Wow, this is just an incredible video, not even sure if it’s the official one for this Primal Scream album track featuring the Sun Ra Arkestra but I could watch it all day, song’s pretty good too!
Film
Next weekend Funki Porcini debuts a project he’s been working on for years – it’s an interactive environment called ‘City’ and it will be installed as part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival.
It runs from 18th-21st, opens from midday to 8pm and it’s free, there’s very little info about it but he’s assured me that it’s the best thing he’s ever done and there’s very little else like it.
There are a couple of short promos on his Vimeo page but it’s all very secretive, when pressed he won’t even give away details, saying that it has to be a surprise.
From a tumblr called Anime Backgrounds, a site dedicated to the background animation art in various Japanese films. Here’s a few from Akira but check the whole site as it’s amazing.
I’ve heard very good things about this from people who worked in the post production, looking forward to it.
Judge Minty is a micro budget fan film that’s been in production for years now, well before the recent Dredd movie by Alex Garland anyway. It’s finally finished and, after doing the convention circuit, has now been put up for free on YouTube. For a such a project they’ve got a lot out of the little money they had to make it too with some impressive CGI work, excellent colour grading and music. Their Mega City 1 is far superior than the aforementioned Dredd film and the Judge outfits are nearer to the comic versions, being supplied by the Termight Replicas and Planet Replicas companies who do the official spin off costumes and props associated with the comic.
The story is an extension of an original strip in 2000ad featuring a Judge called Minty who is getting old and slow, his judgement impaired. Such cases in Dredd’s world take ‘The Long Walk’, sent out beyond the city walls to The Cursed Earth, a radioactive wasteland inhabited by mutants and the lawless. The Judges have to fend for themselves and try to bring some justice to the place, an impossible task being that they are a drop in the ocean compared to its size. Some of the acting let’s it down but Edmund Dehn, in the lead role is perfectly cast and there are all sorts of nice touches and hidden references for the eagle eyed fan, my favourite being the not so subtle crashed Land Raider in one scene.
At only 27 minutes long it’s well worth a watch if you have a passing interest in the character. You can tell it’s a labour of love and I recognised several known fan’s names in the credits at the end including John Burdis – Dredd uber-fan and constant presence in costume at conventions these last few years. Also in the thanks was one ‘Ollie Teeba‘, who many will know from The Herbaliser on Ninja Tune and beyond, who put in some money to aid the production of the film.
and now, the MOTHER of all banner ads! WARNING – BIG file!
Double whammy today, first Boards of Canada, then this! Beyond excited.
Saw the trailer for this huge on the IMAX screen last night, roll on July…
Saw this last night – VERY good indeed. If you’ve seen the trailers, they are pretty misleading is all I will say. Some absolutely incredible special FX plus Downey Jr at his best, Guy Pearce and Ben Kingsley stealing the show and the gorgeous Rebecca Hall. Go see it.
This is doing the rounds at the moment, very nicely done.
Also this Thursday, the second showing of The Search Engine full dome show at Dome Club at the Think Tank Planetarium in Birmingham.
You have to hand it to Jack White, this is the coolest thing to bring back into the world.
This is great, three in a row now from Melt Yourself Down on Leaf.
This really made me laugh (slightly NSFW)
That makes 5 now, so looking forward to this…
Starting next week at Dome Club, the UK’s first weekly place to see full dome content, is the first of four performances of ‘The Search Engine’. This is a 360 degree film for the full dome (or planetarium) environment.
It’s been seen before in London, Leicester and Montreal but this is a newer, revised version that lasts 50 minutes and presents an alternative version of the album with film, animation, photography and graphics.
The first show is April 4th, starting at 7pm at the Think Tank planetarium at Millennium Point, Birmingham. It will then be shown on the 25th, then May 16th and June 6th. Admission is £4 or £3 depending where you sit – the middle back half is usually the sweet spot for dome showings.
The club has weekly showings of all sorts of interesting, art-based full dome films and it’s really the sort of experience it’s hard to convey without actually going yourself. Here’s the little short about the Montreal version of this show that I did last summer.
Ticket available both online or at the door, go to: domeclub.co.uk > TICKETS > Dome Club -> 4th April (or whichever date you’re after).
Two more posters for Pacific Rim, looks like they’re rolling them out one a day this week.
I hadn’t seen this before: Japanese Manga artist Makoto Kobayashi‘s ‘Dragon’s Heaven’ was an animated short made in 1988 featuring a lot of his weirder mech designs and drawn in a style more reminiscent of Moebius than the more polished styles you’d see in the Gundam cartoons.
Kobayashi’s mecha are unique, spindly, organic, curvacious and look like they could fall over any minute. It’s sometimes hard to tell where the eyes are or even which way round the body should face as his angular designs defy all regular robotic logic. This is the only time I’ve seen an animated short with this kind of look. The film starts with a face off between two actual models before moving into animation but the credits turn into a mini making-of feature involving the models from the intro.
You can see the whole thing on YouTube but it’s split into several parts.