th0r from 3112htm on Vimeo.

Kyrielle from Boris Labbé on Vimeo.

“There is a kind of cult in the world, made of men and women of all social backgrounds, of all ages, races and religions. It’s the sect of the sleepless. I am part of it. The men who do not belong to the sect sometimes say to those who are part of: ‘if you can not sleep you can still read, watch TV, study or do anything else’. This kind of tips deeply bother components of the sect of insomniacs. The reason is very simple: those who suffer from insomnia has only one obsession: to fall asleep.

Helped by references to some of the greatest masters of surrealism, and starring Frédéric Chopin’s nocturne for this new short, I tried to show the beauty and the purity of dreams, and the bizarre behavior of our images and thoughts flow, into them.”

mon rêve from cento lodigiani on Vimeo.

SHE: SET THE DESTROYER (2011) Version 1 (*Caution: contains nudity*) from Craig Murray on Vimeo.

Lost in Tokyo from Mark Bramley on Vimeo.

acid from Douglas Burgdorff on Vimeo.

megashamp from Douglas Burgdorff on Vimeo.

We’ve followed the work of director Matt Lambert for a while here on DN, so were pleased when he debuted his filmic collaboration with fashion label UMASAN, which is undoubtedly his most ambitious short to date. Matt joined us to discuss punk rock filmmaking and traveling the globe to find the ideal place to create.

It was much more about syncing music to the movement verses syncing to the cuts.

Showlinks
Dielamb
Dielamb Twitter
Bare Bones

TOPO GLASSATO AL CIOCCOLATO by milkyeyes from MILKYEYES on Vimeo.

UMASAN (2011)
A micro and macro transformative journey that explores the poetry and evolution of human form and movement for Berlin-based fashion label, Umasan.

Fuck Machines (2010)
We are nothing but fuck machines. – NSFW

“I had a couple of days off recently, this doesn’t happen very often so I’m not sure why I chose to spend most of it in front of a computer at home. It was clearly a waste of time.

What you’re about to see, if you choose to hit play, is an utterly pointless and self indulgent exercise in film making.”

of TIME & STARS from Matt Simmonds on Vimeo.

The result is an impressive visual onslaught which careens through your synapses, leaving wondering what the hell just happened.

Addictions – directed by Giovanni Bucci from GiovanniBucci.com on Vimeo.

Lavomatic from Raphaëlle et Quentin on Vimeo.

Found: Smoke and Mirrors 48hr film competition (2011) from Craig Murray on Vimeo.

FOREST FIRE: FUTURE SHADOWS (2011) from Craig Murray on Vimeo.

&U&I: BELLY FULL OF FIRE AND A HEART FULL OF BLOOD (2011) from Craig Murray on Vimeo.

FRAMES from Martin Thoburn on Vimeo.

And mighty fine they are at it too! Here are three TEST shoots that caught my eye.

WATER PROOF from TEST on Vimeo.

LAVENDER from TEST on Vimeo.

SLOW DIVE from TEST on Vimeo.

DJ Shadow “Scale It Back” from Ewan Jones Morris on Vimeo.

A burn production: Never Extinguish from Burn on Vimeo.

Amon Tobin – Calculate from JimJam Graphics on Vimeo.

People, the expression of self and the interactions between each other are timeless qualities relevant to creativity, no matter what the future holds.

The varying dance styles were captured by director Nathan Drabsch over one day on a pair of RED Epics, which enabled the DMCI team to utilise effective time remapping when combining the dancers’ performances with their own abstract graphics and ism studios’ score.

FUTURE PROOF from The DMCI on Vimeo.

soulwax ‘machine’ from Radio Soulwax on Vimeo.

Based on the famous book Memoirs of My Nervous Illness from German judge Daniel Paul Schreber, Simon Pummell’s feature Shock Head Soul depicts Schreber’s ‘madness from the inside’ through the combined use of live action, expert interviews and animation. Simon and I discussed transmedia and blurring film disciplines into a cohesive whole over tea at the London Film Festival.

Filmmaking’s become one of those things you can dream about even if you’re from outside the magic circle.

Showlinks
Simon Pummell
Shock Head Soul
Canon 5D MKII
Red Camera

Angered by the way he and the rest of us allowed the UK to sleepwalk into the Iraq war, Richard Jobson’s The Somnambulists is a departure for the director which explores the lost lives of 15 service men and women in stark visual style. We discuss collective responsibility and pushing technology and form to serve a story.

It reminded me of being in a punk band again, everything was stripped back & very simple & you weren’t relying on anything other than the performance.

Showlinks
Richard Jobson
Canon 5D MKII
Canon EOS 7D

Shot on the Red MX and polished off with some fine post-production work, The Canadian Affair is an experimental short from the multidisciplinary Canadian creative studio Departement, soundtrack provided by The Good The Bad.

“032″ The Canadian Affair from departement on Vimeo.

The work of creative studio Tell No One is bound to turn heads, their experiments with video cameras and post-production software make stunning motion graphics/experimental films that leave you wondering exactly how the created such hypnotic pieces.

