Dougal Wilson does it again!

Artist:JARVIS Prod.Co:Colonel Blimp


For anyone who read this post already & didn't see commentary, I apologize to. There was a little technical difficulty (with me mainly). But the reason I titled this as "Dougal Wilson does it again" is because he is a notable director with a long list of videos infused with kinetic energy of creativity! He is currently signed over at Colonel Blimp & the long list of videos include Basement Jaxx,Badly Drawn Boy & a great video for Benny Benassi's "Satisfaction" featuring cheesy playboy style pin-ups drilling away on 2x4's and lip synching the words to the song.

check out reel: Colonel Blimp

Motorola::(RED)

I'm posting this through youtube (which I try to refrain from doing as much as possible, because I think the quality sucks!) But I want to spread this commercial like wildfire because of it's important subject matter on an epidemic issue that still seems not to be getting enough attention.
Jonathan Glazer was a terrific choice for directing this spot on the new phone that is "servicing" as a relief fund for aids relief.

Credits:

Director: Jonathan Glazer
Producer: Simon Cooper
Agency : Mother
Creatives: Stephen Butler & Kim Gehrig
Agency producer: Angela Eleini/Juliet Pearson/Zoe Bell

Dop: Dan Landin
Editors: Paul Watts, The Quarry
Post-production: One Of Us, Tom Debenham, Dominic Parker
Producer: Rachel Penfold
Sound design: Soundtree
Composer: Peter Raeburn

Design:Fabien Baron

Fabien Baron is an absolute inspiration when it comes to forward thinking and innovative design and concept.

His work has influenced me and so many alike. You may not know him by name, but I can bet you’ve seen his work, that is unless you’ve never walked passed a newspaper stand, turned on a TV, or walked through Time Square!

Baron is responsible for Harper Bazaars distinctive typography as well as Calvin Klein’s jaw dropping minimalist photo shoots, among so many others (Marky Mark in briefs ring a bell?) Oh yeah…and anyone hear of Madonna’s “Sex Book”? Yeah…that was him too.

Latest news is that Baron’s firm, Baron & Baron, has completed their online site where we can finally view both the explicit & “magnifique” work in its entirety, which his team has been producing.

Baron, who art directs Harper Bazaar and visually reinvented the magazine, is now considering taking on bigger projects, such as designing beauty & home products.

I have my fingers crossed!

Site: Baron & Baron

PRADA goes cellular

Oh no they didn't! Oh-yes-she-did. Ms.Miuccia Prada doesn't skip a beat with this one by getting on the technology train. She was involved in every aspect of the design of the new Prada cellular. From the way the numbers punch in to the sleek & slim design (like a true fashionista!). Unfortunatly for us in the US, this stylish must-have accessory will only be for sale in the UK.

The PRADA Phone by LG introduces the world’s first advanced touch interface which eliminates the conventional keypad making the overall usage experience a highly tactile one. An extra wide LCD screen maximizes visual impact, allowing the user to benefit from several key features of the phone, including the 2 megapixel camera featuring Schneider-Kreuznach lens, video player and document viewer capacity. Above all, these features contribute to the phone’s beautifully sleek and simplistic appearance.
Glowing icons on the face of the phone disappear when not in use to reveal a pure, un-adulterated black exterior. The phone is ultra thin (just 12 mm), nonetheless it hosts an array of additional multimedia functions, including an MP3 player and a music multitasking function for messaging. It also boasts an external memory slot, allowing the user to increase memory capacity for images, music and film clips.'

Freeland::We want your soul!

This music video has been out for quite some time, but it is still one of my fave videos because it's just so damn funny that finally someone took note of the influencial and brand crazed culture our society has embraced! Not only that, but the crazy spin on all of it. Maybe I'm a little biased though, because HAPPY is one of my favorite directors over at prod.co SMUGGLER. He's responsible for the Sprite "Sublymonal" ads!
One of my all-time fave spots was directed by Ne-O, over at SMUGGLER for VW's Jetta, titled "Singin' in the Rain" with an awesome remix by Mint Royal featuring some intense CGI effects of a break dancing Gene Kelly.

Check it out: Smugglersite.com

House of the Very Island's Royal Club Division Middlesex Klassenkampf, But the Question Is: Where Are U, Now?

Cool article from hintmag.com, for up and coming "avant-garde" designers...


_______________________________________________________
rst, the obvious question—what does the name mean?

The name includes many terms and phrases, just like there are many members of our fashion gang. We struggled for three months to come with it. We had big fun.

So, what do all the terms and phrases mean?

