfy seat quite close to the screen, I got a fairly decent experience anyway Really, there’s little I could say that wouldn’t ruin it if you haven’t seen it yet, so I wont. Just go and see it. Tis amazing.

Oh, and the pencil trick = mental. Wow.

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1. on the trail of the dark knight
2. so i saw cloverfield..

It’s been a while since the 1-18-08 shizzle sparked my curiosity, so it was only right to go and see it in the cinema. Aside from the pricks in front of us eating nachos with salsa dips (seriously, why fucking eat in the cinema?! Is an hour and a half too long to cope without food? The shit stinks to high heaven, and then they go and drop it all over the floor. Pricks.), – apart from that – it was an enjoyable experience

The film is good. I liked it. Not sure what the reports of people being sick because of motion sickness are about because it really wasn’t that bad (to me. But then, I don’t suffer from motion sickness so who am I to judge?). It was like a better, more monsterific, more enjoyable Blair Witch. I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone that’s not seen it but you do see the monster fairly clearly. It’s big.

Good stuff all ’round.. If you go and see it, keep an eye on the sea by Coney Island at the end.. and also, stay til the end of the credits… Oooh yeah.. Extra goodness (well, kinda)..

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1. so i saw the dark knight..

You ought to know by now that there’s a new Batman film on it’s way. Next summer apparently. I cant wait. It looks the bees knees. There’s a 6 minute ish preview taken from the IMAX showings of ‘I Am Legend’ that you can watch here if you’re quick. The Joker looks sooo sick (both in the mental sense, and in the ‘whoa dude, that’s sick!’ sense).

What I’m really liking though, is the teaser stuff viral build-up they’re doing online with the various sites tied into the film. I’ve mentioned the Dark Knight and the Harvey Dent ones before but they’re increasing by the week it seems.. There was We Are The Answer for Harvey Dent, and then there’s been whysoserious (and it’s sub-sites) and Rent A Clown and rory’s death kiss which rather splendidly get people to engage with the Joker in ‘real life’ (if I wasn’t afraid of looking like a prick, I’d don the face paint and send a photo in). And then more recently, there’s A Taste For The Theatrical with its links to the high quality preview for the film, and the Gotham Times. Then there’s The Ha Ha Ha Times which is an alternative version of the Gotham paper.

Not to mention the other promo stuff, like this Joker cake or the Gotham Novelties box..

Super stuff! I love it. How cool would it be to be working on this project(?!) Note: WB, if you’re looking for some extra Photoshop work or CSS type of stuff, get in touch. I’ll do it for free. Fact.

I’m sure there’ll be more to come before the film gets released. It’s doing a superb job of building up anticipation (for me anyway) and I’ve no doubt the film will meet all my expectations . My spidey-sense says so. (Oh wait, wrong film…)

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1. so i saw the dark knight..
2. when life gives you promo
3. skins series 2

To be honest, I wasn’t particularly interested in seeing the film, but these credits are very nicely done and have slightly changed my mind. I have no idea how historically accurate the ‘facts’ are and I’m not really fussed.. They’re put together superbly. Good work.

Go and watch the massive HD version here: http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/thekingdom.html?showVideo=1

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The latest filum from Michael Moore is rather good and worth watching.. full of worrying, yet entertaining facts and stories. Worrying if you’re American, entertaining if you’re not. (I jest!) Either way, it’s required viewing. When I read things like 50 percent of personal bankruptcies in the U.S. are due to medical expenses, it makes me glad to have the NHS. Good good good.

Edit:
I’m not sure that the above wordage really conveyed how this film made me feel.. and probably came off a bit jokey. I was thinking about it a bit more last night and really, how can a country like America not have a social healthcare system. It baffles me. Also baffles me when people complain about our NHS for waiting times etc, but when you think about what they actually do, it’s amazing. (And there’s always BUPA if you want to try it the American way.) Blah. I’m not sure I have any point; just watch the documentary when it comes out. The bit at the end in Cuba: awesome.

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Despite the title of this post, batman & rambo aren’t in the same film. That’d be mental. This is just a couple of links to some upcoming (at some date, sometime in the future, possibly) films which are shaping up nicely.

Firstly, The Dark Knight. I’ve always loved me a bit of batman. Quite possibly my favourite superhero. He’s the shizzle. I used to call myself ‘batmatt’ as a child. Really. But anyway, no trailer for this as yet, but I do like the approach taken thus far with these sites. I always like it when marketing takes this approach and I’m hoping that there’ll be more in this vein. It’s only a wee taster but it’s enough to get me anticipating the film.

Official site: http://thedarkknight.warnerbros.com/
Harvey Dent’s campaign site: http://ibelieveinharveydent.warnerbros.com/
Harvey Dent ’support’ site: http://www.ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com/

The ’support’ site started off as just the defaced poster, with a form which generated an email to you, with some coordinates that revealed a pixel of the poster. And if you replied to the email, you got a reply like: “People always ask me about my charming boyish smile. Jessica used to love it. She was the loneliest girl in high school, and my first big kiss…” or “I always say, you never know what a man is truly made of until you peel the skin off his face one piece at a time. Here is your chance to help:“. Very cool. If you go to the site now, you can see the full ‘reveal’. It’s cool. (In case you’re wondering, Harvey Dent is Two-Face.. and my first cat is called Two-Face. That’s largely irrelevant but still cool).