Dynamic Blooms from Tell No One on Vimeo.

Forest from Tell No One on Vimeo.

TOKYO SLO-MODE from alex lee on Vimeo.

Obny sound design for Espadon 21 from OBNY / Music & Sound design on Vimeo.

Shot with the Canon 60D. Edited in Premiere.
Post production done in After Effects with Twixtor.

Stunt Poetry from Rishi Kaneria on Vimeo.

As an added bonus Jason Sondhi (co-founder of Short of the Week) has crafted a great review of AANAATT, which means I can get away with creating a post that consists solely of bragging and links. Nice!

AANAATT (by Max Hattler) from Max Hattler on Vimeo.

MÖBIUS is a sculpture that can be configured into many cyclical patterns and behave as though it is eating itself, whilst sinking into the ground. The result is an optical illusion and a time-lapse of people interacting with the sculpture and moving through Melbourne’s landmark location throughout the day.

MÖBIUS from ENESS on Vimeo.

MÖBIUS was animated over two weeks Friday, Saturday & Sunday between the 6th – 20th of May 2011.

Making of MÖBIUS from ENESS on Vimeo.

I’ve been a fan of the triple filtered, experimental video work of Craig Murray for quite a while now so thought it was high time I invited him onto the show to discuss his love of the degraded image and why he is or isn’t a director.

It’s more about creating an experience for the viewer in using audio and visuals.

Showlinks
Craig Murray
Craig Murray Vimeo

Untitled – CONVERGE: Axe to Fall – OXBOW: Coalking – Making THE OCEAN projections
One experiment, two music videos and a making of from the prolific talent that is Craig Murray.

Warning: All of these films are NSFW in any shape or form.

Life is transparent, warm and swirls randomly like a soft light. And it constantly changes…
Life illuminates itself and then it begins to illuminates a new life.
A sprouted mass of innumerable lights become a flow before long, and then become the part of the life-throb of ages.
That ties life, this moment now.

The Light of Life from daihei shibata on Vimeo.

Debuting at Art Basel Miami 2009, this film was shot in collaboration with the highly acclaimed dance company Gallim Dance and choreographed by Andrea Miller. Zach Gold uses the renowned quality of his photography and applies it to film, creating an engrossing series of environmental relationships, tension and peace.

Milk from zach gold on Vimeo.

This short film was made for the introduction of a new Converse / Nom de Guerre collaboration shoe. Inspired by the film Battleship Potemkin.

Zach Gold – Countdown to Violence from zach gold on Vimeo.

Director Calum Macdiarmi’s film Worship heavily bears the fingerprints of his background in both art and advertising, which is no bad thing when it results in images this richly charged. As Macdiarmi states on his website, he’s a director “concerned with the aesthetics of beauty, light, and liquid,” experimenting with “new techniques to create new effects.”. That isn’t to say that Worship is a structureless, free form Jazz session of a film, based on psychotherapist Dr Derry Macdiarmid’s book A Century of Insight, the short explores the concepts of God, dreams and the the collective unconscious. The dreamlike flow of images makes Worship ripe for personal interpretation and identification which may have been a factor in it’s win of the Newcomer award.

If the still wasn’t enough of a warning here’s a heads up that the clip below is NSFW:

Clip from the film WORSHIP by Calum Macdiarmid from Calum Macdiarmid on Vimeo.

I personally found, Billy Lumby’s God View to be my favourite of the not just the Newcomers but possibly of the entire festival. Following estranged father Philip as he makes his way through the streets of Hackney, East London to his daughter’s birthday party, what initially appeared to be an effective framing of our protagonist and the couple below his balcony, is soon revealed to be the predominant ‘God view’ shooting style of the film.

Unlike the floaty, out of body observation of a film such as Enter the Void, Lumby and Director of Photography Brett Turnbull’s actor linked camera rig from Tony Hill, enables the action to remain a tactile presence onscreen despite our unusual vantage point – not dissimilar to Requiem for a Dream’s SnorriCam. Rig removal was performed by students at CG academy Escape Studios, but for the eagled eyed of you out there (sorry pun intended), Lumby includes an ‘Easter Egg’ shot in the final film (and trailer below) which briefly shows the rig in action.

It feels like a strange compliment to pay an actor whose performance is largely silent and witnessed from the top of his head, but Cornell S John nails Philip’s progression from silently scary to deranged. If you only manage to track down a single film from Rushes Soho Shorts this year (which frankly would be pitiful), God View should be it.

god view – trailer from Billy Lumby on Vimeo.

Originally created by London directors Dan Blacker, John Addis and Matt Bowron under the moniker Tactful Cactus for the Reed.co.uk Love Mondays Film competition, Starcrossed is the story of a lonely scientist’s quest to discover the correct equation to allow him to meet the girl of his dreams.

