The Nativity
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 20.12.06This past week I had the opportunity to see the film The Nativity.
The intro struck me as rather odd, starting with the slaying of all male children in Bethlehem. Tragic, for sure, and it seemed to steal thunder from the film’s climax. That said, our initiation into the culture of the time is harsh and brutal, as people are hounded and persecuted by the ruling Romans. Women are taken, animals slaughtered, and men crucified by the side of the road. It perfectly sets up the expectant longing for a Messiah, and the political climate that acts as horrific backdrop to this incredible story.
It is easy to see the lengthy research invested in this movie. The rich tapestry acting as backdrop is so beautifully woven. At first I was really thrown by some of the costuming, as according to all of my own research, clothing was quite colourful. Cultures we like to imagine as sirene and aged, walking around in muted browns and dirty whites… were actually a garrish, tumultuous, and riotous conglomeration of vibrancy. However, there is colour in the film! Same with any other production, there’s art direction to the clothing. Our village folk are clean, pure, and the country side is beautifully simplified with various shades of white. As we near the cities, there are splashes of colour everywhere, growing to the riotous expectations of market places and palace intrigues.
Throughout the film, there are references to what Jesus will become and do (“This was to be God’s temple, not a marketplace!”), and things build nicely to culminate in the stable with it’s flawless beam of heavenly starlight. Drawing more from tradition than commonly accepted practicalities, the wisemen arrive minutes after the shepherds amidst the blinding shaft of light falling on the newly born King of Kings. It’s far more likely they arrived two years later (thus coinciding with Herod’s historic command to kill the toddlers, not the newly born children), but keeping things cronologically tight leaves the story nicely tied at the end, as Mary and Joseph flee to Egypt.
I was quite impressed with the landscapes and effects used throughout the film, with some lovely shots of Jerusalem. Watch and see how glorious it would have been to journey there on pilgramige, and see the City of God standing on a hill. Almost all the effects are naturalistic ones; matte paintings, models, environment enhancements. The angel interaction is more limited than the Biblical account found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but still nicely handled. Never complicated, it’s a simple cut between a bird flying over head, and a glowing messenger delivering the most astonishing news ever heard to mankind. “You will bear a Son… Emmanuel…”
Traditional Christmas music is woven in throughout the soundtrack. I rarely found it distracting, and on occasion found it fit perfectly; Carol of the Bells lends surprising immediacy during the frantic search for a room as Mary’s labor pains become worse. It’s a better scene than I would have expected, which I think can be said for much of the film. Though not easily approached purely as film, it works well as a nativity; it is the traditional story (though maybe not strictly historical nor Biblically accurate in all respects) come to life. It’s good, and I found myself emotionally tied to Joseph as the Son is born, and he finds himself witness to the greatest event in the history of the universe.
God, become Man, to save us…
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France 24
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 10.12.06Daily Motion could be called, I suppose, the French YouTube. Not quite as big socially, but better quality compression. And more of an international flavour, content wise. It was here that I came across this promo for France 24. Solid class, european ads have to be some of my favorites!
France 24 is the latest French news source, watch the official clip to see how they’re taking news to the net by inviting webcam users to submit questions for world leaders being interviewed. RocketBoom has a pretty cool video detailing their visit to France 24’s production studio in Paris.
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Ellery
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 9.12.06With perfect timing, a friend of mine invited me to a concert tonight. It was at the Rohs Street Cafe, featuring the two person group Ellery.
Rohs Street Cafe is a bit out of the way, but certainly worth it. The prices were good, the drinks amazing, and the atmosphere really cool. I had a sesame seed and honey latte; a beverage I would have never thought of, nor expected to be so good! Jeremy is writing up a review in Phlegon’s Blog, so I won’t spend too much time describing it, save to mention it’s built in an old house; probably my favorite type of coffee shop. Old architecture and coffee house mix very well.
Ellery was awesome, I highly recommend visiting their website and listening to some of the samples! And keep in mind, they’re even better live. The audience was enthusiastic, though a bit slow to join in on the few Christmas songs. Even the opening artist was great; the brilliant guitarist Aaron Jones. Talking with him afterwards, he said he was a bit nervous opening with solely instrumental music, but everyone loved it.
Just getting back from Michigan in the past week or so, Ellery plays in a few of the surrounding states this month. By February they’ll be making their way out to Minnisota, so be sure to check if they’re any where near your area! Yes, I highly recommend it.
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Hem
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 6.12.06It always makes me sad when I discover an amazing Indie band merely because they’ve finally gained larger audiences. They were amazing before, why can’t people find them?
Ben Wolken recently gave me the heads up on Hem. As a modern folk band, they’re one of the best I’ve heard. Similar in acoustic themes to Nickel Creek, but with more classical, country, and pop influences (if that makes sense). They’ve just recently garnered a lot of popularity with the Liberty Mutual Ad. While discussing what music to use, someone at the Hill|Holliday advertising company brought up Hem, and suggested they listen a bit. Needless to say, it was the perfect sound for the commercial, and they procured rights to a song from Hem’s 2001 Rabbit Songs.
