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[phogenson]

Terry (Short Film) [2020] from Alexander Hagani on Vimeo.

Synopsis: An elderly man who is losing his wife and a young boy letting go of his mother form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in a hospital.

Starring: Adrian McLoughlin ('The Death of Stalin' dir. Armando Iannucci, 'After Life' dir. Ricky Gervais), Charlie Eite, Keith Farnan, Abagail King, Simon Chappell, Cathryn Sherman

Director's Statement: Loosely based on a time where I witnessed my great-grandfather watch his wife, of 70 years, pass away, I wanted to create a story about loss and the unexpected moments of chance that help us move on.

filmfreeway.com/TerryShortFilm

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It's All Right, It's Ok from Jim Cummings on Vimeo.

A man drops to his knees to give CPR to a stranger, but all is not what it seems.

This is the first short film from Jim Cummings' triptych series, “Still Life, that premiered on Topic.com; each film is one continuous shot.

twitter.com/jimmycthatsme

topic.com

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#ImagineFor1Minute from Gripping Films on Vimeo.

A tiny film with a big message: it's time to talk about the future we want.

A @tommustill / Gripping Films Production

Download and share your own copy in 10 languages from ImagineFor1Minute.com

A GRIPPING FILMS PRODUCTION

DIRECTORS – TOM MUSTILL @TOMMUSTILL ALEX KIEHL @ALEX_KIEHL

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER – TOM MUSTILL @TOMMUSTILL

PRODUCER – EVIE WRIGHT @EVIEWRIGHT

DIRECTORS OF ANIMATION & VISUALS – THE MCGLOUGHLIN BROTHERS – PARAIC MCGLOUGHLIN @PARAICMCGLOUGHLIN & KEVIN MCGLOUGHLIN @KEVINMCGLOUGHLIN_GRAM

AUDIO EDITORS – FERGUS DINGLE @FERGUSDINGLE SOPHIA EVANS @COCOZINHA

MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN – MAX COOPER & THE WILD SEEDS @MAXCOOPERMAX @THE_WILD_SEEDS

ONLINE – BRAM DE JONGHE @BRAMONTHEGO & @SPECIALTREATSPRODUCTIONS

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT – LOUIS WHITE @LOUIS.JW

IMPACT @PROJECTIMPACTTEAM

Research has found we rarely take the time to imagine what a better future could be like. So we thought we’d make a film that helps these conversations begin. This film asks anyone, from world leaders school children, to visualise what needs to change and then to talk about it.

We’ve made this one minute film so it can speak to a single individual or an entire government. We hope it will help individuals think about the future they want, meetings get off to good starts and motivate people to share their hopes for the future, and start to make that future happen. We want it to be a catalyst for a better world.

It’s been beautifully scored by legendary composer Max Cooper (in binaural sound) and animated by award-winning experimental filmmakers / artists the McGloughlin brothers.

SUPPORTERS This film has been made possible by support from the Planetary Emergency Partnership, WWF, Avaaz, Conservation International, FOLU, Global Commons Alliance, The Club of Rome, Nature4Climate, The Nature Conservancy, Climate & Sustainability, and Gower St. Additional individual donation from Noëlle Poncelet and Sandrine Dixson-Declève have helped to make this possible.

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Exit 12: Moved by War from Square on Vimeo.

Like many veterans, US Marine Roman Baca wasn’t the same when he returned home from war. He served in Fallujah, Iraq from 2005 to 2006. His experience ravaged him with depression, anxiety, and anger issues. With the encouragement of his wife, Lisa, Roman decided to return to his formal dance training as way to cope. He found that dance helped him “reprogram” his mind and body. This led Roman to start Exit12—a New York based dance company that tells stories of war through dance and choreography. Exit12 also hosts workshops that give veterans and military families a way to confront the effects of war and share their experience.

“Exit 12" is this week's Staff Pick Premiere! Read more about it on the Vimeo blog here: vimeo.com/blog/post/exit12

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These handwritten notes are where the Top 100 starts. Check the link in the bio for the final product. https://www.instagram.com/p/BsEWSmDAXIM/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1us6xmj9uafya

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My Top 100 movies ranked this year.

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C0292 from Peter Hogenson on Vimeo.

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At any rate, I’m rather in the mood to peace out of Instagram for a while. It’s the app that makes the phone but there are other sights to see. (at Chicago, Illinois)

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I don’t mind screens link in bio for thoughts about that. Even so, seeing people snapping a picture every time I hop off the train is getting to be a little much. Like it’s funny, there’s a lot of change and variety in the world right now, but these screens seem more ubiquitous than happiness. (at Chicago, Illinois)

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A gallery opening. It always seems like a good idea to open yourself up to the full gamut of artistic experiences at one of these. Even feeling out of place has its benefits. (at Chicago, Illinois)

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I drank like a lot of coffee yesterday. A bunch of places I’d never been, brew methods I hadn’t tried, and a bunch of other new stuff. I was wired, tired, but couldn’t sleep at the end of a quick run around Chicago’s coffee shops along the blue line. (at Chicago, Illinois)

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It is a particularly nice day in Chicago. (at Chicago, Illinois)

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Sculpture in sculpture. (at Chicago, Illinois)

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The refraction in these glasses was interesting. These were really so complicated that I had to revisit them weeks later to make them interesting. #latergram (at Oak Park, Illinois)

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The Sounds of a Hard Project

As I mentioned in my post about what I'd like to be sharing here, I'd like to show the playlists I use to create some of my video essays. Most recently, I finished a project about 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and how it was inspired by some Soviet Realist documentaries. In approaching this topic, there were a lot of angles to consider not to mention the enormous amount of visual and sonic material to boil down. I'd like to take a look at some of that process in the future, for now I'd like to look at the musical component of my most recent video essay.

