© Obsidian Ross (via Youtube)
Producer Jesse Eisenberge talks about the documentation The World Before Your Feet which follows Matt Green walking every part (8000 miles in the last six years) of New York City. I love the premise of this.
© Disney (via YouTube)
A six episodes long documentary series about the legendary visual effects house Industrial Light & Magic? YES PLEASE! (coming July 27 to Disney+)
© Warner Bros. Entertainment (via YouTube)
I’ve shared video essays about the astonishing Sound and the innovative VFX, as well as a short compilation with some of the most beautiful shots from Denis Villeneuve’s incredible Dune –or rather the first part of his adaptation– before, so you already know how much I admire this cinematic sci-fi epos from 2021. Here’s another behind-the-scenes video, this time the focus is set on the great costume design. Otherworldly Wears indeed.
© Bo Burnham
filmed from march 2020-may 2021. edited from april 2022-may 2022.
I’ve already expressed my admiration for the masterpiece that is last year’s ‘Inside’ by Bo Burnham, but yesterday the comedian, musician, actor, director, and filmmaker surprisingly released an accompanying new video on YouTube called The Inside Outtakes.
The title is a little misleading though since it does not only contains outtakes in the classical sense, but a lot of making-of and behind the scenes material as well as some unreleased –mostly pretty great– songs entirely cut from the finished program.
In fact, Burnham put together the additional video over the last two months in a similarly meticulous style and it even has a longer runtime than the main piece itself. Apparently, there’ll be a deluxe version of the music album –with just the songs from Inside– soon, too. Yes please! 🤍
Unfortunately, the video can’t be embedded, but only be watched on YouTube:
© The Beauty Of (via Youtube)
Some shots from one of my favourite movies, 2021’s fantastic interpretation of Frank Herberts Dune by Denis Villeneuve.
© Fame Focus (via YouTube)
Recently I received the beautiful behind-the-scenes book “The Art and Soul of Dune“, so I’ve been searching for and soaking in every making-of about Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi masterpiece I managed to get my hands on lately.
Besides the already mentioned amazing Sound of Dune, I particularly found this one about the practical effects and the huge challenges caused by filming in the desert quite interesting: Dune 2021’s “Sand Screen” Method VFX Breakdown
© A24 (via YouTube)
A beloved character gets his big-screen debut in this hilarious and heartwarming story about finding connection in the smallest corners.
Another wonderful Trailer from A24 —I’ve mentioned The Beach and Everything Everywhere All At Once not long ago, this time it seems to be more of a heartwarming –albeit still a bit weird– family film: Marcel The Shell With Shoes On.
A24 has a great track record lately: I’m still bummed I missed The Green Knight in the cinema, C’mon C’mon by Mike Mills is pretty high on my current watchlist, and the trailer for the new movie by Alex Garland, Men, looks –and sounds– great, as well.
© Patrick Tomasso (via YouTube)
As –hopefully– established already, I’m a huge fan of not only movies but especially cinema. And even though I’m not creating (very much) video content myself and I don’t think I will ever create something for the so-called big screen, I always enjoy learning about what makes a movie great and how it was archived.
Fairly recently I shared a wonderful video about the astonishing sound of Dune, this time it’s this great video essay ‘Why The Batman Is So Beautiful‘ by Patrick Tomasso about the visual grittiness of ‘The Batman’ by Director Matt Reeves and cinematographer Greig Fraser.
Related: If you are into movies and cinema yourself I recommend the documentary Netflix series VOIR. Produced by David Fincher and David Prior, it’s a wonderful ode to the big screen and the craft of filmmaking told through visual essays and personal stories of movie lovers.
© A24 (via YouTube)
Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, the film is a hilarious and big-hearted sci-fi action adventure about an exhausted Chinese American woman who can’t seem to finish her taxes.
I have no context on this movie beyond its description, but once again A24 got me hooked with an amazingly crafted trailer, this time for Everything Everywhere All At Once.
This interpretation of the idea of a “multiverse” looks really charming, I would love to watch it unfold on the big screen.
Related: Why movie theaters aren’t dead yet (a video-essay on YouTube from Vox)
© SoundWorks Collection (via YouTube)
The Sound of Dune provides some insights on how the truly marvellous soundscape was designed that accompanies the absolutely astonishing visuals of the recent screen adaptation of Dune.
I’m going to write a long-form essay –like the one about Her– on director Denis Villeneuve’s latest masterpiece, after having seen it more than once, but for now, I’m just leaving this here alongside my strong recommendation to go watch it on the big screen. This is exactly the material movie theatres are made for.
soundworkscollection.com/post/the-sound-of-dune-with-director-denis-villeneuve-and-sound-team
© A24 (via YouTube)
This Thanksgiving, the A24 Screening Room invites viewers to spend a week at The Beach, in a new kind of sensory viewing experience that transcends traditional television.
Not much context on this one, I just really enjoy this trailer for The Beach —not to confuse with the Danny Boyle movie of the same name from 2000. It’s mesmerizing, ominous and a little bit strange, but not as weird as Lamb, another recent trailer by publisher A24.