The "House of the Very Island's" part means a closed system, and it's inspired by films like Paris Is Burning, with its house fights and vogueing competitions. The "Royal" thing is a little bit of a problem. "Club Division" is our, or my, connection to nightlife. The term "Middlesex" has a double meaning for us. There is the part of the UK called Middlesex, but mostly it's the gender thing, as in which gender you are performing at the moment. It's also the name of a novel by Jeffrey Eugenides. In German, "Klassenkampf" means class war. "Where Are U, Now?" for me means changing, positioning and steadily challenging.

Is it an anti-fashion line, a reaction to the fashion establishment?

I don't think it's an anti-fashion line, but we try to think differently, especially in terms of gender. For example, we insist on doing clothing not just for men or women, but for people. We don't deal with stereotypes, which are boring and ugly for us.

You had a lot to say about gender in your spring collection.

Yes, we tried to merge displaced male and female lifestyles. We linked together images and cliches of 1990’s aesthetics, so often influenced by transgender performers: the cross-dresser, the dyke, feminine men, masculine women, queer clubwear, the ridiculously romantic look and avant-garde chic. We tried to achieve a new kind of aesthetic from a time when queer and gender theory became an important academic discourse.

I take it you're a champion of the disenfranchised?

We present people off the beaten track that nowadays is so full of either the teenage couture fairies lying around in magazines or the “I can wear a sexy dress and high heels and still be independent and strong” MTV lot. We're particularly against the fashion world’s careless and cynical “we are so over it” eye-rolling on the topic of politics, as if it were obviously no longer a contemporary concern.

The label sounds very politically conscious then.

Yes, socio-politically. The spring collection, like the one before, was produced in collaboration with Merit, an Austrian association promoting the re-integration of long-time unemployed women. Our tailoring, for example, is intended to help these women in the countryside get back into the work force. We also work with Gea, a shoe manufacturer with a social and political attitude. And everybody gets paid fairly—well, except us. In this way, we try to show different ways or other sides of life or other lives. We try to push change forward slowly. We're not perfect, but we are working on that.

Environmentally, too, your clothes are made responsibly?

Yes. Most of our fabrics are organic and plant-dyed without chemicals, or they're pure wool, linen or cotton. If not, they meet eco-standards otherwise.

::Paolo::

“Paolo” is an endearing film about a young Latin American gay man living in New York, who return’s to the roots of his country, Peru, in an effort to make amends with his estranged father.
During Paolo’s time there, he re-introduces himself to a world he left so many years ago, in hopes of seeking a better life for him self and his family.
Although, the film has yet to premiere, from the looks of the trailer, you can already tell that it is both a compelling and a sincerely heart warming documentary about humanity and tolerance. Paolo’s witty sense of humor and warm heart enthralls us with compassion, leaving us with a desire to know “What happens next?”

Directed by: Andrea Franco

Website: www.paolothefilm.com

Röyksopp::What Else Is There?

I'm so crazy about this video! Really, I can't get enough of it. This one is directed by young Danish director, Martin De Thurah. There really isn't a story line and to be honest, the video doesn't make much sense. But it's so beautifully shot and innovative that it makes up for all of that. The band is Royksopp (wonderful!) the song, "What Else Is there?" featuring vocals by...you guessed it...Karin Dreijer Andersson from Swedish duo band, The Knife. (She's the one with the awesome bone structure, sitting at the dinner table eating an apple)

The Knife: Marble House (Ver.2)

Now I'm not really sure whether or not this is a real video approved by the band, but came across it and thought it was worth posting, even if it's just for the song. Through out the video though, I kept on thinking something unexpected would happen. Like it would get really dark and the family of mice (rats?) would witness a crime in the human home! Okay, maybe that's extreme but I think it would beat this Ms.Potter version.

Books:: Gas Book 22, NAGI NODA

"GAS BOOK 22 introduces a collection of work by a highly acclaimed, young Japanese art director/video director, Nagi Noda. Coming from advertising industry, Nagi Noda has been working on numerous creative projects such as a campaign for Nike, Laforet, music video for YUKI, etc. She has also been active in making short films, and belongs to the production, Partizan, well known as Michel Gondry belongs, too. Also, Her original character, Han Panda (="Half Panda" in English) is recognised as one of her representative work and has exhibited at some exhibitons."



Buy now $29.95: www.alibris.com/search/detail.cfm?S=R&bookbin=8970407265&bid=8970407265&siteID=xoZraCfY0Ik-KfYAzl5e05u1tztBaXDBLg

ART::Wolfgang Tillmans

‘studio’, 1991
© wolfgang tillmans
courtesy of andrea rosen gallery, new york

Wolfgang Tillmans work is extremely influential-not only for his time, but also for our current generation. Tillmans career is vast and diverse, subjects ranging from still life’s to portraits of friends and celebrities, subtly alluding to his interest in issues such as homelessness, racism, and gay rights. It’s apparent his work has influenced artists like Ryan McGinley and Jeurgan Teller, only to name a few. It’s the same sort of blankness in Teller’s work & the same hedonistic nakedness McGinley’s work processes, which may allude to Tillmans.

