Wallpaper Visionaires: Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA)
The folks at Wallpaper magazine are launching a new series titled Visionaries which explores ground-breaking ideas within the realms of architecture. In this first episode film maker Victor Vroegindeweij travels to Rotterdam where Reinier de Graaf, director of AMO, the research counterpart to the leading architecture firm the OMA, is laying the ground work for his hugely ambitious project: to create A world driven by 100% renewable energy by 2050.
Enjoy
TrVZ
Tiny Feature Saturday’s – A Plea For Modernism
Architecture is arguably the worlds most awe inspiring artistic medium. It is why I never tire of New York City. But so many folks tend to think that modern architecture is not as worthy of preservation. This week on TFS we feature a video by Even Mather who tells the story of The Phillis Wheatley Elementary School. As the vimeo page states…
“The Phillis Wheatley Elementary school has served the historic New Orleans African-American neighborhood of Tremé since it opened in 1955. Celebrated worldwide for its innovative, regionally-expressive modern design – the structure sustained moderate damage during the storms and levee breach of 2005. Although it is scheduled for demolition in Summer 2011, DOCOMOMO Louisiana is advocating for its restoration via adaptive reuse.”
If you are interested, there is information on how to help in the video credits.
Enjoy
TrVZ
The Making Of The Wallpaper* Apartments
From fashion to food every great work of art incorporates some element of storytelling. This video from the folks at Wallpaper* documenting the construction and design of two contrasting apartments is a strong testament to this. Further described as followed…
“On the banks of the River Thames… Wallpaper* has orchestrated a duet of perfectly couter-pointed new pieds-å-terr. One is elegant, airy and formally inventive with a classical rigour and just a touch of the blues, a Gershwin surge; the other a sparing, daring and downright muscular riff on punchy modernism, the Glass act.“
In this video the designers go on to describe the imaginary occupants that helped shape their vision for the two apartments. A technique I am sure most artists can relate too.
Enjoy
TrVZ
3 Years At The Same Place – The Remix
This past October I posted a video time-lapse titled 3 Years At The same Place by Ramon. Today Ramon posted an alternative version of that video in the increasingly popular portrait orientation. This is the second video I found shot in portrait where the form actually serves a function and enhances the experience. The first being Enjoy 2011. I can’t decide whether shooting in portrait has any long lasting artistic merit or whether it is just a passing fad. I thought this might be an opportune moment to make a side by side comparison.
Most of the times it seems that shooting in portrait is a result of default camera phone settings or someone who is trying to be different for the sake of being different. However in this video the vertical nature of the main subject justifies the change in perspective. I am also really diggin’ the Polaroid effect, the vintage color treatment and the kinetic text. That being said everything about the original version with the exception of the landscape orientation feels more contemporary, and seeing more on the X axis as opposed to the Y axis (probably due to our familiarity with it both in real life and on screen) just feels less restricting. But don’t take my word for it, judge for yourself.
TrVZ
This Must Be The Place – BYUN
This video from Lost & Found films profiles Chon Gon Byun and his eclectic home in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. It is a joy to see the intimate relationship Byun has with all of the assorted items found in his travels. Byun describes his penchant for collecting like this,
“In New York, there is a lot that is thrown away and a lot that is sold. You can create a lot of stories by putting these pieces together.”
This video is also a great example of the subtle and often undervalued power of sound editing. Listen to the sounds of the space, the dead air, the small engines at work, how Byun’s voice fills this space. Listen to how the soundtrack builds as the story builds. Lost & Found films are on top of their game.
Enjoy
TreVZ
Tiny Feature Saturday’s – Shelter
This week on TFS we bring you a Jason Sussberg short profiling author, photographer, and pioneer of the green building and green architecture movements Lloyd Kahn. Lloyd is also the founding editor-in-chief of Shelter Publications, Inc.
“Lloyd has been grappling with the concept of home, physically and psychically, for over five decades. Situated in the financial and housing crisis, this film profiles Lloyd’s ideas on do-it-yourself construction and sustainability.”
This video shot in 16mm actually left me wanting more.
Enjoy
TreVZ
Lost & Found | The High Line
Here is a video piece courtesy of Lost & Found Films and commissioned by the folks at Wallpaper Magazine about everyone’s favorite new public space, The High Line Park.
Enjoy
TreVZ
There’s No Place Like Here: Hindsvik
This video by Pascal Perich for the website Etsy.com, documents the humble and majestic home of Daniel and Valeria, also known as Hindsvik. Located a few minutes from Lake Erie in Port Colborne, Canada, it is just the kind of place I hope to purchase one day to get away from the grind that is NYC. Hopefully I can find one not to far from my roots, somewhere Upstate (NY). I love the pacing of this piece, it is the video equivalent of one of my favorite sites The Selby is in Your Place.
Enjoy
TreVZ
City Short – Helsinki
This short courtesy of the fine folks at Wallpaper and directed by Joel Hypén focuses on the city of Helsinki, Finland. If you are a fan of design and architecture like I am, you will probably be interested in learning a little bit about what makes the World Design Capitol of 2012 tick.
Enjoy
TreVZ
TINY FEATURE SATURDAY’S – The Third & The Seventh
This weeks entry to TFS is a film by Alex Roman that is absolutely unreal. Alex describes it as
“A FULL-CG animated piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces. Sometimes in an abstract way. Sometimes surreal.”
The visuals are mind-blowing but also pay close attention to the sound editing. It is a listening experience reminiscent of THX 1138 or 2001 A Space Odyssey. I ask you to please resist your A.D.D. tendencies and allow this film to play to the end. After all that is why we present these longer format films on Saturday, you will not be disappointed. And please FULLSCREEN it.
Also I would like to thank BECOME.COM for featuring TheNewPop in it’s Best of the Web series. Here is an excerpt.
“More than anything else I want people to appreciate the emerging viral filmmaker as the new kid on the block. Ironically my own films are secondary to that goal. Creatively I tend to either make my videos entirely for me, or I make them entirely for a client. When I find a happy medium in that spectrum I think my focus will shift from promoting the medium to promoting myself.”
Thanks guys.
Enjoy
TreVZ
3 Years at the same place – Time-lapse
From Paris France this time lapse video documents the Sequana Project in Paris France. The video was produced over the course of 3 years and utilizes over 4500 still images from the same vantage point. Some people find the text to be a distraction, I think it enhances the experience. I also love watching how the change of seasons affect the trees in the foreground.
Enjoy