One important aspect of 2001: A Space Odyssey is how influential it is. In researching references to 2001 I found almost as many sound references as I found visual references in movies made since. Ironically, these are really hard to capture in a video essay. Naturally the influence of 2001 is much more encompassing than just those references though.

Most notably 2001 influences the scores of other sci-fi films even those which are trying to stand apart from it in most respects. The scores of Arrival (2016) and Interstellar (2011) are great examples. Both have terrific scores. Nevertheless, both these films try to capture some kind of cerebral, thoughtful, sci-fi presence and it's really clear in the music that they both rely on sounds which are very similar to 2001.

What I wanted to do with "The Screen is a Monolith: Understanding 50 Years of 2001" was to create an alternative 2001 soundtrack. Something very like the same music used in 2001 but in other respects different. So I tried to deploy similar music in similar ways to Stanley Kubrick and I relied on music which was inspired by 2001 and music which grew out of the musical movements captured in some of the music already in 2001.

One important guiding feature of my feelings about this film toward the end of the project was that things could have turned out quite different. Other music, other visionaries, completely skipping what is now seen as an essential work in sci-fi filmmaking. Any of these paths were possible after the films of Pavel Klushantsev were made. Capturing those possibilities was something I did in the music.

In particular, the idea of there being a Russian composed version of 2001 struck a chord with the material of the essay. Surely a Soviet made 2001: A Space Odyssey would make use of Russian composers. So in diving into Soviet cinema and other Soviet visual arts, I also tried to bombard myself with Russian composers. There's a lot of intensity and mental gymnastics that are required when understanding most Russian art, I find, especially from a Western perspective. Ultimately I didn't indulge a lot of the commanding Russian music I listened to, but that idea of a Soviet made 2001 stuck with me as I created the playlist.

At the end of the day, it not really a movie about space at all if it doesn't have "Magic Carpet Ride" on the soundtrack, but lets look at three interesting features of this project:

Not the Blue Danube!

There was no way I was going to fall into the traps of using music which has become cliché because of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It would have been a distraction. Even so, finding good classical music was key, and I settled on Camille Saint-Saëns for my space ballet. Roger Ebert noted that the music Kubrick used in 2001 "wants to be sublime" and so there's a sort of competition for aesthetic attention, and this is maybe the most obvious feature of Kubrick's use of music.

The Danse Macabre is about all you could possibly ask from a classical composer. Truly even greater than any of the work by Strauss in 2001. As it happens I was reminded of this particular piece by Netflix's Chef's Table. In that show the documentarians really pull out all the stops to produce some kind of popular aesthetic experience like what Ebert was talking about.

Of course a theme by Saint-Saëns features in Babe (1997) which was probably my first exposure to that composer. Since I remember seeing Babe at a very young age and indeed have many Saint-Saëns infused memories this was the first and easiest music to place.

Discovering New Music

I went looking for the breathy vocals like those in the Kyrie by György Ligeti and came up with Meredith Monk's extended voice technique operas. Aptly, names like "Atlas" and "Earth Seen from Above" feature in the discography. Listening more of Monk's music is probably the thing I'm most happy came about from creating a playlist for this video essay.

As it happens, Monk's music from Volcano Songs features in The Big Lebowski (2000). Thus, like so many things, this composer was much more of a rediscovery than a first discovery. Additionally rediscovering Meredith Monk augments my long standing love of Philip Glass and Michael Nyman as contemporary composers. The repetitiveness and precision of Glass, Monk, and Robert Wilson's works really fascinate me.

Monk's work was an obvious "must have" right off the bat. I think I figured out good placement for the piece I used. Atlas along with "Fugue State" by Eluvium are probably the most striking and most important pieces, at least from my perspective, used here.

Zvezdolikiy

The dissonant aside by Igor Stravinsky was a last second addition to the playlist. Encountering this piece is exactly why I make Spotify playlists for every video essay I do. The experience of encountering new but similar music out of context is something that Spotify's algorithms can help with.

So I was riding the train home one day, exhausted from work, and rather than just rest I decided to put on the radio for the 2001 video essay playlist and out of the blue this piece hits me. It was barely audible over the train, but the voices stood out. So it shot up to the top of the playlist and into the final cut. 

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Just like interesting shapes and perspective at a stop I don’t usually stop at. (at Chicago, Illinois)

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There’s so much more behind every image in a film than we’re inclined to see. Coming to some understanding of how inspiration works helps.

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ7EOckICDo)