Artist Spotlight: Volkan Ergen

Immersive urban avant-garde film, or what a tabby cat has to do with the Bosphorus at night.

Turkish filmmaker Volkan Ergen does what we like to call “immersive urban avant-garde cinematography” – film that fully submerges you into the aura of a city, from its sights and sounds, to its distinct color scheme, to its can’t-quite-put-your-finger-on feel.

In Two Wings, he explores the rich magnetism of a stroll down the Bosphorus in Istanbul. Shot in Ergen’s signature split screen, the film is all afternoon decadence of light and color, oozing the tangible and raw sounds of the city, embraced by a hypnotic music score

Expect captures the inner quietude of waiting amidst the loudness of one’s surroundings.

See more of Volkan’s work on Vimeo, or brave the language barrier by Google-Translating your way into his personal site.

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Animation Spotlight: Big Buck Bunny

Seven months in Amsterdam, a very fat rabbit, and some really, really mean rodents.

In October 2007, the Blender Foundation decided to invite seven of the world’s best 3D animators to Amsterdam, where the team was to spend 7 months collaborating on a short film licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

Dubbed the Peach Open Movie Project, the effort resulted in Big Buck Bunny — a delightful animation showcasing both world-class talent and the ability to create phenomenal content through collaboration.

So if you’re a believer in this kind of idea propagation, do scroll down to the bottom of this page an make a modest PayPal donation.

Meanwhile, the film is also available to download in a variety of free formats. Or, you can buy the DVD, which includes a number of super sweet extras besides the HD film — the original script and story files, all models and textures used to animate the characters, commentary tracks by the animators themselves, and more.

Here’s to the power of creative collaboration.

via Abduzeedo

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Uncovered Gem of the Week: Tarsem’s The Fall

25 years of cinematographic obsession, or what Nike has to do with a 6-year-old Romanian girl.

Chances are, you’re already familiar with legendary director Tarsem (pronounced tar-SAME) and his prolific commercial work for brands like Guinness, Nike, Levi’s and Motorola RAZR, as well as music videos like R.E.M.’s famed Losing My Religion.

What you may not be familiar with is his colossal pet project. The Fall, inspired by 1981 Bulgarian movie Yo Ho Ho, took 25 years to make and was shot on 26 locations across 18 countries. The film was quietly released in 2006 and swept the festival circuit, polarizing critics and audiences with its dramatic avant garde style and odd head-scratcher of a plot. And while The Fall sets a whimsical playground for the bizarre, the macabre and the idiosyncratic, what’s even more fascinating than the film itself is the story behind it.

If Tarsem‘s style, however distinctive, seems vaguely familiar, it may be because he keeps rather famous company. His posse includes iconic director Spike Jonze and filmmaker David Fincher of Se7en, Fight Club, and Zodiac fame. The two were, in fact, instrumental to making the The Fall happen by getting Tarsem to finally move from obsession to production.

We have a hard time pegging The Fall — it’s part The Wizard of Oz, part Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon, part Bjork, part something else entirely. And while it’s just as likely to leave you overwhelmed with sheer awe as it is to make you underwhelmed and confused, it’s worth the watch even merely for the breathtaking cinematography, the phenomenal locations, and the brave play of light and color.

Watch The Fall and stay tuned for Tarsem’s new project, Greek epic War of Gods, now in production.

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Birth of an Idea: The Ride

Flying cars, exploding brains and how the creative process comes to life.

New year, new idea playing field. So instead of the standard, contrived wishes of prosperity, health and love — who the hell needs those anyway? — we’ll wish you a year full of big ideas that take flight, boldly and blindly and ever so freely.

And because those in the business of ideas know the beautiful chaos of the creative process, some have taken it upon themselves to bring it to life.

Courtesy of Santa-Monica-based motion graphics and design studio King & Country, here’s The Ride: A wonderful animation short that captures the magic of the formation, ripening and fruition of a great idea — from the unrefined roughness of the seed to the polished brilliance of the final product — taking us along for the ride.

(Download the hi-def Quicktime here… it’s worth it.)

Here’s to the life of the mind and a brand new canvas for the art of creative vision.

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