Welcome to Dracula Vs. Eisenstein.
If you like what you see, please subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks!
If you are a fan of film and/or film title design, be sure to check out NotComing.com. The site reviews older and lesser-known films that may have been overlooked during their original release. I especially like their Saul Bass feature.
“In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck and a head full of questions, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview. This was in the midst of Lennon’s “bed-in” phase, during which John and Yoko were staying in hotel beds in an effort to promote peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it.”
Intrigued? “I Met The Walrus” is a fantastic short film that uses motion graphics to translate the aforementioned audio interview with John Lennon. It showcases a great combination of illustration and photographic elements and even better philosophy. Check out some more screen grabs below.
You can currently go watch the short film in its entirety in The YouTube Screening Room and it is available for purchase on iTunes.
This is an oldie but goodie by Alan Becker.
You can also now play a video game based on the animation here
Another year has gone by and The Tribeca Film Festival has eluded me once again. I subject myself to a long week of music and films every year at the CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival, but I am yet to see more than one film or go to a single panel at Tribeca in the three years that I’ve lived across the Hudson.
One particular panel that interested me this year was titled Beyond YouTube: Understanding the Opportunities for Short Film Today, which was mainly advice for short filmmakers who would like to make a career of it. The panel featured Linda Olszewski from Shorts International, Jen Chen from Ouat Media Distribution, Andy Marks from MATTER , Megan O’Neill from AtomFilms and legendary animator Bill Plympton. Luckily, for me, Tribeca posted a brief overview of the discussion that occurred at the panel on their website.
So, yes, I’ve made a short film and yes, I wanted instant feedback from the world, so I uploaded it to YouTube (and countless other video communities). I’ve gotten positive comments on my film and have been contacted numerous times by people looking to get a copy of my film, but not once did anyone offer to pay for it. According to Olszewski, I may have destroyed my chances at ever screening my film or making a single dime from my work. There is something to be said for wanting as many people to see and enjoy your film as possible as I did, but if you have any intention of making money from your film, YouTube is not the way to go. Let me clarify that. Putting your film up in its entirety on YouTube is not the way to go. I could compare and contrast what is happening in the music industry with the film industry, but I think I’ll save that for another time.
Two of my favorite things in life, The Big Lebowski and motion graphics, have been combined in this translation of a popular scene from the film using only animated typography as its visual. It is a great example of how effective type can be in video when used with familiar visual traits. I especially like the animation of the word “lanes” and “click”. Animator and designer Koos Dekker was certainly successful in re-creating visual dialogue without using any images from the film. This video was created in Adobe After Effects.
