Steven Soderbergh talks natural light with the NYTimes
“The Girlfriend Experience” (2009) was shot by Soderbergh (who acts as his own DP) almost entirely without non-practical light. In this slideshow/audio piece, hear him discuss the implications.
You’re keyeing off a real environment and adapting instead of trying to impose your will on it. And as a result, it makes you realize how constructed most movies are, visually.
I prefer to shoot my own stuff and almost never light for two reasons: 1) I honestly never learned how, and much like shading in illustration never made intuitive sense to me, I never picked up lighting intuitively like other DPs did, and 2) I honestly prefer the natural/ambient light aesthetic, so it all works out nicely.
Side note, I am so excited to see this movie. I think “Bubble” (2005) is one of the most innovative pieces of filmmaking in the last decade, and I have impossibly high hopes for “GfE”. I will see it tonight. By any means necessary. I will report back here.
via Neon Blogarita

Steven Soderbergh talks natural light with the NYTimes

“The Girlfriend Experience” (2009) was shot by Soderbergh (who acts as his own DP) almost entirely without non-practical light. In this slideshow/audio piece, hear him discuss the implications.

You’re keyeing off a real environment and adapting instead of trying to impose your will on it. And as a result, it makes you realize how constructed most movies are, visually.

I prefer to shoot my own stuff and almost never light for two reasons: 1) I honestly never learned how, and much like shading in illustration never made intuitive sense to me, I never picked up lighting intuitively like other DPs did, and 2) I honestly prefer the natural/ambient light aesthetic, so it all works out nicely.

Side note, I am so excited to see this movie. I think “Bubble” (2005) is one of the most innovative pieces of filmmaking in the last decade, and I have impossibly high hopes for “GfE”. I will see it tonight. By any means necessary. I will report back here.

via Neon Blogarita

Also, the stuffed monkey from our first manned (or monkeyed) satellite, on a flight where the mission controller is played, of course, by Clint Howard, who has played mission controllers in something like half a dozen movies, maybe a dozen. When he gets a job, he already knows all of the lines. I could give you the exact number of the mission controllers he has played, but looking up his IMDb credits for a review of “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” seems like dissipation.

Roger Ebert recognizes a pattern in his NatM: BofS review.

via goldenfiddle



Beyonce: ‘Single Ladies’ Raw Footage Audio Pre-Sync

Why am I a sucker for a post-production joke? Because it’s a secret language we all understand.

via @serafinowicz



maximumfun.org/donate

Because I feel so strongly about The Sound of Young America and the level to which it raises the bar for interview, I made this nice little video with my pal, radio host Jesse Thorn, to share my love and appreciation and to help Jesse nudge listeners to give a little this pledge drive season to support amazing content. Maximum Fun, y’all.

Tumbularity

As a matter of principle, I fear and thus despise the new and the different. That said, notes on tumblr’s new feature, Tumblarity.

1. The design is really neat. Keep it up, tumblr designers!

2. The Tumbluality score in my Dashboard reminds me of my mortality. Stop that. Let me hide that rapidly decaying metric or I swear to Christ I’ll never visit my Dashboard again. Consider yourself threatened. (J/K love you, tumblr!)

I know your intent was to incentivize kids to keep on putting change in the slot to watch the number grow, but it makes me all nervous and pukey. What happens when my number shrinks ever towards zero? Do my body parts start vanishing from pictures? Seriously. Stop it.

3. Across the quad at Twitter, we play a little game called Favrd. It’s fun to play because (like tumblr), it’s fun to keep track of how many people faved something you wrote. At the end of the day, Favrd keeps tabs on who got the most faves on the Leaderboard. And a spot on the Leaderboard is a real kick in the pants. Makes you feel good. Makes you want to keep playing. And the best part? It starts all over the next day. Tabula rasa. The only number that persists is the number of people who read your content. If I had a running all-time tally of how many times I’d been faved, synthesized into an ambiguous number that punished my mellow post frequency by dropping rapidly, I’d hate Favrd and I wouldn’t play the game.

4. We’ll take it as read that the name is a play on “Popularity”, correct? So it seems like tumblr had to confront and then conspicuously step around naming the new feature “Tumbularity” which, for my money, from an aesthetic and linguistic standpoint, rolls off the tongue with far less friction.

We’re to assume that “Tumblarity” is a noun, right? What, then, is the adjective form of Tumblarity? Tumblarious? That’s dumb. And there’s no excuse for dumb fake grammar.

Was the avoidance a choice to steer clear of the idea of Popularity while somehow still alluding to it? Because you’re right. Popularity is kind of gross.

5. I haven’t a clue what my Tumblariety score means. Thus, it’s not much of a score, which makes it not much of a game. I stay away from games that I don’t understand. Granted, I’m dense, so this rules out Monopoly, the stock market, World of Warcraft, and dating, but I can’t see myself getting much into a game I feel a near-complete lack of control over.

6. I know there’s something here. I’m not a Luddite. But I’m just not feeling it yet.

7. tumblr never stops innovating and that’s why tumblr is an incredible platform. Keep it up, tumblr!



The Genius Reggie Watts at The Sound of Young America Live

I can’t contain it any longer. Jesse Thorn put up this video of Reggie’s set in Portland, where I sat in the audience, moved to fits of laughter, tears, gapemouth and peepants. Andy Kaufman Award winner Reggie Watts is as close to genius as anyone I’ve seen on stage since Andy Kaufman, after whom the award was named.

In the clip above, he stretches delightfully for a bit, but the magic begins at around minute 9, when it all becomes clear.

And for convenience, I get to profess my literal love for Reggie and at the same time my literal love for The Sound of Young America and my good friend Jesse, who at the tender age of late-20s has managed to cement himself as the best, most insightful interviewer in radio or other. Seriously, listen to his show with its many fantastic guests of note, support him with your chump change, and love him as I do.

via dalasverdugo via Maximum Fun

“Sneakers” (1992)
WHISTLER: “Holy cow.”

“Sneakers” (1992)

WHISTLER: “Holy cow.”



“Transcendent Man” (2009) trailer

I don’t read much. But I’ve read what Ray Kurzweil has to say about our future and it’s changed the way I live and behave. The Singularity is as close to a religious doctrine as I’m willing to follow. Partly because it’s smart, partly because it’s hopeful, but mostly because it’s fun.

I expect this movie will challenge many assumptions not only about the world but Tony Robbins’ jawline as well.

via kottke.org



texburgher:

How one iPhone app changed everything.

Skyward

It just so happens our users are incredible and make nice things because they are creative, charming, thoughtful, handsome and above all else, they are nice people.

Thank you, Geoff and everyone who helped make this wonderful thing.

Birdhouse — A notepad for Twitter