Posts from — February 2008

…when video camera’s took two people to operate (one to carry the battery pack -  about the size of a betamax video recorder, am I showing my age here?) I used to spend my sunday afternoons in the dance studios at Birmingham’s (soon to be refurbished) mac. Hip Hop had landed and breakdancing with it. Eventually after many years (nearly 22 in fact) I have digitised these clips from the C21VOX archive.

Originally shot for use in sequences in a film about International Youth Year (1985), I have treasured this now fairly gnarly gem, a glimpse into the urban history of this city I call home. I knew where the Hip Hop happened back then (well as much as a teenager would) and led the camera’s to the dancehall and several extensive graffiti sites around the city.

It’s time to share it. I’ve posted these two clips on You Tube and a couple more will follow. It’s awesome stuff - Enjoy!

This looks like it’s gonna be fun! Be Kind Rewind is the new movie by French director (and creative genius) Michel Gondry, due for release later this month.

Gondry, in my opinion, has created some the most innovative and stunning pop videos ever, and this, his third feature, looks like it’s gonna be great. With Jack Black and Mos Def starring, and the kind of Lo Fi (ok, Lo Fi in a $20 million kind of way) mastery you’d expect from Gondry, classic movies are ’sweded’ and rented out.

The fantastic website defines ’sweding’ as “… remaking something from scratch using whatever you can get your hands on.”

Michel has even ’sweded’ his own trailer! Seriously, this guy is a Genius!

Oh… and he can solve the Rubiks cube with his nose!

well maybe not yesterday…

This is awesome! Spending a huge part of my working life at a screen, I’ve not really been into computer games for years, but more recently I’ve played on Nintendo’s Wii, and after my initial reaction - “the characters look really clunky!” - I realised that the magic was in the responsiveness of the gameplay, and the way lots of people can be involved instead of two people gonking out while the rest look on…

Anyway… I watched this clip and well I guess it’s just the beginning, of the next phase. It’s pretty darn smart though! (although it will only work for one player at a time… for now at least).