Vice Magazine is a snarky and somewhat pretentious rag that’s funny for about ten minutes, but gradually becomes annoying after you’ve read the tenth faux-rebellious article about hipsters or some band you’ve never heard of, wedged up against an ad for some expensive perfume. VBS.TV, Vice’s video arm, VBS.TV, is a different beast entirely, with great documentaries that delve into the world’s hot spots and go past the usual surface gloss of the Six O’Clock News (no surprise there, since no-one under 40 watches the nightly news anymore.) This report on the gun markets of Pakistan is particularly decent.
I’ve been working as an editor on a video podcast featuring Vancouver Adobe evangalist Duane Nickull called Duane’s World. The show is all about coding, tech, music and Duane’s unique take on the world, and is hosted on Adobe TV, a central hub for shows about all things Adobe. Check it out!
Joi Ito, who was recently named as the head of Creative Commons and with whom I once had the pleasure of drinking a few beers with, recently explained from Cannes how the world of Creative Commons and the traditional media are at odds, and how “big media” misses the point that user generated content is all about authenticity and connections between people. Watch his impromptu talk below:
In my brief tenure as a co-host for the (now-ended) Lab with Leo, I was able to pimp my own podcast, Radio Free Skaro, while explaining the dreaded Red Ring of Death on the Xbox 360. Many thanks to the intrepid Third Guy, my RFS co-host, for tracking down this clip.
With the release of Be Kind Rewind (which i didn’t think much of), the phenomenon of “sweding” films has gripped Internet videographers like a VHS-fueled fever. “Sweding” is the art of remaking famous film scenes in as clunky and obviously lo-fi way as possible. Most of these efforts fall kind of flat, but this remake of Tron is absolutely beautiful.
M dot Strange made a really weird animated film called “We Are the Strange” which, frankly, I didn’t much care for. But enough people dug the film that he was able to completely bypass Hollywood and sell DVDs of his film online thanks to a substantial presence on YouTube, and at a recent conference in Berlin he explained his experiences and what he’s learned about the Internet and the film industry.