Freyburg

Saul Bass, the visionary designer behind the opening credits of many a Sixties cinema classic, is deliberately aped to produce the swingingest version of Star Wars you’ve ever seen.

I don’t often put work related stuff on the blog, but I figured it’s probably a good idea to show what I’ve been up to for the last little while. First, here’s a promo I cut together for Chow Restaurant (through Industryblender.com):

Second, I’m continuing to do video work for Urban Mixer TV:

And third, I just started Monday at a new full-time gig as the Tech Content Producer at “The Lab with Leo“, a technology show that airs on CityTV and Tech TV here in Canada. I’ll be finding guests, creating segments, reviewing gadgets, and appearing alongside Leo Laporte as one of his co-hosts. The shooting schedule is structured in such a way that you won’t see any on-air appearances from me for a couple of months yet, but stay on the lookout for your favorite bald, Doctor Who loving nerd.

update: Here’s an excerpt from the show, also starring Kris Krug, Vancouver tech renaissance man.

Yep, to the surprise of no-one, injecting yourself with botulism toxin to fight wrinkles turns out to be a bad idea. Scientists have discovered that the beauty cocktail, much favored by aging cougars and Hollywood royalty, can even result in death. Ah, vanity, thou art a treacherous harpy.

Some rich fella paid over $2,000 for a mint Apple //c off of eBay, and then proceeded to document the unboxing of said beast. The thing I noticed right away is that Apple has consistently had some amazing package design, even in the old days. Plus, the Apple //c just looks damned cool.

(picture by Flickr user Dansays)

According to a recent article in Slate, movies appearing at the Sundance film festival by and large don’t get pirated, and instead wallow in obscurity. The author’s contention is that pirates only pay attention to big releases, but I think it may have more to do with the fact that the average Sundance filmmaker probably isn’t tech-savvy enough to get their film onto torrent sites in the first place. After all, 90 percent of the films at Sundance and other film festivals go on to virtually no distribution, so why not at least try to get some eyeballs on all that hard work?

Prolost, the blog of author and special effects whiz Stu Maschwitz, has an excellent feature on how a BBC program used four graphic designers, greenscreens, color correction, and some clever thinking to more or less reproduce the opening of Saving Private Ryan. The video is below, but go to Stu’s blog post, as he has plenty of things to say about the process.

The Justice League catapults back to the Victorian Age, in action figure form. What’s not to like? It’s pretty much nerdvana. (courtesy of this post at Boing Boing)

Francis Ford Coppola recently emerged from a long sabbatical from the director’s chair to create “Youth Without Youth“, a film he made entirely with his own money and which, incidentally, is pretty terrible. Much better than the film itself is this article in Vanity Fair, which details how Coppola is pursuing his artistic vision with a $500 million cushion created by his vineyard, cigar business and other savvy financial moves.

Radiohead recently gave away their latest album, “In Rainbows,” online with the caveat that listeners could donate whatever they found appropriate. The NY Times examines both the band’s decision and the larger trend of musicians splitting off from their labels and going out on their own.

My non-Canadian readers may not be aware of it, but Canada’s media industries have long worked under the yoke of CanCon, a government policy that states TV and radio stations must play “X” amount of Canadian content if they want to play other, predominantly American, shows and music that people actually want to watch and listen to. There are several flaws in the system, not the least of which is that is if a Canadian artist becomes a huge success, like Celine Dion or Bryan Adams, their work is no longer considered “Canadian.” Actually, given the suckitude of both those artists, maybe that isn’t such a bad policy.

At any rate, Cancon regulations created a myriad number of terrible bands who would have otherwise never been heard of, and recent successes like the Montreal indie music scene have more to do with file sharing and Myspace than they do with cultural policy.

So it’s amusing to me that a bunch of Canadian artists want to regulate the internet in order to make sure online content created by Canadians doesn’t get buried under a deluge of American content. It seems like they’re fighting the last war, when scarce space on the airwaves meant there was only so much room for content to be seen. With the internet, those conditions no longer apply. Speaking as a content creator myself, I know most of my (small) fan base isn’t even in Canada, but rather in the US, England, and Australia.

Amusing, but shocking. Try to keep up, whiny Canadian artists. While you were begging for grants and throwing derisive glares at those of us who don’t make experimental tone poems on Super8 film, the world passed you by.