Given the fact I really like some of the movies the company has put out in the past –2015’s Ex Machina is one of my favourite sci-fi movies for example and I’m still pretty mad I missed The Green Knight when it was playing in cinemas earlier this year– I’m intrigued to find out more soon.
Ted Lasso
»If the Lasso way is wrong, it’s hard to imagine being right.«
Thanks to the many streaming services producing original shows for their programs, we are living in the golden era of TV series. Large-scale projects with a ludicrous production value and great writing à la ‘The Mandalorian’, ‘Dark’, ‘Mr. Robot’, ‘The Witcher’, ‘Mindhunter’, ‘Black Mirror’ or ‘Stranger Things’ used to be very rare back in the days of classic television, let alone the exceptional niche projects like ‘Love Death + Robots‘, ‘Abstract’ or Bo Burnham’s ‘Inside‘. [the last not being a series, I know, but can’t mention this marvelous piece of art often enough]
By contrast, there hasn’t been much original comedic content I’ve gotten really enthusiastic about from those services —besides some of the Netflix stand-up specials and maybe ‘How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)’. That being said, it’s great to have wide access to the beloved sitcoms initially produced for television, such as ‘Modern Family’, ‘Life In Pieces’, ‘Community’ and the best sitcom of all time –and one of my favourite series altogether– ‘Scrubs’.
Only recently I became aware of a new show developed by its creator Bill Lawrence –for Apple’s streaming service, unfortunately– called Ted Lasso. It’s centered around a pre-existing character, which was created by Jason Sudeikis over a decade ago for a stage program and later adapted for a series of promotional clips from broadcaster NBC Sports, before it became the lead character in the show of the same name in 2020.
Its underlying story is quickly summarized: Rebecca Welton hires American Football coach Ted Lasso to train her football –being soccer, not the American sport– club ‘AFC Richmond’ so that he’d fail miserably and ruin the Premier League team in the long run. In doing so she hopes to get revenge on her cheating ex-husband, who previously owned the club and still is very attached to it.
Ted : Guys have underestimated me my entire life and for years I never understood why —it used to really bother me. But then one day I was driving my little boy to school and I saw a quote by Walt Whitman, it was painted on the wall and it said, ‘Be curious, not judgmental.’ I like that. So I get back in my car and I’m driving to work and all of the sudden it hits me —all them fellas that used to belittle me, not a single one of them was curious. You know, they thought they had everything figured out so they judged everything and they judged everyone. And I realized that their underestimating me —who I was had nothing to do with it. Because if they were curious they would have asked questions.
At its core, the story follows the fish-out-of-water narrative, poking fun at some of the cultural differences between America and England along the way —the mismatch in language being a constant source for gags for example. As a matter of fact, one might hear the premise and brush aside Ted Lasso for simply being a classical underdog sports story, but just like ‘Scrubs’ wasn’t a hospital series in the first place, there’s no need to be interested in soccer at all to enjoy this show.
Both series use their setting merely as a vehicle to touch on essential topics like anxiety and loss, struggle and success, belonging and purpose, and, above all, human relationships —be it of romantic or professional nature, friendship or family ties. They are entertaining comedies at heart and very funny at that, but both manage to balance out the easy-going laughs with some heartfelt drama more effortless than any other series I know of. Lawrence is able to make you literally laugh out loud on some silly nonsense, just to tug at your heartstrings a few scenes later or hit you hard with some inspiring life advice every now and then.
In a ‘Sesame Street’ themed episode during the last season of ‘Scrubs’ [S8 E5; My ABC’s] its protagonist Dr. John ‘J.D.’ Dorian contemplates about the famous children’s series, but to me, the bottom line has always applied to ‘Scrubs’ itself, too, and it holds true to Ted Lasso just the same:
J.D. : And then I realised why I thought about Sesame Street all day. In a way, you can learn everything you have to know from watching it as a kid. Like, always play nice, always try your hardest and even, it’s okay to cry.
Another strength of Ted Lasso –besides its amazing writing– is the quality of its ensemble. It’s an absolute joy to watch Sudeikis embody the relentlessly optimistic, almost annoyingly positive coach with unexpected depth. Thanks to him the series is upbeat and brim-full of frenetic energy without ever losing the human touch.
And from Lasso on down, there’s a roster of great figures with personalities and interesting character arcs throughout the seasons. The entire cast through to the supporting actors is terrific, bringing grandiose chemistry onto the screen.
On Friday the final episode of the second season dropped and I’m really curious how the confirmed third season is going to wrap up the loose story threads we are left with right now. But I’m pretty optimistic, that Ted Lasso is going to join ‘Scrubs’ for my favourite series of all time eventually.
The weekly series ‘Kurzschluss‘ (short circuit) by Franco-German TV network ‘ARTE’ offers short films a unusual platform for the medium in the main program of linear television. Yesterday’s episode paid tribute to its broadcasting date, focusing on shorts influenced by “9/ 11 and its aftermath” as well as the Charlie Hebdo shooting of 2015 in France.
One of the three selected stories was the incredibly tense and absolutely superbly produced un état d’urgence | state of emergency. The short kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish and still echoes through my mind a day later.
A movie about a society in fear. It is the story of two soldiers in the everyday life of Paris guarding an official building. […] The lines between normality and real danger disappear.
