Wednesday, February 28, 2007

World::Stop Global Warming NOW!

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The subject of global warming is a known issue to most people. And even if they’re not educated on the subject, they’ve surely heard about it (even if it’s just from watching Al Gore at the Oscars).
But how is it that an issue of such extreme importance is still going unsolved?
Well…what I think people don’t realize is the severity of the global warming issue and the affect it has on our environment and future.
With our SUV crazed generation, it’s no surprise that we’re at an all time high of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere; the most there’s been in the past 650,000 years.
But now there is any easier way for all of us to get involved and motivated to make a change!

“Global warming isn’t opinion. It’s a scientific reality. The science tells us that human activity has made enormous impacts to our planet that affect our well-being and even our survival as a species. The science also tells us we can begin to make significant repairs to reverse those impacts — but only through immediate action. That’s why we urge you to join us. The Stop Global Warming Virtual March is virtual but its purpose is real. By spreading the word and sharing this with others, our collective voice will be heard around the world.
There is no more important cause than the call to action to save our planet. This is a movement about change, as individuals, as a country, and as a global community. We are all contributors to global warming and we all need to be part of the solution. Join the 645,622 supporters of the Stop Global Warming Virtual March, and become part of the movement to demand solutions to global warming now.”

ACT NOW:STOP GLOBAL WARMING

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Joining forces with Style.com

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PLATFORM STYLE
_________________

I've created a new username for Style.com's LOOKBOOK feature.

This is a way for me to pick and choose my favorite must-have's this season. Everything from ready-to-wear to shoes and accessories, all done with my commentary.

Feel free to comment on what you agree with or couldn't disagree more with!

The catch? In order to view my lookbook, you must become a member and create your own! It's actually a lot of fun, so go for it!

PLATFORMSTYLE LOOKBOOK

Friday, February 23, 2007

Rental::Three Times::

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I love what a good trailer can do for a film. However, with a film like this one, I suggest you watch the film in its entirety.
The story: Three different time periods - 1966, 1911, 2005, three stories and the same actor and actress, Shu Qi and Chang Chen, play out the two lead roles, evoking a sentimental tale of three reincarnations of an unfinished love.


Trailer:Three Times

Rent it::Netflix::


Director: Hsiao-hsien Hou

Starring:
Chen Chang
Mei Di
Su-jen Liao
Fang Mei
Qi Shu

Friday, February 16, 2007

Technology::Distant embrace...

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It doesn't matter if your beloved lives on the other side of the world, the innovator's over at cute circuit have created a solution for those longing moment's for touch.
The shirt is installed with sensors that feel your strenght,warmth and heart rate as you hug yourself. The hug shirt will send your specific hug (via bluetooth) to any Java-enabled mobile phone, which will then deliver the hug to your sweety, as long as they're wearing the shirt too!

Buy hug shirt: Cute Circuit

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Ad::Orange "Flowers"::

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ORANGE "FLOWERS"

"Director Rob Sanders turns bodies of water into flower beds, all in camera, in this gorgeous French spot for Orange."

Credits:

Agency: MARCEL, Paris
Creatives: Fred Raillard & Farid Mokart
Agency Producer: Jacques Fouché

Production Company: Gang Films, Paris/Backyard, US
Director: Rob Sanders
Executive Producer: Fred Mialaud
DP: Stuart Graham
Production Designer: Marco Puig
Editor: Sophie F

Fashion::Pray to Jean Paul Gaultier

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Mr.Gaultier's Spring 2007 collection is breathtaking & refreshing: The vivid line captures and emulates religious images of saints, all while making beautiful garments. He has revolutionized fashion as more than something you wear & more into a sort of art form and release of expression.

View the collection in it's entirety: Jean Paul Gaultier::Spring 2007

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Design::Holy spa::

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Serenity,peacefullness & landscape...this is what architect Peter Zumthor's Therme Spa in Vals, Switzerland achieves. He takes the good ol' r&r (rest and relaxation) to another level.

"With the only thermal spring in Graubünden, the Therme Spa is a stunning landmark built from 60 000 stone slabs of Valser quarzite for you to luxuriate and rediscover the ancient benefits of bathing in. The combinations of light and shade, open and enclosed spaces and linear elements make for a highly sensuous and restorative experience. Below the pool deck is a wellness centre where you can have treatments focusing on relaxation and pampering."

For more info, visit: THERME VALS

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Article:Director Laurent Briet Brings His Own Gravitas to Peter Walker "Young Gravity" Music Video

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Quicktime link to video:::YOUNG GRAVITY::



Growing up in the suburbs of Paris, France, Laurent Briet dreamed of becoming an artist, even while his parents prepared him for a career in engineering. Fortunately for the music video industry, this talented director held on to his dream—starting out as an art director for video games, and eventually working his way up through the ranks as a CG artist for other directors.

Briet eventually made his way to Los Angeles, where his artistry with special effects has earned him accolades from his peers, including a 2003 MVPA New Director award for his Red Hot Chili Peppers video “Fortune Faded.” Briet is currently represented by Little Minx, and his latest video project is “Young Gravity” for the up and coming artist Peter Walker. In “Young Gravity,” Briet uses his visual imagery to pack an emotional punch that resonates with the viewers. MVWire recently asked Briet how he crafted his latest video.

Watch: Peter Walker “Young Gravity”

MVWire: What was the creative process in writing the treatment for "Young Gravity"?