The team shot Starcrossed over two weekends in and around London, then went to ground for a month to create the film’s many animated elements. As a purely visual piece the effects are well integrated, although the story comes off as more than a little muddled. Initially, I thought the girl was metaphoric for a meteor the scientist was attempting to plot and observe, but then the film’s tagline; Romeo and Juliet for the Twitter generation, Starcrossed tells the story of one couple’s quest to see one another, would seem to suggest otherwise, which leaves the overall film feeling a little too whimsical for me.

Starcrossed from Tactful Cactus on Vimeo.

Before the collaborative projects Psst Pass it on and Animation Tag Attack came Little Minx’s Exquisite Corpse series:

A distributive film series created by Little Minx & Idealogue based on the surrealist parlour game: The Exquisite Corpse. The Little Minx Exquisite Corpse features directors Laurent Briet, Chris Nelson, Malik Hassan Sayeed, Josh Miller, Phillip Van & Steph Green. Rules of the Game:Each director responds to the last line of text of the previous directors script and the Minx signifier only. Little Minx Exquisite Corpse is an extraordinary meeting ground of chance.

“and she stares longingly at what she has lost”

Read MarBelle’s Short of the Week Review

without missing a beat, she asks, “Waffles for breakfast?”

“she walked calmly disappearing into the darkness”

“she turns back and faces forward at peace”

“with the eyes of every man riveted upon her”

Mirrored from The sons of Stan Brakhage on Vimeo.

hunter from Douglas Burgdorff on Vimeo.

As in court when you take the oath to tell “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”, I should probably start by admitting I am a huge admirer of Malick’s work and have been waiting eagerly for the release of The Tree of Life like a six year old waiting for Christmas day. Although, I don’t quite buy into Sukhdev Sandhu’s theories that for his admirers, Malick’s films are churches that cast their audiences as worshippers in search of higher truths, I will happily admit to finding the director’s work both challenging and enlightening in equal measures.

Experiencing The Tree of Life, it’s easy to see why some won’t get on with the film; its plot is ambitious, seemingly covering everything (life, death, the universe, the soul, religion, spirituality) and nothing (the feel of the wind in your hair and the grass below your feet) in equal measures. Trying to encapsulate what it is a film about, is almost like trying to solve the mysteries of life, answering an unanswerable riddle, its scope is so broad and its meanings so wide, it’s almost that what we take away from the film depends on our own experiences and our own beliefs. Malick’s film is purposefully slow, yet at times we’re presented with such an abundance of information and visual stimuli we’re left somewhat dizzy and bewildered (a feeling I actually enjoyed). Although, when you think about exactly what you’re shown, how can a film that covers the creation of the universe and life in 139 minutes seem slow? There’s thousands upon thousands of years of history here squeezed into just over two hours.

Unless you’ve actually had one, The Tree of Life is the closest you’ll probably ever come to an out of body experience (or at the very least a tie with Enter the Void), Emmanuel Lubezki’s camera floats around the Malick universe as if it were a lost spirit wandering the earth trying to make sense of what it sees. For many this ethereal feeling was just too much, too over the top, but for me it just never came across that way. There’s no doubting the O’Brien family at the heart of The Tree of Life are God-fearing Christian folk, but the subjects covered here transcend religion, transcend god, this is a film about so much more.

However experimental The Tree of Life may be, Malick’s strong personal style shines throughout his film, with whispering voice-overs and floating camerawork leaving you in no doubt you’re watching a director work with complete creative control. Malick is in all senses an auteur, but he is a rare breed, an auteur working within Hollywood, but not within its constraints and guidelines and this is where the misconceptions surrounding The Tree of Life begin. Where Malick fans will be blessed with an insight into what to expect from the eclectic director, the general film going public with no real association with the director’s work will be entering the film totally unprepared for what they are about to be a part of. For some this would be a good thing, a pleasant surprise from the generous world of film, but for others it’s bound to be a huge disappointment. The Tree of Life may be an ‘art film’ in form and content, but with its A-list Hollywood stars it was always bound to attract a more mainstream audience than other films of this ilk could expect. The film’s marketing strategy could be somewhat to blame for this, opting for a less is more approach, it revealed little to those not wanting to discover the film’s premise, but also to those eager to find out more (maybe that one cinema in America was right to include a warning!).

Francis Bacon once declared that “the job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery” and this is exactly what Malick has achieved with The Tree of Life. With the director’s latest and possibly greatest work of art he has managed to not only deepen the mystery surrounding life, but also the mystery of film. The Tree of Life has drawn numerous comparisons to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, but in truth this comparison strikes as weak and lazy, The Tree of Life is a separate entity altogether (let me state at this point I am in no way claiming that Malick’s film is better than Kubrick’s). What Malick has managed to construct is a film created to unlock memories and evoke emotion, almost allowing its audience the time and space to drift away into their own thoughts, traveling back into recollections of childhood or predictions of future years. The Tree of Life feels so familiar, but is like nothing I have ever seen before, it is confusing and bewildering, but seems to be about everything I already know, this is a film that has crawled inside my head and refuses to leave……….and I’m still not sure if I truly love it or if it has just tricked me into loving it!

Vattenkraft from dennievandijk on Vimeo.