Secondly, there’s a new kinda of trailer floating around for John Rambo (Rambo IV) which is ridiculously gory and stupidly violent. It’s delicious! Watch it here.. http://www.firstshowing.net/2007/05/19/john-rambo-iv-feature-trailer/. Killing’s as easy as breathing..

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I’ve been waiting for it to come out for months and months now so it was only right that I saw it in the cinema (I don’t go to the cinema a lot nowadays.. more of a DVD type of person.. but some things demand that big screen experience don’t they? ).

It really is visually stunning, and I can’t help but get caught up in epic battle scenes.. gets me every time. And it doesn’t get much better than in this film..

Go see it. It’s superb.

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I intended to start this off by saying something about how film title sequences are under appreciated and it’s nice that there’s now a site dedicated to them.. But they’re not. Everyone loves titles now, and rightfully so. I blame Kyle Cooper.

But recognition aside, it IS still nice that there’s a site dedicated to those first few minutes of celluloid which is all-too-often ruined by people still trying to work out where they’re sitting. Head over to ‘Forget the film, watch the titles‘ and enjoy. There’s only a modest collection at the time of writing, but they do have some nice sequences which you may not have seen before. Or at least, I hadn’t. Good stuff.

Just for good measure, while you’re waiting for those links to load, here’s the opening sequence from ’seven’. Never gets old.

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I know I’ve blogged about this film before, but really, I can’t emphasise enough quite how much I’m looking forward to it. There’s a new trailer available here: http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/300_hd.html and it’s unfathomably dope.

Seriously; this film looks fucking quality.

I can’t wait.

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Before I do though, in case you’re wondering (get it?) here’s the old 7 Wonders of The World: Great Pyramid of Giza, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Temple of Artemis, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Mausoleum of Maussollos, Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. (Click on the image to see them). They’re all rather good, but it’s either the Pyramid or the Temple of Artemis that does it for me. Or maybe the Lighthouse. Actually, ignore that, it has to be the Pyramid. It’s the only one I’ve seen and can vouch for it’s wonder. And it is wonderful.

Moving onwards.. here’s my ‘7 New Wonders of the World’ (in no particular order)

1. Great Pyramid of Giza

photo by sabbagh

It’s my favourite wonder of any epoch. Just the fact that it’s still standing, 4,500 years after it was built is worth a mention, but it’s everything about it that means it should be on any list of this type without a second thought. How was it built? Why with such attention to detail? What actually is it? I have no idea. But I do know it’s awesome in every sense of the word.

2. The Colosseum

photo by tony_burbage

Or, the Flavian Amphitheatre if you want to get picky. 50,000 Romans used to cram in to watch undeniably horrific things on a regular basis but did any of them ever sit back and appreciate the structure they were sitting in(?) Numbered seating, tickets, multiple entry points, a mass of underground tunnels, retractable awnings.. The blueprint for all stadiums since, not to mention an amazingly massive yet ornate building. What have the Romans ever done for us?

3. The Acropolis

photo by RobW_

I’m not sure if this counts as cheating, because nature did most of the work but I suppose the addition of the various structures separates this place from Uluru and the like. The Parthenon is obviously the crowning glory but the whole site is really worth exploring. Probably best to wait til the scaffolding has come down.. but then, that could be decades away. So ignore that.

4. Machu Picchu

photo by Matthew Clark Photography

The Lost City of the Incas which apparently wasn’t even really a city.. more of a house in the hills type of thing for nobility. It’s another one of those things that you just think “how?!”. I think that’s probably the main factor for a wonder in my eyes.. and this definitely has it. If you consider the possibility that the Incas didn’t use wheels, it just adds to the confusion. So I try not to think about that. What I do think about is how I can convince my girlfriend to think that trekking through the jungle and sleeping in tents would be a good holiday. One day.

5. Easter Island Statues (Moai)

photo by Kenny Maths

These monolithic heads (and shoulders) were possibly the first ‘wonder’ type of thing that I ever read about. I seem to remember having a book about them when I was a very wee nipper. Since then, I’d like to say I’ve grown up slightly, but my fascination for these carvings hasn’t really diminished. Some of them are immense (the largest being 10m high, weighing 75 tonnes) and there’s just so many of them (hundreds!) it’s baffling.

6. Angkor Wat

photo by Kenny Maths

I think that the whole city of Angkor looks amazing but it’s the centerpiece temple that gets all the attention. Aesthetically jaw-dropping, this temple is a glorious example of expert masonry. The whole thing is intricate and just great. Strangely, every time I see a picture of it, I cant help but think that it looks like it’d really hurt if you fell out of the sky and landed on it. Picture that for a second.