Laurent Briet: For this particular project, I knew that the budget wouldn't allow us to do things perfectly. We wouldn't be able to have enough film, enough time...so I wanted to focus on what was essential and work with what I have. I remembered how some basic superimposition shot worked so well in movies like “Metropolis.” The effect was in no way subtle or seamless but it didn't matter either. You perfectly understood what was expressed and that was enough. So when it came to the execution of the concept, I knew from the time I was writing up the idea that I would build my shots this way. I was going to focus on communicating the idea first instead of putting energy into fooling the audience into thinking this was really happening. That's why none of the FX shots in the video are perfect; things move, things look out of scale, and so on.

To achieve this, I also decided to use a different software than the one I usually worked with. Most of my work since I've stopped working in a visual effects studio has been done with Apple Shake. It's a very flexible and powerful software. But the guys at Apple convinced me to give Motion a try. It was not easy to break the old habits and start from scratch on a new software. But for this project, it seems to be perfect for what I was trying to achieve. Very fast, very intuitive, and I wanted to stay away from high end compositing features that would have allowed me to do things too well. The workflow was very pleasant for the most part, and it's a very creative tool. You can quickly put a shot together and watch it in context of the cut in no time.

While listening to the track, I built up this idea that the video was about a man pondering if he should see his love one more time before he dies or just let go as he realize that his time has come. The man, heavily sedated because of his injuries would then let his mind wander into a morphine induced dream concatenating all his thoughts, worries, fear...

MVWire: How did you create the look of the video for the indoor and outside footage?

LB: The look of the video came from the fact that I wanted to explore a new direction. I tend to create images with deep blacks and fairly high contrast. This time I wanted to really create something much brighter. I also wanted it to have almost a water paint look, something light, but I never considered to apply some painterly effects to the footage. I wanted this look and feel to come strictly from the color correction and retain the quality of the film. (We shot this piece on super 16mm.)

Because of budget constrains we used almost no lights at all, but what was available. At the beach, we got lucky that the weather was so overcast. The low altitude grey sky gave us a beautiful diffused light.

In the hospital, Scott Beardslee (DP) used a 4x4 kino flo light to balance the cool whites to the overhead fluorescent and an accented 650 fresnel. The rest was available lights or a bead board. Very, very minimal. Scott is great like this; we worked together to find the shots instead of trying to build them from scratch. In the end, this allowed us to work faster and still grab beautiful images.

The shoot itself was very quick. We had very little time to do everything. The crew was very, very lean. Eight: people, DP (Scott Beardslee), AC, producer (Gina Belvilacqua), her Dutch right hand man (Rudolf Bekker), the actors, (James "PJ" Ransone, Kate Lillecrapp) and myself.

MVWire: Talk about some of the challenges actually shooting “Young Gravity”

LB: The beach scene was shot in the Rockaways in Queens NYC. The hospital was shot in the Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn. We only could afford a four hour window in the hospital to clean up, dress up the abandoned wing, film and be out. The hospital personnel were really amazing and helpful. They put this room together to our specification in no time and provided us with all the equipment we needed.

The editing was the hardest part of the video. Mainly because we had so little footage to work with and one scene could not be shot. We could never find what we needed to shoot it. Since I usually have the structure of the edit matching closely to how songs evolve, a missing scene with little extra footage to fill the void was really painful. But it all worked out fine in the end, despite the constant stomachache while I was cutting this piece.

MVWire: What was the label & artist reaction to the video?

LB: Peter was really happy about the video. He sent me a very enthusiastic email. The reactions were similar from Jo Ann Thrailkill, the video commissioner, and everyone else at the label. They have all been fantastically understanding of the constraints we had to work with and immensely patient with us to finally deliver the video. It was a pleasure to work with them all.

Credits:

Label: Dangerbird Records
Commissioner: Jo Ann Thrailkill
Production Co.: Bevilacqua Prod.
Exec. Producer: Gina Bevilaqua
Director: Laurent Briet
DP: Scott Beardslee
Editor: Laurent Briet

Monday, February 12, 2007

Nouvelle Vague "Dance with me"










I just couldn't resist putting this video up. This clip is taken from Jean-Luc Godard's film "Band of Outsiders" starring Anna Karina, Sami Frey & Claude Brasseur. The song is beautifully synchronized with the classic dance sequence performed by lead's in the cast. The film is wonderful & so is the song.
The artist is Nouvelle Vague for her 2006 album "Bande à part".

Thursday, February 8, 2007

::Acceptance speech::


The Knife have received two P3 Gold Awards (Swedish national radio's price) and six Swedish Grammies for the Silent Shout album. Due to many different reasons they weren't able to attend the award ceremonies so they asked some of their friends and allies to thank instead.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Don't give up hope...

Okay, so I realise that I haven't been updating PLATFORM as frequently. But it's been such a crazy week! Between work,sleep,creating or at least attempting to...and "all that jazz" I have been drained!
However, I am glad to report that I have much in store for the upcoming weeks.
I already have an interview to take place, various opening's to attend, and plenty of videos & etc. to review!
So, please give me time to conjure up a good mix and i'll be sure not to leave you hanging.
Until then, i'll be updating my "about me" section. I know that I've been somewhat of an enigma (well...maybe not enigma but surely private).I hope that by doing so, you'll start to know more about me, the writer, and maybe it'll validate what I say a little more? It's up to you to decide!
Till then...keep on coming back to see if I've updated! (I just might surprise you!)
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