movies

Posts Tagged ‘movies’

TOOFY

09.11.08

By: Aaron Ray

Along with all of the other great events going on this weekend, the Toofy film festival should be on your list.

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Tags: Awesome, Films, movies, toofy

Category: Events

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Co-writer and director of some of Pixar’s best flicks, Andrew Stanton, was interviewed today on Fresh Air about his newest film endeavor, Wall-E. The in-depth interview is fantastic, and touched on everything I really wanted to know about including color, design, squares vs. circles, storytelling without dialogue or facial features, and the film’s timely social commentary.

This interview is a window into the creative process of an extremely talented artist, and I’d highly recommend it to artists of all types as well as fans of the movie. And if you haven’t seen it yet, what the hell are you waiting for?

THE INTERVIEW

MY RANT

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Tags: Andrew Stanton, Animation, Fresh Air, movies, Pixar, Wall-E

Category: Art, Design, People

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STORYTELLING 101

06.30.08

By: Josh Holland

Pixar gets mad points for difficulty in their latest film endeavor, WALL-E. After watching the trailer the first time, I was intrigued how the technical animation would truly make or break this movie. With main characters that can’t speak (not much anyway) and have very limited facial expressions, the pressure was on to create lovable, emotional beings out of tiny scraps of metal sans dialogue. The end result was a beautiful experiment in visual storytelling, made more special by the originality of concept and a timely sociopolitical message.

Lips, eyes and eyebrows become luxuries of on-screen character development when your subjects are little more than spheres and cubes with wheels. The character design was amazing, with robots of all shapes, sizes, makes, models and personalities truly overshadowing the human characters who dully share an identical pear-shaped physique, and emotionally resemble… well… robots. in the end, the animators succeed admirably in creating living, breathing, emoting creatures out of those cold spheres and cubes.

The first part of the film is by far my favorite, with our gritty worker-bot hero Wall-E going about his everyday routine and unraveling a past of corporate consumerism gone awry. He soon encounters a sleek, sexy instrument of Apple brand death and destruction named E.V.E. and the duo form a complex relationship using nothing but flawlessly timed animation.

The film is a perfect abstraction of visual storytelling, utilizing only the most essential elements of motion, color, sound and symbols to do the whole job. Granted, there is a lot more dialogue in the film than I’ve indicated here, but those scenes are saved for the human characters who are ultimately a sideshow to the robots. So when you go see Wall-E (and you should), take notice of how much can be conveyed by moving shapes with the vocabulary limitations of a Pokemon. And ask yourself, how did they make me love a stupid cube with wheels so fucking much?

RIP Joe Ranft

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Tags: Animation, movies, Pixar, Wall-E

Category: Art, Design

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STREET 2 SCREEN!!!

05.15.08

By: Scot Lefavor

Over the next three days, Kaffeine Buzz, in partnership with the Denver Film Society, present Street-2-Screen: a 3 day festival celebrating graffiti culture and film. Tonight, Street-2-Screen begins the celebration at the Starz FilmCenter (located at 9th & Auraria Parkway in Denver) at 7pm, showcasing the new graffiti documentary movie: BOMB IT. Friday night, the Street-2-Screen Graffiti & Hip-Hop Party keeps the festivities rolling at Falcon Bowl (the newly renovated bowling-alley-meets-venue, next to the Gothic Theatre) at 8pm, for a night of hip-hop, old school and new, live graffiti, b-boys, graffiti video mashups via the DVJ skills of An-ism and the Denver-based, internationally renowned Magnet Mafia crew. Street-2-Screen wraps up the celebration with a Graffiti Panel Day at the Starz FilmCenter on Saturday, with two panels, Education and Commerce, starting at 2:00pm. Denver’s graffiti artists will join civic leaders, city officials and community directors to discuss the past, present and future aspects of graffiti in Denver, ways to combat vandalism, and the programs that embrace graffiti art in a positive way. These panels are free and open to the public. Sounds like a very intriguing weekend… Get into it Colorado!

