Superhero Splatter Art

Canadian artist Melissa Smith has created a series called 'Splatter Art', which includes comic book and video game characters. Here are some of her works featuring the splattered superheroes Batman, Spider-Man, and The Avengers.

 

Splatter Art

[via DesignTAXI]

Vintage-Style Street Map Features Over 900 Film Titles

UK-based design studio Dorothy has created a map with over 900 film titles as street names, parks, lakes, and other features. Loosely based on the style of a vintage Los Angeles street map, the 'Film Map' features a patch of grass called Jurassic Park, with Lake Placid and The Temple of Doom in it. It also features a large stretch of water called Reservoir Dogs, with Shutter Island and The Island of Dr. Moreau in the middle. An A-Z key at the base of the map lists all of the films featured along with their release dates and directors.

Dorothy

[via Creative Review]

Film Festival Posters Provide Recipes for Movies

These posters for the New York International Latino Film Festival (which runs from August 13th-19th) show what you can expect from different movies like chick flicks, spaghetti westerns, and buddy cop movies. The 'movie recipe' illustrations highlight predictable plots and feature the tagline: "Some movies are easy to make. Films are a different story."

New York International Latino Film Festival

[via My Modern Met]

Watch Alan Rickman make a cup of tea

Tea-making isn't usually all that interesting but when Alan Rickman does it, it becomes epic. This super-slow-motion video shows him sitting making a cup of tea, before dramatically throwing it and pushing his table over. It was created by the artist David Michalek for his series Portraits in Dramatic Time.

David Michalek

[via Huffington Post]

Famous movie posters shown from different angles

Advertising agency Y&R in Brazil created these alternative movie posters for a campaign by LG, whose new Home Theater 3D Sound System claims to give you "every side of the sound". Well-known movie posters for Forrest Gump, Pretty Woman and Kill Bill were turned around to show the images from different angles.

[via Ads of the World]

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Create stop-motion videos with the 'Lego Super Hero Movie Maker' app

The Lego Super Hero Movie Maker app lets you make your own movies starring Lego DC Universe Super Heroes on your iPhone. You can shoot stop-motion videos, edit, add title cards and a score, and then share your creation online.

The free, child-friendly app can be used to capture shots before moving your figures slightly and taking another photo, repeating the process until your movie is finished. You can add and delete frames, choose from 5 different soundtracks, add a color filter to the images, and pick from 11 Lego Super Heroes title cards. Check out the great tutorial below:





Lego Super Hero Movie Maker
[via Comics Alliance]

The floating cinema at Thailand's Film on the Rocks festival

German-born architect Ole Scheeren designed this auditorium raft Archipelago Cinema, for the inaugural Film on the Rocks Yao Noi festival in Thailand earlier this month. Guests were taken by boat to the floating cinema in the Nai Pi Lae lagoon on Kudu Island where they were treated to a unique viewing experience.

"Surrounded by a dramatic landscape of towering rocks emerging from the ocean, the audience experienced an atmospheric convergence of nature and cinematic narratives - primordial notions of light, sound and stories suspended in the darkness between sea and sky."

The festival, which was curated by filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul and actress Tilda Swinton, is set to become an annual meeting place for art and film.

Archipelago Cinema

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Review: Near Dark

Near Dark is a vampire Western from 1987, co-written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Point Break). The film marked her first solo directorial effort and although it wasn’t a big hit at the box office, it has become something of a cult classic thanks to its performances, genre fusing and unusual portrayal of vampires. The film stars Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein and Joshua John Miller.

Read my review at Suite101: A Review of Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark

Review: Serenity

Serenity is a science fiction film written and directed by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel), who created the much-missed TV series Firefly, which features the same characters and takes place in the same universe. Unfortunately it lasted only 14 episodes but its strong DVD sales and large fan-base led to the team reuniting for a cinema release. The film stars Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Read my review at Suite101: A Review of Joss Whedon's Sci-Fi Movie Serenity

Review: Saint

Fantasy horror movie Saint was written and directed by Dutch filmmaker Dick Maas, and depicts St. Nicholas as a murderous bishop. Originally titled Sint in the Netherlands and called Saint Nick for the US DVD release, it tells the story of a killer Santa-like figure who kidnaps and murders when there is a full moon on December 5th. The film stars Huub Stapel, Egbert Jan Weeber, Caro Lenssen and Bert Luppes.

Read my review at Suite101: A Review of the Fantasy Horror Movie Saint

Indie Songwriter Releases Album About Movies

Henning Goes to the Movies is a concept album recorded and produced by New England songwriter Henning Ohlenbusch at Rub Wrongways records. The album features nine songs, each written about a different film: Joe Versus the Volcano, The Straight Story, Poltergeist, The Year my Voice Broke, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Logan's Run, Superbad, Amelie, and Meatballs. 

The songs describe how the films have impacted Henning and the memories they've left him with. The indie songwriter sings all of the parts and plays all of the instruments except for the drums on Amelie (Brian Marchese). He has a conversational, relaxed style and the songs are melodic and melancholic. The gentle tunes often feature a strumming acoustic guitar and the lines remind you of events in the films. From the haunting Poltergeist: "Lightning flashes shadows on my bedroom wall...feels like the thunder is looking for me", to the lyrics of Amelie: "My apartment might seem real tragic. I'm sitting here scheming secretly, part of me dreaming this magic might find its way back to me."

