The City of London, which predates London, isn't really a part of London. Whao this is fascinating.
The Secret City of London inside of London City
5 - Murals Created with Thousands of Buttons, Pins and Beads
A stunning hybrid of painting and sculpture, these murals from Ran Hwang involve thousands and thousands of pins, beads and buttons.
5 things I learned July 23, 2012
my 5 - Contemporary Directors - Celso Bessa
Ryan's note: Thanks so much to Celso Bessa for our first my 5 post. How does his list of interesting contemporary directors match to yours? We would love to hear from you in the comments.
I love the movies that surprise and challenge me. Most of film directors don't dare too much these days - maybe it’s their lack talent, maybe it's a market thing or maybe they're lazy, I don't know - but, luckily, there are directors, indie and mainstream, that still try to make things in different ways.
So, here you will find My 5 interesting contemporary directors.
The list is in no specific order.
1 - Danny Boyle
What I like most about Danny Boyle is that he directs what I call disguised-genre movies. He takes a genre, keeps the basic story and genre rules and explores them in creative ways and makes you believe that you are watching a genre X movie, but by the end you notice that you just watched a very different movie.
His signature style is based on unusual angles, agile image editing, eclectic soundtracks and great emotional dynamics between characters - whether they are a tribe of outsiders, 3 orphans living in the streets or a guy alone, stuck to a rock in a Canyon.
Select filmography:
2 - Chris Nolan
He's capable of making true what is fantastic in nature. And he does that with such a sense of narrative.In all of his movies, he keeps your attention all the way long and usually deliver us great climax or plot twists, making our jaws dropping. But it happens less by the fact per se, and rather, because of the way you were led and geniously tricked all the way along or how strong is delivered. And yet, you don't think he's cheating you.
Select filmography:
- Momento
- Batman Begins
- The Dark Knight
- The Dark Knight Rises
- The Prestige
- Inception
3 - José Padilha
His storytelling is bold and realistic, and probably this happens because his career balances documentary and fiction. And his fictional movies are strongly based in research and reality, so, you don't know where fiction begins and documentary ends.
He's studiend politics and economics in Brazil and international politics in Oxford, but he's known for directing Elite Squad and Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within. Both inteligent and dramatic action movies, with high level of realism of the relationship between criminal, police, violence, political corruption and brazilian society, in all of his levels. It's like blending together Dennis Hopper's Colors (1988), Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down (2001), Martins Scorsese's The Departed (2006) and Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (2000).
And this guy is directing the remake of Robocop. Can you imagine that?
Selected Filmography
- Bus 174 (Documentary)
- Elite Squad
- Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
- Robocop
4 - Guillermo Del Toro
You gotta have nerves of steel to see Del Toro's movies. If you a bad ass, you will cry. If you touchy... you gotta drink a lot of water because you will dehydrate crying.
No other director will make you thrilled, touched and nervous like him in movies such as Cronos, The Devil's Backbone (the best ghost movie i've ever seen), Blade II (ok, i give you that: you will not cry, but it's the best of the trilogy), Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth. And he does that with a great aesthetics. Their movies are beautifully photographed and usually his movies won prizes for Art Direction: they are gorgeous. Great movies for you eyes, brains and hearts.
And, take a look at the movies he chose to direct: The Devil's Backbone, Pinocchio, Pacific Rim, 2008 Hellboy II, Pan's Labyrinth, almost directed one of the upcoming The Hobbit and wanted to directed the cancelled In the At the Mountains of Madness.
Selected Filmography
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army
- Pan's Labyrinth
- Hellboy
- Blade II
- The Devil's Backbone
- Cronos
5 - Miranda July
She has only directed 2 feature movies. Both of them are strong, and yet, simple movies, about the strong, and yet, simple things of life.
She writes, produces, directs and stars her own movies, movies that could be your life and the life you see when you watch outside your window. Her storytelling style is realistic, but in a more subtle way, with natural performances - including showing mundane and weird things we do in our lives. And by doing that, she shows how great life is: it can be fun, it can be melancholic, it can be sad, it can be boring, it can be fantastic.
Filmography
- The Future
- Me and You and Everyone We Know
That's it.
my 5 is a series brought to us from the incredibly interesting readers/friends. If you have a point of view that you want to share in your own my 5, drop us a line.
Celso Bessa
Besides being a compulsive reader, music listener and movie addict, Celso Bessa is Brazilian and prefers to build bridges than walls. He is a digital entrepreneaur, co-founder and Beer Geek in Chief at www.2aces.com.br.
1 - Awesome Slow Motion Aerial Footage of Motorcycles Flying Through the Air
Using Sony's FS700 attached to a remote controlled helicopter, the CopterKids are able to show of these super slow-mo hi-def sequences.
2 - Mario snowland
3 - Football animated with only string
String animation is like gesture drawing, or writing haiku. And here it's about footie, so yay! I must be excited that the English Premier League is starting up soon. And if you are interested I do host a Fantasy.Premierleague.com campaign. Leave a comment and I'll tell you how to join.
4 - The Kalesh, a distinctive aboriginal tribe of Pakistan's Hindu Kush
The current cultural and ethnic distribution across Eurasia may give the appearance of inevitablity, but from the Tocharian mummies in western China (read more ) to the Central Asian Alans settling in western France, there is a much more complex and interesting story to discover.
The modern-day Kalesh are a stunning, human testemant to this complexity.
Graphic design and optical illusions come to life in the work of Takahiro Kurashima
5 - Poemotion Interactive Book Object
With what seems an elegantly simple set of visual and technical elements, Art Director Takahiro Kurashima creates beautifully striking visual effects.
1 - Within Two Worlds
Timelapse, yeah, still not sick of it. Especially when it captures things like star tracks, which I could never see with just my eyes.
2 - The Great Wall of China is many things
The part of the Great Wall we most often see is just a small portion of this enormous and old structure. In its span, it ranges from majestic to barely there.
3 - 50 days 50 meals
It is actually a project to share a meal, meet and learn about 50 strangers all around the world. It is still in the process. Looks like it is in Day 20 or so.
4 - Run Puma Run
5 - Meet the Superhumans
This promo film for the Paralympics, also in London this summer, is moving, inspiring and awesome.
Photographer Identifies The Original Locations Of Vinyl Album Covers In NYC
What a great project! I wish there were more! I wanna try to do this in Los Angeles.
2 - Stunning Photos of Europe’s Most Beautiful Libraries
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need”
Here's the library parts of that equation. I know there are some other incredibly stunning ones. Anyone remember that one in Scandinavia I think with the big curved wall of books?
3 - Quadcopter Captures the Essence of Detroit
Strapping a GoPro to a quadrotor is a GREAT idea. Detroit is the first place I've seen to get this treatment.
4 - Olympic Athletes in Training
London 2012 is nearly here. This set of photos had some surprises for me. I didn't know that Women's Boxing was making a debut. I hadn't really thought about how few athletes some countries are able to support and how much long and pride get put behind those few athletes.
5 - Striking photos of car burnouts by Simon Davidson
Photographer Simon Davis has this amazing set of car burnouts which are simultaneous macho and graceful (not that the two are necessarily opposed). Balletics of smoke and machine.
1 - Art of Motion
Capturing bodies in motion with long exposure photos so often leads to stunning imagery. This set is no different. I really like how it looks at both dancers, acrobats and athletes.