7. Stonehenge

photo by webmink

The final one was quite difficult for me to choose. While I definitely knew it wouldn’t be the Statue of Liberty, or the Eiffel Tower (how are they even on the list?!?!) I was torn between a few .. But I eventually settled for this. Slightly out of blind patriotism and slightly because it’s only up the road from me, but mostly because it’s actually quite cool. Briefly, I just want to say that I don’t think that they should let nutters run all over it wailing and rubbing stones or whatever they do. We went there and had a nice cream tea on the grass a few summers ago and while it was a really nice day, it would’ve been better if the cross-legged, arms-outstretched, too-old-to-be-doing-that numpties weren’t there. Oh well. The site has such a long documented history, charting the development of the stone circles, and yet we still don’t actually know what they’re there for. Estimates reckon that construction (to get to the state that we recognise it at) would’ve taken hundreds of years which is just insane. Why so much effort? Boggling.

.
And there you have it. My 7 choices for the ‘New Wonders’. I still don’t know which one I’ll actually vote for but there’s a few months before the deadline (7.7.07 – very clever). Go and vote for your pick.. then tell your grandchildren that you helped come up with the list. It’ll be well impressive.

http://www.new7wonders.com

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this film is already out apparently.. so this is possibly late to some people but still.. new to me. check the trailer below.

i think it looks like a really good documentary.. yet, i struggled to watch some parts of the trailer so i can’t imagine what i’ll be like with the whole film. i just have an inbuilt thing which makes me shiver whenever someone comes close to the edge of something really high. happens every time. even, it seems, when watching it happen in a tiny clip online. odd.

director Eric Steele and his crew

filmed the bridge during daylight hours from two separate locations for all of 2004, recording most of the two dozen deaths in that year (and preventing several others). They also taped more than 100 hours of interviews with friends, families and witnesses, who recount in sorrowful detail stories of struggles with depression, substance abuse and mental illness.

- source

sounds harrowing. not sure what my opinion is on the fact that they just filmed people jumping but then i suppose that’s what makes a good documentary. that aloofness and detachment.

one to watch out for.

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“anything the mind can conceive can now be brought to the screen!”

this promo vid thing is great.. i love the awfulness of early special effects on films like clash of the titans and sinbad etc.. it makes me feel all superior ha!.. i jest.. Ray Harryhausen is unfuckwitable.

really though, while modern day sfx are clearly much better and all realistic and cost tonnes of money blah blah blah, there’s still something wondrous about seeing a grown man fighting a bit of plasticine. as for the technique of filming from 40 feet away so that the actors look like they’ve been shrunken; genius!

more fun here:
a collection of Harryhausen classics
7th voyage of sinbad trailer
and my personal favourite – clash of the titans trailer.

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how insanely dope does this film look(?).. (go and view the trailer for ‘300′)

i saw some concept drawings for this quite a while ago and meant to post something about it then.. but forgot. so here it is.

it’s the next frank miller adaptation which will be coming out some time next year.. based on his ‘300′ series, it’s the story of the Battle of Thermopylae which in a nutshell, saw 300 spartans fight to the death against a vastly superior persian army.. some people reckon the persian’s numbered more than 120,000. granted, the spartans eventually lost, but they held the persian army for the best part of 3 days before being betrayed by one of their own who basically let the persians in round the back and brought an end to the battle. what a prick.

i remember reading about the Battle of Thermopylae when i was a wee nipper, and it struck me as a rather good yarn but i never really thought much else about it. reading up on it (at the heavenly wiki) just makes me think ‘wow’. the whole story’s class. really inspiring for those moments when you’re leading a small army against the might of an entire empire. something we can all relate to.

looking forward to it.

http://300themovie.warnerbros.com/

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ughh.. it’s been a superbly hideous month. so stupidly chockablock with stuff i cant even begin to recall. but i’ll try.

made the lengthy drive behind several tractors to Bath twice. once to visit the Future Publishing offices (they do Computer Arts amongst other things.. watch this space) and once to visit the baths and the cadbury cafe. i also drank some ‘fresh’ spring water at the baths and could taste the 2000 years of history. foul.
saw Panic! At The Disco in portsmouth. entertaining. but 15-year-old-emo-kids (ie. 90% of the people there) are entertaining in a whole ‘nother way.

shocked by the price of flight socks.. £13! surely DVT isn’t that bad..(?)

watched ‘Silent Hill‘ and winced at the use of barb wire. how the film passed as a 15 i’ll never know. and maybe it’s because i never played the game (too many irritating camera angles) but i have no idea what the fck happened at the end.

completed the google Da Vinci Code Quest thing. barely cheated at all.

oh, almost forgot, i also finished my major (final) university project ‘all city‘. go and visit it now. it took me ages. just a 5000 word essay to go ’til it’s all done and i start properly working. joy.

finally. started a redesign of this site.
coming soon.

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for the three people who haven’t read the da vinci code, don’t worry – the film is on it’s way. check the new trailer for it now. looks well weapon. i for one am very much looking forward to the film because i thought the book was uber-enjoyable. and i like films. i don’t subscribe to the whole “Dan Brown presents hard evidence that Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalene and had a daughter named Sarah” which this guy seems to believe but it’s definately a book to get you thinking. i’m quite susceptible to things like that. ‘angels & demons‘ reeled me in all too easily.

blah. i don’t want to get into the whole da vinci code post thing.. it’s been done to death. go watch the trailer and await the film.

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