“Co-organized by the hammer museum and the museum
of contemporary art, chicago, the exhibition is the first
major U.S. retrospective of the work of german artist
wolfgang tillmans. the exhibition featured approximately
300 photographs, installations, and video spanning
tilmans’ entire career.”

Visit this link, for more info: http://www.the-artists.org/ArtistView.cfm?id=D9900EBC-C762-11D4-A93800D0B7069B40

http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/tillmans_ham.html

Norah Jones::Thinking about you...

Director: Ace Norton
Uploaded by PLATFORM

Partizan's Ace Norton brings to life a visual stunner for divine songstress Norah Jones. He extricates an idea that seems to be a universal thought for people-girl/guy on train/subway, imagines a life with someone on it, that doesn't exist. And although the style resemblance seems obvious, it is still a unique and beautifully executed video.

::Charity is::

charity: charity: is a nonprofit organization stimulating greater global awareness about extreme poverty, educating the public, and provoking compassionate and intelligent giving.

100 percent of your donation goes to freshwater well projects in Africa.
Just one bottle can provide clean water to someone who needs it for 15 years.
Or you can purchase 24 bottles, which provides clean water to 24 people for more than 15 years. $480, put towards the construction or rehabilitation of a freshwater well, can produce the equivalent of more than 13 million 16.9 ounce bottles of water in Africa.

Visit: www.charityis.org

All he needs...

Directed by: Family
Production Co: Colonel Blimp


This is really good, if not better than the original version directed by Mike Mills. A parody directed by Nicolas Randall from directing collective, Family. The AIR cover song is by C-E2, titled “All He Needs” rather than Air’s “All I Need”.
This short was featured in RES Magazine’s DVD, August issue.

Books::Bold & Beautiful

Ezra Petronio taps into the magic with Bold & Beautiful , a new book of Polaroid portraits of the creatives who've entered the sphere of Self Service, the pioneering Paris-based fashion-and-arts magazine he founded ten years ago. The New York native estimates he's clicked the shutter of his original 1970's Polaroid camera 12,000 times, always against a stark background and using up, he guesses, most of the vintage flash cubes left in the world. "The more the years go by,the more pleasure people will have from seeing these portraits, as they are a distilled form of social documentation." Here, Petronio picks out his most memorable sessions.

Amazon.com: $40.80
Used & new available from: $30.00

Embers only...

I'll admit- I’m a sucker for packaging. Most recently catching my aesthetic hungry eye is a highly original new scent from Hermès’s unisex Hermessence collection, a group of minimalist fragrances emphasizing natural elements over high-concept blends. Paprika Brasil is based on Brasil wood (which, in French, translates to “burning wood”).

Adding fuel to the fire are capsicum pepper and clove. V. v. hot. $190 for 100ml at select Hermès stores, or $135 for a sampler kit.

More info: www.hermes.com

Dawn Shadforth::'Boards

It’s very important when female directors get notoriety for their work, even more so when it is well earned.
For Dawn Shadforth, she earned her credibility a long, long time ago.
Working with the likes of Bjork, Peaches, Iggy Pop & Kylie Minogue, she has transformed a generation a video goers almost effortlessly. Well…maybe not effortlessly, but when viewing her work, she possesses the capability of executing a simple idea into a visual stunner.

‘Boards latest issue has an interview with the quirky director.
_______________________________________________________
RSA's Dawn Shadforth moves from electronic music to the macabre

It's the rare music video director who can say they've inspired a book, but Little Minx/Black Dog/RSA's Dawn Shadforth belongs to that exclusive club. Shadforth's future-obsessed 1999 promo for Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out My Head" was so suggestive and idea-rich that it provided the source material for Words & Music, a sprawling 2004 tome on music and hyperconsumption by British journalist Paul Morley.

Shadforth hasn't read the book yet, but as someone who never consciously set out to become a director, the mere notion of it must be a headspinner. A student at Sheffield Hallam University in the early '90s, she studied sculpture and rubbed elbows with future directorial stars like Chris Cunningham and Ne-O before deciding she didn't want to make a career of fine art. Instead, she took to the camera, cutting her teeth on a series of early documentaries for the electronic music label Warp as well as a handful of promos for members of Sheffield's fertile underground. The rest, as they say, is history. In the decade since, she's helmed videos for the likes of Kylie, Björk, Oasis and The Streets, and parlayed that success into a healthy commercial reel. With work for Renault, Toyota, Halifax and Nike Women heading up the list, Shadforth's profile is stronger than ever. We caught up with the refreshed director mere days after her return from a trip to India and picked her brain on the current state of music video, the industry's lack of female directors and why horror is an ideal feature film training ground.

