Penguin July 23rd, 2008
Landed around 10 last night at JFK. Went through immigration, then luggage claim. Got back around midnight. Was greeted by some friends at church.
Went home, checked my email, and slept for 12 hours.
I’ll be posting logs from the trip over the next 2 weeks.
It’s good to be back 
-Penguin
Related postsPenguin July 4th, 2008
This week, I finished my preparations for my trip to Kyrgyzstan. I’m leaving with a bit of apprehension and uncertainty.
Last week, I sent my project document to my point of contact in Kyrgyzstan. Unfortunately, she’s returning to the states to get surgery for breast cancer. Initially, the project was supposed to be a documentary on local culture, but after I sent the project plan, they told me they wanted to shift to making a promotional video.
I wrote up a piece about documentaries versus promotional videos. Instead of continuing the discussion, I received a fluff email. As I prepare to leave, I have no idea what I’ll be doing once I hit land fall. I also don’t know who my new point of contact is going to be.
There’s a lot of challenges with this project. It’s my first documentary. It’s in a language I don’t know. When I come back, editing will be extremely difficult. But we’ll see.
With that said, I’ll be gone until the 22nd. Ninja will be gone until the 20th. Until then, have fun with our archives.
-Penguin
Related postsPenguin July 1st, 2008
Rating: 4/4 stars
Wall-E is a delight. It’s about a little trash compactor robot that goes on a romantic journey. One of the best things about the film is the lack of dialogue. There will be long segments where all you hear our sounds. It’s just a great example of visual storytelling.
If you stay for the credits, you’ll be treated to a mini art history lesson epilogue followed by 8-bit renderings of the two main characters: Wall-E and Eve.
Go see it.
-Penguin
Related postsPenguin July 1st, 2008
If you have a great tripod with a great head, then you have the potential for great pans and tilts. But sometimes the equipment is great, but your hand is not that steady. Rubber band to the rescue!
Strap a think rubber band to the handle and pull it in the direction you wan it to move. The rubber band acts like a shock absorber, dispensing energy as necessary.
No more jerky pans or tilts.
-Penguin
Related postsPenguin June 30th, 2008
Rating: 4/4 stars
When We Left Earth documents 50 years of NASA’s manned missions. It starts with Mercury and ends with the International Space Station.
It’s an amazing story that we take for granted. The images that they returned, specifically of Earth Rise are tremendous and life changing. The human will and ingenuity to achieve such an enormously difficult task is awe inspiring.
What makes the series so good is that even though we know the ending, they still manage to weave a tail full of tension and suspense. This is achieved through masterful narration by Gary Sinise, a terrific soundtrack, and fantastic editing of archival footage with new interviews with the astronauts.
The images are beautiful in HD and gave me that sense of wonder of space all over again.
Watch it.
-Penguin
Related postsPenguin June 29th, 2008
Dali is at the MoMA.
The show tracks the traffic of images, themes and ideas between Dalí’s films, both realized and not, and his more static efforts, including paintings, drawings, letters, illustrated notes, scenarios and other ephemera.
[...]
Dalí grasped that film’s capacities — for depicting irrationality in action; for dissolving, continually mutating images; and for an intensely real unreality — were all ready-made for his sensibility and his desire to reach a mass audience.
[...]
“Destino,” the sprightly animated short of love and loss that Dalí worked on energetically for Walt Disney in 1946 [runs continuously].- NYTimes
The show runs through Sept 15 at the MoMA.
-Penguin
Related postsPenguin June 28th, 2008
Really well edited and kind of funny battle between Val Kilmer and George Clooney. They use the other Batmans for good measure.
-Penguin
Related postsPenguin June 27th, 2008
Paul McCarthy’s “Central Symmetrical Rotation Movement: Three Installations, Two Films” at the Whitney:
The show focuses on a core strand of McCarthy’s work: the use of architecture to create perceptual disorientation in the viewer through spinning mirrors, rotating walls, projections, and altered space.
the show of about 22 works dating from 1966 to the present includes three major sculptures, two early short films and assorted drawings, photographs and videos.
Two basic motifs connect the various pieces: the room and rotational movement, or spinning.
[...]
“Spinning Camera, Walking, Mike Cram Walking” that Mr. McCarthy made by rotating a camera on a tripod in a mostly empty room. The view goes round and round, alternating bright windows and dark walls and occasionally giving a glimpse of a man walking in circles in the room.“Mad House”… consists of a large steel-framed wooden box mounted on a powerful motor. A door in the box reveals a room with a padded seat inside. (There are also three square windows.) When turned on, the room rotates at high speed while inside the chair rotates too, though not necessarily in the same direction or at the same velocity.
[In] “Couple”,… Mr. McCarthy set the focus on his camera at two feet and then roamed around a room with it, creating a blurry, aimless tour. Two naked people, a man and a woman, appear intermittently.
In “Spinning Room,”… [f]our video cameras rotate on a gleaming high-tech machine within a square, walk-in enclosure made of rear-projection screens. Images recorded by the cameras pass through computers and then to projectors stationed outside the enclosure. The projectors direct streaming video pictures of people inside onto the screens.
- NYTimes
The show runs through Oct 12 at the Whitney.
In July, the Whitney will open “Paul McCarthy: Film List”:
McCarthy began making films as a student in the 1960s, and his current exhibition on the Whitney’s third floor includes two rare 16mm films screening for the first time in decades. In conjunction with his exhibition, McCarthy has curated a film program that brings together works by, among others, Stan VanDerBeek, Francis Picabia, Walt Disney, Kurt Kren, Yves Klein, and Bruce Conner.
This portion runs from July 11 through Sept 28.
-Penguin
Related postsLimited edition lithograph prints. Signed + numbered.
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