Woodkid – “Iron” music video

Director Yoann Lemoine has crafted a fantastic four minute visual feast for the song “Iron” by Woodkid. Salivating wolves, hypnotic owls, high contrast, slow motion fight scenes and a post apocalyptic Agyness Deyn. The visuals sit somewhere between Hedi Slimane and “300″ director Zack Snyder, with hi rez CGI blending seamlessly into conventionally shot portraits and running scenes. It’s a buildup to some epic battle, hopefully a sequel is in the works?

Nobuhiro Nakanishi – Layered Landscapes

Nobuhiro Nakanishi‘s Layered Landscapes are pieces of pure beauty. The pieces consist of hanging sheets of acetate with still images affixed to them. Like a slide show or a film strip slowed down, expanded and hung to dry, they attempt to pause the movement of clouds and air over cities and mountains while giving a sense of the momentary fleetness each blink of an eye can contain. Powerful statements in a beautiful, simple execution.

See more of Nakanishi’s work here.

(via My Modern Met)

Film – Nobuhiko Obayashi’s “House” (1977)

A witch cat, a murderous spirit of a deceased Aunt, her possessed house of horrors and group of young girls led by sisters named Gorgeous and Fantasy make up the main characters in the recently re-released Criterion Collection pressing of Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 1977 horror film, House. But what I found even more remarkable and was, evidently, unprepared for, were the pure pop fantasy and surreal directing and cinematography. Cartoonish animation, symbolic rivers of blood, mountains of severed body parts, and tons of demonic glowing eyes often inhabit the same scenes and even the same shot. Quick flashes and strobe-light editing along with bold uses of color also create a nightmarish mirage of kaleidoscopic experiences as you watch these young heroines fight for their lives within this crazy fever dream of sequences.

I highly recommend sitting back, ignoring any pretense of narrative or story arc you may attempt to form and simply allow the visuals to wash over you. They may be bizarre, and sometimes unintentionally hilarious, but they are always well crafted and come from a highly creative place.

Check of some screen grabs and the trailer after the jump!

Peter Phillips + Chanel = “Here Comes The Beauty Pack” video

Head over to the wonderful Nowness website to see an exclusive stop-motion film created by Peter Philips to promote Chanel‘s newest cosmetics and makeup products. Entitled Here Comes The Beauty Pack, the short film is full of great executions and clever ideas using only the simple shapes of the items to form spiders, robots and fierce fashionistas.

Click here to see Here Comes The Beauty Pack.

TRON Legacy – “making of” video

Fantastic behind the scenes making-of video showing how a lot of the stunts and CGI wizardry was done for the TRON Legacy. Nice to see some good ole’ fashioned acrobatics and acting were at the core of a majority of the film. The video does contain some spoilers, so for those of you who haven’t seen it yet (and you should), be prepared.

Update: Looks like Disney keeps taking this video down all over YouTube, hopefully the new link works. If not, do a search for “making of TRON” at YouTube. God forbid Disney has some content that promotes a popular movie up on the internet for free.

Eiko Ishioka

I have a tradition every Halloween, I grab a tall glass of red wine, a warm blanket, turn off all the lights and watch Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 epic Bram Stoker’s Dracula. To me, it’s the perfect accompaniment to a holiday about darkness and death. A lush, entrancing film that’s more about operatic set pieces and costumes than a clear narrative. It’s a satisfying visual masterpiece that I’ll take over a sack of candy any day. This last Halloween was no different, and in fact the next day I ended up watching another visually opulent and artistic movie, director Tarsem’s second major motion picture, The Fall.

And I noticed visual cues in the costumes that led me to IMDB, and reading all about the fascinating artist, set and costume designer Eiko Ishioka.

Cassius – “I Love You So” video + app

About a month ago, I praised the track “I Love You So” from french-house act Cassius, off their new Rawker EP for Ed Banger Records. Now, as you can see from the video above a very harmless and adorable app has been created to coincide with the single’s release.

The iPhone app is available on the App Store through your iTunes.

Kanye West – “Runaway” long form video

Though by no means an immaculate opus, Kanye West‘s newest, a 40 minute long form video entitled “Runaway” is filled with pretty inspired visuals and directorial decisions. The story unfolds about a fallen angel and her need to return to heaven, and Kanye fills the screen with images of fire and nature, car crashes and solemn dinner parties. The long shots and takes are nods to great directors like Van Sant and Kubrick, while the subject matter, color palettes and symbolism reminds me a lot of 70′s auteurs like Jodorowsky and Pasolini.

It’s worth checking out, if you have 40 minutes to spare. It’s not perfect, and a bit longwinded, and not exactly acted well, but for a music video it carries large themes and defies the typical cliches associated with hip-hop imagery. I for one, can celebrate that.

2010 Vimeo Festival + Awards

Last week Vimeo, the online video submission and portfolio site, announced the winners of their very first Vimeo Awards, recognizing excellence in the short films created this year and uploaded to their site. The esteemed jury panel included the likes of David Lynch, Doug Pray, MIA and many others. Below are a couple of videos I found particularly visually interesting or just plain inspirational.

Best Animation for “Between Bears” by Eran Hilleli

Best Experimental for “Oops” by Chris Beckman (love the unexpected transitions!)

Best Captured for “Fluid Sculpture” by Charlie Bucket

You can see and read about all the great winners here.

 

Flying Lotus / Beeple – “Kill Your Co-workers” video

A love parade of sorts goes terribly, terribly wrong in the adorably violent new video for Flying Lotus‘ single “Kill Your Co-Workers”, produced and directed by Beeple.

Luckily all is forgiven in the end.