I stumbled into music videos. It just seemed like a logical place for me to be working, coming from a fine arts background and being around a lot of music at that time. Sheffield had a really vibrant underground music scene, and still does, with people like the Arctic Monkeys coming out of there now. It was a very exciting and liberating place to be because it had a bit of a renegade attitude, not being in London, being on the periphery. And there's an element of electronica that is about abstraction, so it was a very natural place to go.

When I first moved to London I was with a very small production company, and then I made a video for a band called All Seeing I. It was one of those fantastic moments of synchronicity - they were friends of mine, so they insisted I make the video, and it was a Top 10 hit, so that gave me the springboard to go around and meet more established companies. I was friends with Chris [Cunningham] and he was at RSA/Black Dog, so it seemed like a logical place to be.

[After] the All Seeing I video, I very quickly went from a budget of £12,000 to a large American commission, which was, again, fantastic and scary. That was my first big budget job. If I knew now what I didn't know then, I would have been even more scared. At the time, I didn't realize how ambitious the idea that I'd pitched was, but that's one of the fantastic advantages of being young and naïve.

I know there was a time when there was sort of a palpable sense [of excitement] about music videos. I don't feel that myself very often any more, and that's obviously a reflection of where the music industry is... Now, there are [promos] that have a great idea and cost nothing, like that genius OK Go video where they're on the treadmills, but you couldn't say the same about the work of people like Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze and Jonathan Glazer. They're amazing artists who are also capable of making great work for less money, but that was a golden age, and I don't know whether there will be another one.

I do think about if and how a video might be broadcast now. I think it probably has affected the decisions of which videos I've decided to make recently. There are places like YouTube, but it just looks so shit. Hopefully with high quality downloads, that will [change]. You toil to create something that looks amazing or that has an aesthetic. Things like The Streets and Plan B were much more to do with working on a level that was about ideas.

I've got a couple of horror ideas in development, one that's further along the line than the other. Horror's a good place to start as a first-time feature film director; there's often a chance to get a degree of subtext and talk about issues that you wouldn't normally be able to in a regular commercial form.

There is a shortage of female directors. You can't argue with the numbers. I definitely feel it more in commercials than in music videos. In music video, everyone sort of knows each other, and out of a lot of my contemporaries there's quite a few heavy-hitters; Sophie Muller is a really good friend of mine, and there's Floria Sigismondi and Diane Martel. There's more of a balance with the people who are making the decisions about who's being commissioned - maybe that's got something to do with it.

I think I'm a bit of a tomboy, but at the same time I like shoes and frocks. I like the fact that [people] see things like electronic music, horror films and athletics in my background because a lot of times I do get associated with glamor and fashion and sexy imagery. That's great, but there's also a geek [in me] as well, so I suppose that all reflects the different sides of my personality.

____________________________

Currently signed with: rsafilms.com

Fashion::Proenza Schouler

Seems like all the “it” designers are hopping on the mass production retail train! There was Stella McCartney, Karl Lagerfeld, Viktor & Rolf, even Madonna for H&M, as well Behnaz Sarafpour & Isaac Mizrahi for Target.
Latest news is that reigning fashion princes, Proenza Schouler have finished an anticipated line for Target as well. “The design duo has created a resort-wear line that will debut in January of 2007”. They’ll even have their signature piped bustier tops available for us “common folk”. And yes, everything is priced reasonably (all under $50!)

Keep yourself updated: www.target.com

Designer site: www.proenzaschouler.com

Jenny Wilson::Rabid Records

Hopefully you’re not exhausted just yet of my Rabid Record obsession (for those of you who haven’t caught on, RR is owned by The Knife).
Nonetheless, here is a wonderful video for artist Jenny Wilson. The song is "Let My Shoes Lead Me Forward – which is the Knife Remix. This video was directed by Andreas Nilsson. His roster of directorial works is short but by no means unimpressive. Here is “the list”…

2006-sep
Like a pen
the Knife
2006-jan
Let my shoes lead me forward
Jenny Wilson
2006-jan
Silent shout
the Knife
2005-feb
Big time
the Soundtrack of our Lives
2004-sep
Heartbeat
the Knife

Andreas is currently unsigned but after this video, who knows how long that status will be attained.

Also, the video for LMSLMF is attracting attentions here and there. It's competing at the Animation Festival, Anifest in Prague, in the category "best videoclip"!

For more info: www.jennywilson.net