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Tags: denver film society, graffiti, kaffeinebuzz, movies, street 2 screen

Category: Art, Events

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Happenings

11.28.08

The No Coast Craft-O-Rama begins next weekend December 5th and 6th at the Midtown Global Exchange in MPLS. It will feature a variety of designers, artists, and other magical creators of handmade goods. More info at nocoastcraft.com

11.24.08

Shitty Kitten will be dropping a new body of work. Letters and Ladies will come alive December 12th at the D-note. Stay tuned for more…

11.20.08

11.19.08

Applied Ideas Volume 3:

Join Ian Coyle and friends this Friday (Nov 21) 7:30 pm at the MCA Denver for the latest round of Applied Ideas: Talks on Design.

Speakers include: Rick Griffith (MATTER), Chris Cox (Changethethought), Aaron Ray (Legwork Studio), and
Ian Coyle (Superheroes, Inc.)

11.13.08

Aesthetic Apparatus is throwing a studio warming party this Saturday, 15th in MPLS. It should be a blast meeting new peeps, drinking dranks, and eating some food. Plus they are going to have a pony!! More info here.

11.11.08

Edifice Gallery presents Nocturnal Mockery 8 goes down this weekend, November 14th-16th at the Fillmore Crossing at 3125 Sinton Rd, Colorado Springs. Works from over 70 artists will be on display w/ all sorts of special musical guests. Check it out.

11.05.08

Matt Moore aka MWM Graphics is showing some new works at the Threadless Gallery in Chicago. The show opens this Friday and runs through December 3rd.

11.05.08

Square Footage is a group show open to all artists in all mediums. All work must be exactly 1 sq. ft. The show goes down this Saturday, Nove 8th from 7-11pm at The Plastic Chapel. Be there.

11.03.08

Andy Rementer’s Freakopolis is opening this Saturday Nov. 8th at Open Space Beacon, the latest venture from ex-Denverites Kalene Rivers and Daniel Weise.

10.30.08

Ah yes, the delicious sounds of Super Mario World for all to hear!

“The complete soundtrack to Super Mario World, covered by one man using dozens of instruments. Roughly in game order, faithful to the originals, with some bizarre artistic license thrown around. A private hobby made public.”

Check it out here.

10.27.08

Lifter Baron breaks down (from afar) a bit of the creative scene in Denver. He’s seein’ some shiny shit ahead… Read up over at Because We Like To. And remember, Lifter’s always watching you.

10.25.08

Bunch is launching their new book Bastardised! Filled with submissions from designers taking their existing logo and remixing/creating their own visual reaction to their logo. Learn more at Made in Bunch and see if you can spot me in the list. And if your in London, Zagreb, or Singapore definitely swing by the launch parties and get first dibs on the book.

London:
31st Oct, 6:30-9:30pm
Maverick Showroom, 68-72 Redchurch Street, London E2 7DP
london@bunchdesign.com

Zagreb:
11th Nov 2008, 8-10pm
Galerija Karas, Praska 4
10 000 Zagreb
zagreb@bunchdesign.com

Singapore: TBA

10.24.08

YWFT is celebrating their new site and 6th anniversary on Saturday, Nov 8th at Clubhouse Jager. Music, dranks, and free giveaways!

10.22.08

come make magnets with the magnet mafia and aiga tonight!! 1330 27th street… 7-10 pm. $5 at the door. learn to stencil, wheatpaste, collage, and other stuff. see you there!

10.22.08

Check out the feature on our man Mike Graves over at Denver Syntax.

10.22.08

Halloween Party at INDYINK - costumes recommended, pumpkin carving contest, candy - and BEER. Yes, tasty BEER.

10.21.08

The Rake interviews Jamey Erickson of Sevnthsin.

10.19.08

A City Renewal Project. Opens November 7, 2008 in Toronto, Canada. This is a collaborative street art installation between Specter and Fauxreel, recreating a decayed neighborhood inside a 4000 sq/ft warehouse space. More info at City Renewal Project

10.15.08

Dan Funderburgh has teamed up with the masterminds at Animal New York and Geekhouse Bikes to create artwork for a Barack track bike. The frame is hand built and the patterns are sublimated onto the frame. The bike is for up on auction on ebay, with all proceeds going to the Obama campaign. Bid on it now. More photos here.

09.30.08

Wes Winship of Burlesque does Obama. Poster will be available soon at Upper Playground, adding to their growing collection of Obamanalia. Keep your eyes peeled for it’s drop. Nice work Wes!

JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

TOOFY

ANDREW STANTON INTERVIEW

STORYTELLING 101

STREET 2 SCREEN!!!

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Happenings