English rollerskating subculture

I’ve always been fascinated with the skating subcultures, and have a couple posts in here with those topics. I came across this video on Vimeo, though, and my eyes were opened to another subculture: the British roller-skaters. Roller skates!

This video was created by 32LDN, a creative collective in England’s capital city.

The poem offers an insight into this world that video alone couldn’t do. The flow of the words is akin to the smooth sounds of the roller skates gliding across the shopping mall floors. I can imagine an American would have put some shredding rock music, which would have made these kids seem like subversive little punks. They still seem to be causing mischief, but the passers-by don’t seem to notice or care. The gentle natural sounds of skates, mall, and air coupled with the lyrical poem  is what make this video successful.

When I mentioned roller skates, does that remind anyone of this commercial?

Happy Pi Day!

Today is March 14, known to many as Pi Day. In my life, this date started out as something my high school math teacher would say at the beginning of class on this day, and I would forget about it halfway through the lesson, which was usually unrelated to pi. When I stopped taking math in college (as all journalism majors do, right guys?) I stopped remembering this “holiday”. Enter popular culture, which revels in all things nerdy, making those things now cool–which means they are actually cool and not nerdy anymore, but this blog is not for philosophical musings.

To celebrate this faux-nerdy calendar date, I curated a selection of hand-picked videos, steeped in a little love, just for you.

Watch young Lewis from Brooklyn Friends School memorize Pi to a digit I didn’t know was possible to memorize to:

 

Too bad he didn’t memorize it this far.

In this sappy love scene, try to determine what the guy loves more:

 

Finally, slow-motion shot-drinking and pie-throwing. Because who doesn’t appreciate slow-mo?

 

Happy Pi Day, readers! I’m off to the nearest pie shop, where there will surely be something for the price of $3.14.

If lawyer commercials had awards ceremonies…

…I would give the award of Best Production to Jamie Casino’s cast and crew. This video originally aired during Superbowl  XLVIII (that’s 48 for us using Arabic numerals) in local Georgia stations where Casino practices law. It’s not your typical “Have you been hurt? Call Smith law offices today!” commercial. This one tells his life story and even accuses the local police department of misconduct, all in a raging semi-vendetta to avenge his brother’s death. Grab the popcorn and send the kids outside; this is intense.

One thing that confused me, is why did Jamie take a sledgehammer with his brother’s name on it and smash his grave? That seems disrespectful to the brother.

Somehow this commercial straddles the line of cheesy and badass. I didn’t know these categories were anywhere close to each other, but Casino, in his persistence fit for a lawyer, found a way to make it happen. Due to the personal nature of Casino’s motive–vindicating his brother–he likely did everything himself–he owns a RED, after all. In an interview with TMZ, Casino said he spent less than $100,000 on the commercial. That’s a lot of money, even for a lawyer. TMZ creator Harvey Levin–a former lawyer–exchanged a jab about lawyers going Hollywood. Casino laughed, but perhaps this is what he wants? Having a poor perception of what is cool does not mean a person is dumb.

@Galatolie @TODAYshow @MLauer Yes! Let’s do an interview!

— Jamie Casino (@CasinosLaw) February 6, 2014

Here in Hollywood. They are in a real need of attorneys who wear boots and carry a sledge hammer.

— Jamie Casino (@CASINO_LAWGROUP) February 12, 2014

This is not the first time he’s used that guitar-shredding harmonica track. This is also not the first time he targeted emotional advertising–though the first time was much more subtle.

For Superbowl XLIX (ahem, 49) I will watch my local market area commercials, hoping to find a gem like Jamie.

Brian Williams raps

I love editing. It is my favorite part of the production process. Which is why I like this video:

Just marvel at the editing: The precision of the cuts! The timing of the pauses! There were one or two places that felt like it was lagging or the music was too loud. I doubt Brian Williams actually said words like “woogie” and “boogie” during a broadcast, so props to the audio editor.

Child’s Play

This video by Red Bull is an amazing showcase of Scottish trials cyclist Danny MacAskill’s skills. He clearly has diverse talent and totally tough (if you watch the outtakes through the end).

The transition from little Danny playing in his room to big Danny jumping his bike on the blocks is a great play on the larger-than-life toyland. All the toys touch on what you’d imagine a young boy to play with. It’s also reminiscent of the classic toys in Toy Story, though I don’t think Red Bull was explicitly going for that look. The toys are also a phenomenal setting to show off Danny’s creativity on his bike–it’s not like there’s always giant playing cards and colored pencils sitting around.

Holiday humor

Today is Thanksgiving and the second day of Hanukkah. Nothing serious here today, just a little humor.

Deep-fried Turkey Troubles

Brit-bashing

Adam Sandler’s classic

The Most Quoted Man In News isn’t who you’d expect

The New Yorker featured a story on a man who has been quoted many times in the news. No, it’s not a president or any other famous person. He’s a regular Joe. Check it out:

http://vimeo.com/78068001

I have a few opinions about the guy, but I’ll save that for later (or you can skip down the to the next paragraph). The colorization stands out. The brown background on the subject gives it a nice earthy tone and subtly hints at the subject’s personality and profession: he’s a gruff (retired) highway maintenance worker. Those guys get their hands dirty. Am I reading too much into this? The color also complements his shirt. The narrating typewriter is a nice added effect for transitions, and the typing is literally telling. Finally, I enjoyed the shots of the subject’s real-life interviews shown on camera screens. Nice touch.

The story arc is great, and the editor, Josh Camerote, did a wonderful job of editing in such a way that the subject tells the story about himself–instead of a voiceover telling the story. When the truth is there, it’s not hard to let it speak for itself. When Packer is introduced, he seems like an innocent bystander who happens to randomly be at events. Then we learn about his strategy: he does whatever it takes to be quoted on air and in print. The New York native went to a Phillies game and dressed up in fan attire, for crying out loud! After I watched the video, I found the Gawker story quoted in the video. It’s dead on. In the video, Packer was quoted as supporting the Clintons and wanting to be on Hillary’s presidential campaign in the early 00’s. From the Gawker story we learn he was first to greet W. after his inauguration. Only an attention whore would compromise their political and sports team allegiances. Great job NYT for letting the source of sources speak for himself.

Cardboard animation

I came across Londoner Rebecca Manley’s cardboard stop-motion videos completely by accident. I was looking up websites for graphic design inspiration and was intrigued. Let’s watch:

The first thing I noticed was how lifelike the animation is. The characters aren’t jerky like Gumby, but move smoothly with believable effects. In the shot with the bear and pig feet walking, the knees bend! The pig has a distinct walk where its neck moves apart from its shoulders. The animators did a great job. The cardboard world is a nice medium for stop-motion–more unique than clay or action figures. What do you think?

Re-introducing Videblographer

Dear loyal readers…

Is anyone still there? After a three-year hiatus, I am certain I have lost every single one of you. No matter, I will start anew.

-Videblographer

Rejoice, it’s a musical video!

Created for the McLean Bible Church 2010 Christmas Concert, adding another virtual choir video to float around YouTube. Score written by Marty McCall. A lot of hard work went into this video, but the 9 hours of shooting and 20+ hours of editing is worth it, don’t ya think?

Also, thank the Lord for Auto-tune, otherwise shooting would have taken 19 hours!