Talented music video director Garth Jennings (who also made the film Son of Rambow) turns his camera on Vampire Weekend, for the band’s new video. It’s for their single “Cousins,” the first new track from the group’s upcoming sophomore LP. Catchy song, inventive video:
(Pretty tight early sketch of the Queen of Hearts, from the upcoming Alice in Wonderland.)
On Wednesday night, I made my way over to MoMA for one of the sneak previews for their massive Tim Burton exhibit (which officially opens on November 22 and closes on April 26). A tribute to the iconic and popular and divisive film director/animator, this exhibit is probably one of the best ideas that a museum has ever had (and, yes, I understand museums have been around for a long time). What, at first, you assume might just be props and costumes from Burton’s dream-like films (Beetlejuice, Sweeney Todd), turns into much more as you realize how passionately imaginative Burton has been about his process. Adorning the walls of the exhibit are countless sketches and drafts of his characters, whether it be a wholly original creation like Edward Scissorhands or his own interpretation on the Mad Hatter (for his upcoming Alice In Wonderland adaptation). There are so many reasons why this show is a great idea. Perhaps at the forefront is the fact that when Burton wasn’t creating new characters, he was reinventing cultural landmarks like comic book heroes or childrens’ book stories. So, even when he’s remaking Planet of the Apes, it’s an offbeat kind of pop art.
(A napkin sketch of the title character from Burton’s Sweeney Todd.)
(An early watercolor painting of The Joker from Batman. Slightly different than what Jack Nicholson ended up doing with the character.)
Plus, there are examples of other characters and creations that never made it into one of his films, a glimpse into brainstorming that could maybe one day be a new animated or live-action feature work. Or, maybe these sketches will just live forever as self-contain scraps of paper, like a musician’s lost tapes or an author’s unfinished chapter. Regardless of the art’s place in Tim Burton’s day job as a film director, these pieces exist as a separate body of work. The MoMA exhibit runs in chronological order, depicting childhood dreams while he grew up in Burbank through his topsy-turvy career from commercial success (Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas) to undeserved commercial failure (Mars Attacks). The inspiration seems to come from Mexican Day of the Dead artwork, blended with B-movie special effects. And, being that this is coming from someone with such an absurd sense of humor as Burton, it’s probably important not to dissect the work too seriously. As he has claimed, very little of this collection was created with an eye towards exhibition. It’s just art he made, some of it in his spare time while stumbling onto visionary ideas. But that’s also what makes this show such a treat, and a rare event.
(A behind-the-scenes video where Tim Burton discusses the MoMA exhibit)
Super-talented commercials and music video director Keith Scofield (he of the amazing “Toe Jam” clip) has returned with his latest project: a nonsense-laden, but beautiful, video for the new Charlotte Gainsbourg single “Heaven Can Wait.” Gainsbourg is joined in the video, and on the song, by Beck. Check it out:
Thom Andersen’s epic and fantastic 2003 documentary, Los Angeles Plays Itself, is screening in New York this weekend as part of a series at the 92Y Tribeca called “Not Coming to a Theater Near You.” This beloved doc - a portrait of how Los Angeles has been portrayed in cinematic history - will probably never come to any commercial release near anyone. The reason: clip licensing, since the entire film is a montage of various film segments. Which is too bad, because it’s a great viewing experience for fans of film, Los Angeles, or American history. Take this opportunity, on Saturday night, to see the film while you can.
Thanks in large part to Hulu and Netflix Watch Instantly, broadband streaming of film and TV content has doubled since last year. According to a report by Parks Associates, “More than 20 million U.S. households with broadband access regularly watch movies online, while more than 25 million households watch TV shows.” This is about twice as much from the same time in 2008, a growth that has been bolstered thanks to more connectivity to the household television monitor via devices like Blu-ray disc players, Xbox, Playstation, and Roku boxes. More from a Video Businessarticle on the findings:
Hulu.com, the long-form video site launched last year by News Corp. and NBC Universal, gained share of the U.S. online video market in September, the most recent month tracked, leapfrogging Microsoft and Viacom Digital in online-video popularity in the process, ComScore said earlier this month. Overall, Americans watched 26 billion online videos in September, up 2.4% from August, ComScore said.
Meanwhile, Netflix last month said that 42% of its 11.1 million subscribers streamed at least one of its digital titles, up from 22% a year earlier. Amazon.com and Blockbuster also are among content distributors broadening both their array of digital titles and the number of components that can make them viewable on televisions.
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