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online now!
Project: MiniMovies
Back online on May 8, Molotov Alva and his search for the Creator: A Second Life Odyssey, the first documentary entirely shot within Second Life. Episode 1 of this very first MiniMovie was released online in March 2007 under the title My Second Life and became a smash hit on YouTube virtually overnight, catching the attention of a number of US TV networks. HBO ended up securing the rights for the North American territories for an undisclosed six figure sum. A unique feat for a show that was produced for the web although due to contractual restrictions it had to be taken temporarily offline. Thus, the story so far. Now the most anticipated Machinima film of the year returns with the simulcast premiere of "Molotov Alva" on Thursday May 15th at 8pm/7c on Cinemax, Cinemax.com and Cinemax Island in Second Life. Read more here. Non US residents will be able to see the film on molotovalva.com, where it will be streamed.
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News
"Molotov Alva took us on an incredible journey... Now it’s your turn to show us "Your virtual Life". This is the tagline of the Molotov Alva Machinima Contest that just launched on Machinima.com. The idea is that you create a machinima video using your favourite video game or virtual world, and blow everyone's minds. Cinemax picks 3 winners from the top ten favorites selected by the Machinima.com community. There's $3500 in cash prizes. The first entry is already in (Watch My Addiction by Meowan). You can submit your film till May 18th. Visit Machinima.com for more info. Good luck and happy shooting.
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Project: Friends
Pitchfork.tv is a new and very cool TV channel, online. Launched on the 7th of April, this is the first online video music channel dedicated to documenting independent music as it happens. The, as always, independent Pitchfork, known for their up to date music coverage and criticism will bring to you now, full-length feature films, mini-documentaries, vintage concerts, secret rooftop and basement sessions, exclusive interviews, and more than 300 music vids, all free of charge and available on-demand. You could say it’s what a modern MTV with priorities would look like. Now Playing for one week only: Eating Sleeping Playing and Waiting: A Film About Air on Tour by our friend Mike Mills.
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Project: Friends
Although the short time-lapse film about the making of his paper-cuts is quit boring, Javan Ivey’s stop-motion film My Paper Mind is absolutely beautiful. In this experimental animation Javan explores the possibilities of the Stratastencil-technique which he invented himself. The result is amazing, we especially like the flowmotion of the swing.
His technique is exactly the opposite of the traditional Stratacut technique: Stratacut removes material to reveal another layer, while this technique adds another layer while still showing the layer before it. Instead of clay, Javan uses paper. If you want to find out more about the classic method of Stratacut techinique, click here
It isn’t easy, and that goes for Javan’s new adaptation too, but luckily he is most happy when “solving the simplest of problems with the most complex of creative engineering solutions in order to further the idea of animation as an art form.”
Check out Javan’s website
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News
We all know that mantises have pretty kinky sex: while they mate, the female mantis eats the head of the male, which makes him bang her even more vigorously.
Well, it was facts like these that inspired well-known Italian actress Isabella Rossellini to write and direct a series of very short films titled Green Porno. The films, in which Rossellini features herself, are a comical study of the curious ways certain insects copulate.
Each film is a mixture of real world and cartoon in which Rossellini transforms into the male of the species. The costumes, colorful sets and backdrops as well as the female insects contribute to the playfulness of the films. These episodes may not be XXX-rated, but “the way bugs make love“, says Rossellini, “is very pornographic”.
All 8 of the Green Porno short films will be viewable on sundancechannel.com beginning Monday, may 5.
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Project: Chunks
We're working hard on a new version of Pause. Pause - Freezing Music Video Culture - is our ever popular archive of online music videos and director interviews. The program dates back to 2002 - the time of Glazer, Gondry, Mills, WIZ, Jonze, and the likes. The music industry is changing dramatically, and so is the music video industry, partly because of YouTube and of course peer-to-peer music sharing. Budgets for promos are not as high anymore as they once were. But still, a lot of great directors are emerging. Our new Pause will include works from this new generation of music video directors. One you will definitely find in the new Pause is Motomichi Nakamura, a regular artists on SubmarineChannel. Here's his latest music video for Temposhark. Hot off the press.
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News
Director Garth Jennings, famous for beautiful music videos like Fatboy Slim's Right Here, Right Now and REM's Imitation of Life (we have them right here for you)
has made a feature film called Son Of Rambow. It's a semi-autobiographical movie about two schoolboys who make their own camcorder version of the 1982 hit movie Rambo: First Blood. In an interview with BBC radio Jennings talks about his ludicrous eighties childhood and his obsession with the maverick title hero: "That first Rambo movie really blew our minds. It felt so close to home. We were always playing in the forest and here is this guy who takes mucking around in the forest to the extreme. With just a knife and sticks he takes on 200 men. It was so resourceful".
