Morrisa Maltz – MoFone commercial

mofone_commercial
MoFone commercial (2011, 8MB, 1:31 min)

First of two pieces this week from the very talented Morrisa Maltz,
this one is a commercial for some kind of art-phone venture she seems
to be involved in.
Whilst I might pass on the product, I’m stuck dumb by the glorious
verve and insouciance of the ad.
It’s interesting – her personal work is very identifiable ( in a good way, I
hasten to add, and, as you’ll see later this week it moves onwards).
This is utterly different but also a really really neat bit of film-making,
suggesting deep reserves of skill and smarts as well as vision.

More Showstudio

beasting
Beasting (2008, 3MB, 31 secs)

blackball
Blackball (2008, 10MB, 1:21 min)

God, I dislike this work! It’s the combination of the stellar
degree of smug self-congratulation with a faux experimentalism/pretension
to art similarly typified by the ludricous “creative” moniker
attached to exponents of advertising.
But..but..again – like some ads, not many, some – there’s
something to be learned here, especially from Beasting
which manages to be both deeply, Zoolanderishly, risible
(the branded underpants) but also generate a kind of deep,
myth-related frisson.
All the more vexing that somewhere here is real talent.

So…we hold our noses and post…

Enough! Six months, at least, before any more of this.
I’m going out for some air.

Readings

readings
Readings (2008, 43 MB, 9:53 min.)

I must admit I’d never really heard of fashion video as a genre
until someone I teach showed me an astonishing piece by
Ruth Hogben & Gareth Pugh last week, which sent me off in search of more.
This piece comes from site called ShowStudio:

‘an award-winning fashion website, founded and directed by Nick Knight,
that has consistently pushed the boundaries of communicating fashion online.’

according to its ‘about’ page.

The piece we’re posting here is directed by Knight together with the designer
Hussein Chalayan, with editing by Ruth Hogben and music by Anthony, of Johnsons
fame.
It’s a tour de force, fizzing with ideas, a mesmerising watch,
and a fund of stealable ideas, so we’ll definitely be returning
for more, though I have to say I only see a dark void where
a living heart might have beat – there’s no speck of warmth
or humanity to it.

Herbert Wentscher – All For the Best

alles_bestens
All For the Best

Rupert Howe – The Wicker Man Remade

wickerman
The Wicker Man (2010, 12 MB, 1:09 min)

wickerman live
The Wicker Man Live (2010, 7 MB, 3:31 min)

Rupert Howe is always doing interesting things.
He’s also an early adopter of the sort of tech that in-my-old-age I
would cautiously leave a few months to see how it turns
out, so many of the interesting things he does mystify me
somewhat at first.
SO.. here he seems to have got given (?) lots of extras
(in what universe does this occur?) to remake a section of
cult British horror film The Wicker Man on Hampstead Heath.
The results are jaw dropping in two ways.
Jaw droppingly charmingly-funny.
And jaw droppingly odd.
Most of his work is essentially some combination of these
two axes. ( Plus serious skills)
As an added bonus there a kind of Making-Of-The-Wicker-Man-Remake
which apparently was originally streamed live from his mobile.
I didn’t even know you could do that.
If anything the ‘making-of’ piece surpasses the substantive one on the
Howe strangeness scale. Even his friends & colleagues seem touched too
by a species of benign insanity.
Long may he flourish.

Martha Deed – <em>The Lost Shoe</em>

the lost shoe
The Lost Shoe (2010, 16MB, 4:35 min)

Martha Deed, one of our favourite people, & co-founder with
the much missed Millie Niss of the fantastic Sporkworld Microblog,
which we’ve raved about before & which we can’t recommend too
highly, has a paper publication coming out, a book of poems, for which
she created this chilling and beautifully made video “trailer”.

Watch the trailer then

Keith Schofield – 3 Commercials

samsung
Elephants (2008, 9MB, 1:19 min.)

axion-flatheads
Flatheads (2008, 2MB, 30 sec.)

fruit-roll-ups1
Nature (2007, 3.5MB, 31 sec.)

3 commercials for Samsung, Axion and Fruit Roll-Ups
by inspiring director – Keith Schofield.

Verizon – Never Stop Working for You

verizon
Yes (2005, 4.4 MB, 2:25 min)

Couldn’t figure out if this commercial is a spoof or for real.

Annette Hollywood – Stuttgarter Filmwinter Trailer

filmwinter trailer
Stuttgarter Filmwinter – Trailer (2009, 6 MB, 58 secs)

Adding with distinction one feels to the, perhaps hitherto
somewhat sparsely populated, genre of German-Art-Country & Western
is this quite splendid trailer from Annette Hollywood for the annual
Stuttgarter Filmwinter festival.
The subtitles are in Schwabian, the local dialect, and we
reproduce both Engilsh and Schwabian lyrics below.
Photography is by Anna Go, all else by Ms Hollywood.
Fab.

for a shooting cowboygirl like me
in the cold desert of artscenery
filmwinter is like a warm campfire
and makes filmworld much higher

they bombard you with prices of honour
like this arty wolperdonger

For Little Girls

beautykit
Beauty Kit (2005, 4.2MB, 2:16 min.)

This is a very dark take on advertising and cult of beauty
made by the talented video makers at Pleix.

By Mica Scalin.