The selected song, Half Acre, is just incredible. Not much more to say; the instrumentals, the vocals, it all comes together with haunting beauty. No wonder everyone’s suddenly clamoring to find out more about this band! You can listen to a couple tracks (including Half Acre) on Hem’s MySpace page, or go through some of their live recordings courtesy the Live Music Archive and a compilation list by Duke of Straw.
Enjoy!
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Changes Coming
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 3.12.06The Iaian7 blog will be moving to a dedicated domain setup, so no longer will you be seeing “www.symboleffects.com/iaian7/...” I highly recommend double checking your bookmarks, as the correct URL should simply be http://iaian7.com (or http://www.iaian7.com, if you prefer).
The links will also change from messy (index.php?s=blog) to section based (iaian7.com/blog). I’ll try to contact blogs that have linked to me in the past and make sure everything’s updated.
I’m terribly sorry this wasn’t done from the start, but previous hosting limitations were… limiting. After the migration to Feedburner a couple of weeks ago for RSS and Atom feeds (and MyYahoo, and Google Reader, and iTunes, and…), and now this dedicated domain, it should be the last major change for quite some time.
Thanks so much!
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Apple's Advertising
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 3.12.06If you haven’t seen the latest iPod Shuffle ad, do so now! Fun, clean, and elegantly bold design. I had to go through frame by frame a few times before I was sufficiently satisfied it wasn’t done by beings from another dimension. Compositing is, I’m happy to announce, still done by humans. And green screens, though possibly gray screens, since that’s what I’m seeing in a few of the edge errors. Oh well, they’re still working some hot stuff!
It’s been interesting to see Apple’s designs played out through much of culture, and I’m anxious to see what styles they’ll be working on next. We’re already seeing more emphasis on texture in some of the iPod ads, and while the luxurious simplicity holds for now, things seem to be gaining a bit of depth and richness. Slightly odd to see them as a “trend setter”, but since few other companies place such importance on design, I don’t see the title going to anyone else. Can’t say I’m upset, though, Apple design rocks.
Sadly, the continuing series of “I’m a Mac / I’m a PC” ads have stooped to even further depths of hypocritical mire. Though I don’t disagree with the horrors of advertising ploys (dirty, dirty starbursts…), Apple should know better than prey upon them with… well, merely more advertising ploys. Sigh.
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Trailers
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 3.12.06We have a new trailer for Hot Fuzz! This one is a bit longer, gives a much better overview of the movie, and promises plenty of off the wall action. Not only do we get the return of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Bill Nighy, all of whom were in Shaun of the Dead... but Jim Broadbent (_Chronicles of Narnia_) and Paddy Considine (_In America_) as well! Can’t wait to see another great British comedy, bloody good fun!
From the same distribution company (Working Title Films), we have Smoking Aces. While this could easily be similar to last years’ Domino (and judging from the trailer, this may not be too far off), I’m hoping for the best. Some cool people producing, and while yes, Afleck is in it, perhaps it can still be fun? I love the concept of battling hit men (and women), but if craziness isn’t your style, you might want to walk on.
The Architect seems to be a very interesting movie. How often do we get to see strong character pieces revolving around government housing? Not to mention, it involves an architect. I really hope this film can rise above political messages and stand as a compelling, emotional, and less encumbered story. There’s a lot of potential here and hate to see it weighed down by too many messages. Just a couple would be great.
Closing this weeks latest trailers would be Mimzy, billed as a “Family Sci-Fi” movie. I’m really not sure how that works, since it seems more along the lines of, say, Poltergeist. Yeah, there are kids, but it starts off with a palm reader, and ends with “This is Mimzy, she’s my teacher… She teaches me everything.” I’m thoroughly creeped out now.
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Official words
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 29.11.06The entire Apple-sues-podcasters thing was a bit silly, since it was specifically stated they had nothing against users of the term “podcast.” It still frightened a few people, but a recent Digg article has the latest correspondence from Apple.
Good to know, I suppose, that our podcasts are safe for a little while longer. Hopefully the silly fanaticism surrounding “netcast” will die. Not only is it dreadfully inaccurate for podcasts (since a netcast could be any RSS-fed media type), but it’s a sad replacement for a word that’s been in the vernacular for quite some time and in the dictionary for over a year.
In other Digg oriented news, we have another fun Google Maps location (no, not more naked people!). Evidently one can find the FireFox logo as a crop circle (go ahead, zoom in).
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Rendering
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 27.11.06
And the work continues… a total of 28 G5 processors, all 2.3Ghz or faster, and four straight days of rendering. Things are mostly done for a set of animations I’m working on. Whooo! I’ll leave you with a screen shot I took last week while testing the render network. Story of my life… four processors maxed out, and often multiple programs rendering at a time!
(For any Lightwave users out there, the most in-depth ScreamerNet tutorial I’ve found is by DreamLight Interactive)
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Tyranny in China
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 20.11.06Watch the video on Metacafe.
About a minute and a half into it, you see a man covered in burn scars… “human rights are more important that living.” And this is in Beijing, not too long ago a free city.
Also chilling are the comments to follow, this one from a Canadian: “You Americans built your country on democracy and freedom, don’t let the pursuit of money destroy what set you apart from the rest of the world.”
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