Henning Goes to the Movies is an enjoyable listen even if you haven't seen the films he sings about. If you have, they lead you on a journey, causing you to remember the film and identify with the mood and spirit of the tracks. Henning writes on the back of the album:

"Like everything in life, movies are experienced differently by each viewer. On this record, I tried to express in music how these nine films impacted me personally. At the outset, I established one rule: I was not allowed to revisit a film until I composed and recorded the song that it inspired me to write. In this way, I hope that each piece genuinely conveys the ways in which each movie has stuck with me throughout the years."

Henning Goes to the Movies

Red Bull Presents Snowboarding Film 'The Art of FLIGHT'

Following 2008′s snowboarding documentary That’s It, That’s All, director Curt Morgan’s new film The Art of FLIGHT is a sports action adventure that follows some of the most talented snowboarders on their quest to open up unexplored corners of the world.

Presented by Red Bull Media House, in association with Brain Farm Digital Cinema, the film features snowboarders Travis Rice, John Jackson, Mark Landvik, Scotty Lago, Jake Blauvelt, Nicolas Muller, DCP, Pat Moore, Eero Niemela and Jeremy Jones.

The film has been two years in the making, using the most advanced and progressive filmmaking technology to shoot on location in places like Jackson Hole, Alaska, Chile, Aspen, Patagonia and British Columbia. This high-energy snowboarding action film sees new tricks landed and remote areas opened up, as well as accidents, avalanches and wrong turns on the mountains.

The Art of FLIGHT was released last month and the filmmakers and stars are on a world tour with the film throughout October and November. Here is the trailer:

The Art of FLIGHT

[Written for PSFK. Article originally posted here]

Artist Launches 'Film' Exhibition at the Tate Modern

"I've turned the Turbine Hall into a strip of film," said British artist Tacita Dean as she unveiled her exhibition at Tate Modern this week. The piece, entitled Film, is an 11-minute silent film that celebrates 35mm filmmaking and features images of snails, bubbles, balloons, clocks and fountains. The looped film is projected onto a 13 metre high monolith and looks like a filmstrip, with sprocket holes down each side.

Dean's exhibition was commissioned as part of the Unilever series. She created it using classic in-camera and studio techniques like double exposure, superimpositions and glass-matte painting, even hand-tinting some of the images herself. It runs until 11 March 2012 in the Turbine Hall, and admission is free.

Via: BBC News

Adjustment Team & The Adjustment Bureau

My article for Suite 101, Adjustment Team and It's Movie Adaptation The Adjustment Bureau, looks at Philip K. Dick's sci-fi short story and the film it inspired, including the similarities and differences between the original material and George Nolfi's adaptation.

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The adult cast of the Harry Potter film series

The eight Harry Potter movies feature lots of talented actors and actresses. In a three-part article for Suite 101, I looked at the star-studded cast from the series. You can read them here: Harry Potter and the Great British and Irish Cast - Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Representation Of Mental Illness in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Milos Forman's 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, starring Jack Nicholson, follows a new inmate at a mental institution and his experiences with the other patients and the staff. In an article for Suite 101, which was chosen as a Featured Article in the Classic Films section, I examined how the characters in the institution were portrayed and how they were treated. You can read this article here: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Representation of Mental Illness.

Run Lola Run's Three Act Structure

The German film Run Lola Run, directed by Tom Tykwer, is made up of three separate acts. I have examined the similarities and differences between them in my article - Run Lola Run: Three Films in One. These then led me to question whether Lola learns from the previous acts and develops through the course of the film. I analyse this question in another article - Run Lola Run: Does She Learn From Her Mistakes? Check them out, but watch the film first as they go into some detail about the story and the events that take place.

Wilhelm Scream article

The Wilhelm Scream is one of the most famous and recognisable stock sound effects used in cinema. I wrote an article about the history of the scream for New Empress magazine called Sheb Wooley: King of Screams. 

"A Stormtrooper is shot by Luke Skywalker and falls into the depths of the Death Star. Buzz Lightyear is knocked out of a bedroom window. Indiana Jones crashes into a band in a nightclub. Legolas climbs a Mumakil and throws one of its riders to the ground. Chances are you’ve viewed all of these popular movie moments more than once but did you recognise their common denominator? A high-pitched, drawn-out, comedic scream that unites over 200 films, TV shows and video games over the past 60 years including numerous Hollywood blockbusters."

You can read the full article here. Also, check out this awesome YouTube montage of clips featuring the scream:

Vietnam War Films

Vietnam war films are often action-packed and emotional. I have written a series of articles for Suite 101 that examine whether the tragic events in three Hollywood films are always viewed from an American perspective with a disregard for Vietnamese losses:

• Platoon

• The Deer Hunter

• Apocalypse Now 

Film as propaganda and the oppositions in a classic Western

Went the Day Well? is a wartime film that was used to help the Ministry of Information's campaign and warnings against complacency during the second World War. My article Went the Day Well? An Effective Propaganda Film examines the messages it gave to the public at a time when there was an ongoing threat of German invasion.

I have also written two articles about one of John Ford's classic Westerns, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: Visual Oppositions and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: Thematic Oppositions look at the recurrence of opposites, both in elements of the films' mise en scène and its themes.