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For those of you who like the quick YouTube fix now and then: we've joined the ranks on YouTube. We'll be posting trailers from our DVDs, Pretty Cool People Interviews, and Minimovies - lots of 'em. We hereby invite you to have a look and join our still very modest group of friends and subscribers and turn this thing into a monster of a success. See you there (and back here).
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dark 'n' dirty music promo for
Nobody Beats The Drum
Director Rogier van der Zwaag, describes this music video for Nobody Beats the Drum as dark and dirty. It sure looks like an icky place to be! NBTD is a Dutch breakbeat formation with a knack for word play and of course a talent for great electro beats. In fact, beats are the most important thing to them. Hence the name. Their track, Quit Your Job, directed by Rogier, is disturbing and filled with nightmarisch creatures - kind of Chris Cunninham-ish. See the promo and read what Rogier has to say about it.
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News
The Dutch city of Utrecht in the Netherlands is the home of the annual Impakt festival (May 7 – 11, 2008). Lots of good stuff too see and experience at Impakt. (Of course, we're terribly biased. SubmarineChannel was invited to partake in a panel). But even if you can't visit the festival, you might want to check out Impakt's program for the sheer sake of inspiration. Especially noteworthy is the work of invited artist Federico Solmi. According the catalogue, "Solmi draws his inspiration from video games, pop culture and the Internet". Impakt screens 4 of Solmi's incredible and sometimes controversial animated films. See the trailers on YouTube. A must see, if you're into weird, hand-made, original animations - like we are.
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News
Very much a "What The Hell Are We Doing" kind of film, this eco-documentary has been four years in the making (five for some). And in the case of The Age Of Stupid blending fictional elements with reality makes for a truth scarier then fiction often is. A scary truth that is not only inconvenient but also relatively lacking in intelligent input. Six real stories of war, poverty and disaster are brought together and intertwined by one heavy weight of an actor, namely the Oscar nominated Pete Postlethwaite, who plays an archivist, the only fictional character in the film. As he digs through remnants of our lives (footage of the documentaries) he wonders how we ever let it get this far. It’s the year 2055 and runaway climate change has wiped out hundreds of millions of people and destroyed huge parts of the world. It seems we really do live in the age of stupid, and this movie wants to knock some sense into us.
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Project: Pretty Cool People
Interviews
‘I thought it was pure vandalism.’ This was her opinion before Martha Cooper really understood what was going on, but once she became acquainted with some of the first spray can artists in New York she was immediately immersed in the graffiti subculture.
Cooper’s area of expertise is best described as man’s interaction with (urban) environment. As an photographer and anthropologist she is especially fascinated with the various ways in which young people appropriate and personalise their surroundings. Cooper documents this converting by means of markers and spray cans in stunning pictures.
A while ago Cooper was in Amsterdam and SubmarineChannel’s Pretty Cool People crew talked to her about the early years of the graffiti phenomena.
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by Nils Mühlenbruch
Project: Chunks
We have a new chunk for you all. It's pretty clear cut. It's an animation, it's distorted and it's cool. however, some questions remain. Questions such as; Are we being visually abused or is Nils Mühlenbruch abusing the visual images? Maybe the images are about abuse? What ever the case, one cannot argue that the words “visual” and “abuse” are sufficient to describe the content and maybe even the style of this short, but it is not enough to sum up the experience, which is best described as “overpowering, eclectic and maybe a little crazy”. Nils uses bright colours, a mixed palette and some incredible imagery. Look out for the leek. For more information and more of Nils' work you can check out an interview Submarine did with Drifter TV.
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Project: Friends
Tale of Tales is Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn's games development studio. Both award-winning designers in their own right, the duo has been operating on the forefront of independent game design. Their latest game, The Graveyard, is actually more like a painting of a grave yard you can explore, slowly. Once inside this painting you take on the character of an old lady. The gameplay is simple. You can walk around, sit on a bench, and listen to a song all the while contemplating the tomb stones surrounding you. The makers, Harvey and Samyn, describe it as real-time poetry - an attempt to tell a story without words.
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Project: Pretty Cool People Interviews
“Because I was bored with what I saw on tv, we started very graphical pieces. We wanted to show some nice, uplifting stuff rather than easy-shocking, dark ones.” Music video director Alex Courtes motivates his fascination for bright colours and clear graphic styles that characterize his earliest promo’s, which he made in cooperation with his creative partner Martin Fougerol. In the past 8 years they made downright brilliant videos for much acclaimed artists like Air, The White Stripes, U2 and Jamiroquai. In a new episode of our Pretty Cool People Interviews series we meet up with Alex in his cozy apartment in Paris where he explains how their careers kick-started after their first promo for Cassius.
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Project: Forget the Film
Watch the Titles
Turn your lights down low, turn the volume up on your speakers and watch the blood chilling new title sequence by the London division of design studio Momoco for the vampire movie 30 days of Night. Title designer and director Nic Benns talks in great detail about the production process of the title sequence and he reveals what makes the best fake blood and fake snow...
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