Deep Focus: Freedom of movement in eight of the greatest long takes ever

We tend to remember long takes that call attention to themselves as such: the opening shots of “Touch of Evil” or “The Player”; the entrance to the Copacabana in “GoodFellas”; all those shots in Romanian movies, and pictures directed by Bela Tarr and Jia Zhangke… And then there are the ones you barely notice because your eyes have been guided so effortlessly around the frame, or you’ve been given the freedom to explore it on your own, or you’ve simply gotten so involved in the rhythms of the scene, the interplay between the characters, that you didn’t notice how long the shot had been going on.

For this compilation, “Deep Focus,” I’ve chosen eight shots I treasure (the last two I regard as among the finest in all of cinema). They’re not all strictly “deep focus” shots, but they do emphasize three-dimensionality in their compositions. I’ve presented them with only minimal identifications so you can simply watch them and see what happens without distraction or interruption. Instead, I’ve decided to write about them below. Feel free to watch the clips and then re-watch (freeze-frame, rewind, replay) the clips to see what you can see. To say they repay re-viewing is an understatement.

via blogs.suntimes.com

Go read the rest of the article and watch the compilation again.

Penguin Classics team up with (RED) for typographic covers

Penguin has collaborated with AIDS awareness fund (RED) and a team of designers to produce new covers for eight Penguin Classics. Each cover replaces the usual black band with red, employing a quote from the text of the book as the visual hit (covers by Coralie Bickford-Smith shown left and Non-Format, right)…

While a repackaging isn’t something the Classics series is necessarily crying out for, we particularly like the way that this small run of eight titles has been handled – with the typographic designs occasionally encroaching over the (RED)-inspired band and the link with the organisation brought out in the bracketing of the Penguin Classics identity. Jim Stoddart, art director of Penguin Press plans to use a different typographer for each cover commission and more are planned in the near future.

via creativereview.co.uk

Click on the link above to see the whole series. Fantastic.

Nike's Write The Future - It is called World Cup for a reason

Epic.

Orson Welles' "The War of the Worlds"

via sounds.mercurytheatre.info

If you’ve never heard it, not it’s your chance to catch up with this classic.

The Evolution of Storytelling - A TEDx Talk by Sean Stewart

via youtube.com

Sean Stewart is an award-winning science fiction novelist, a groundbreaking figure in transmedia storytelling, and one of the most experienced and influential writer of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) in the world. He was an integral part of the creative team behind the ARGs “The Beast” for the film “AI” and “I Love Bees” for the game Halo.

Transmedia, deep media, cross media, whatever you call it, stories being so compelling they transcends the method of delivery have been around for thousands of years. With so many new technologies that interconnect everything a good story is very important for any message to get across.

We’ve only just begun to explore the many new ways in which a story can be told in the twenty first century.