Valencia – Astonishing City of Arts and Sciences

There are not many places you can visit on Earth that enable you to imagine that you have been transported to a city of the future or, indeed, to an alien culture many light years away from our third rock from the sun. However, the City of Arts and Sciences is just that sort of place.

Image Credit Flickr User Jules Antonio

The City of Arts and Sciences is something of a Phoenix in nature. Its home is the old bed of the river Turia. In 1957 the city of Valencia suffered a great flood and the river was diverted, which enabled the area where the City of Arts and Sciences now stands to become a park in 1980. The city itself started construction in 1994 and the last finished great project there was opened in 2005.

How to Do Visual Comedy

If you love visual comedy, then let Tony Zhou introduce you to the work of Edgar Wright, one of the few filmmakers who is consistently finding humor through framing, camera movement, editing, goofy sound effects and music. This is an analysis and an appreciation of a director so awesome that Marvel had to fire him on a holiday and it may make you think: yes, visual comedy in the movies has got very sloppy recently.

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Buy Buy Baby

It's the roaring twenties and things are looking great for Frederick Frinklesworth II and the rest of the New York Stock Exchange, but when his daughter Betty is left in his care for the day can Fredrick and Wall Street survive the mayhem that ensues?.  This is the graduate film of Gervais Merryweather, the climax of his studies at the National Film and Television School. It’s both a homage to animation of the past and very modern at the same time.

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New York Looks Amazing This Summer

Colby Moore has created something very special here – he has captured the sights and sounds of New York in this visually amazing and truly cinematic short film.  It is almost as if, amongst all the humanity and the never ending movement, that the city is waiting for something to happen.  The music, Black Vortex from Kevin MacLeod adds to this sense of expectation.  If you aren’t going to be in New York this summer, this is the next best thing.

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The Photography of Jack Délano - the Man who Colored the Forties

Image Credit Flickr Library of Congress 

Above: A young worker at the C & NW RR 40th Street shops, Chicago, Illinois, 1942.

"I was interested in people not only as images, but also as human beings. In stories that they would tell me or interviews I had with them. It seemed to be it was an important part of what I was trying to communicate." 

    - Jack Délano, Far From Main Street

Image Credit Flickr Library of Congress

Above: Taken in September 1941, this is the backstage area of the girlie show at the Vermont State Fair.

Many people will admit to having eclectic tastes but a significantly smaller number would be able to raise their hands and profess to having eclectic talents too.  Not so Jack Délano whose pictures of ordinary American life in the 1940s made him world famous as a photographer.  He was, however, also a trained musician, a composer, an illustrator and latterly a film and documentary maker. Here, we shall focus on his photography but as we examine his work in this field we hope to also include detail of his other areas of artistic interests.

Find Out How Movie Executives Dreams Up the Next Big Franchise

Have you ever wondered how movie executives come up with their ideas (usually as you are sitting in a theater wondering why you just paid to watch the digital car crash taking place in front of your eyes? Look no further – here is a sneak peak in to the manoeuvrings of those wonderful people as they discuss the next big movie franchise – Boats.  This (sadly, probably very true but very funny) short was written, Directed, and Edited by Justin Dec.

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Binairy Talk: Can Smoke Signals Transmit Digital Data?

Professors at the Köln International School of Design in Germany wanted to see if they could transmit digital data using smoke signals - because.  The result was this installation which they dubbed Binairy Talk. Air serves as the communication medium for binary code, as a carrier of data and information across a distance.  And the message they chose to transmit? In a cheeky nod to the history of programming it was Hello World!

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Take a Quad-Copter Ride Over Downtown Los Angeles

Filmmaker Ian Wood used a lightweight remote controlled quad-copter and camera system to take these remarkable shots of Downtown Los Angeles.  Above the hustle and bustle of the streets it is easier to get a real feel for the sheer visual detail of the architecture and art in the downtown area.   Plus using this sort of technology it gets us the kind of view that we can ordinarily never hope for – and the results are stunning.

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Watch This Toddler Have Her First Paragliding Adventure

Luisa is a very lucky little girl if you ask me, even though I am not quite sure how I would have reacted being hundreds of feet above the ground when I was her age.  I probably would have screamed my head off for the duration but Luisa takes it in her stride and with such easiness that it looks as if she has done it a hundred times before  In fact I would probably scream my head off for the duration even now.

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Dewi the Dragon: Guardian of Castle Harlech (and Coolest Dragon on Earth)

Harlech Castle was constructed atop a spur of rock next to the Irish Sea by Edward I of England to seal his victory over Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last sovereign Prince of Wales. Although the sea has retreated and no longer protects the castle a new guardian has recently arrived. Where water once protected Harlech, now it is fire. Dewi the Dragon, resplendent in his scaly coat of steel, is the new sentinel of the still magnificent medieval castle and guards the town’s inhabitants from harm.

Image Credit Flickr User Eddie Evans

The red dragon (y ddraig goch) has for centuries been the symbol of Wales and the Welsh - it can still be seen throughout the country every day wherever the nation's flag is flown.  It is thought to have been the standard of King Arthur, although its first appearance in writing comes from the Historia Brittonum written around 828CE. It also appears in the Mabinogion, collated in medieval times from the ancient narrative oral and written traditions of the Welsh. The list could go on but suffice it to say that the red dragon for many symbolizes all things Welsh.

The Blind Photographer

Brenden Borrellini is both deaf and blind so photography might not be a hobby one would imagine him taking up.  So how does that work? This question led the group to research devices that would enable a two dimensional photograph to become a three dimensional photograph so that Brendan could also be able to interpret the textures in the photograph.  Human determination and compassion: when the two come together it can be sublime.

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The Adobe Illustrator Story

When Adobe Illustrator first shipped in 1987, it was the first software application for a young company that had, until then, focused solely on Adobe PostScript. The new product not only altered Adobe’s course, it changed drawing and graphic design forever. Watch the Illustrator story unfold, from its beginning as Adobe’s first software product, to its role in the digital publishing revolution, to becoming an essential tool for designers worldwide.

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The Collector’s Gift

A young girl stumbles across a chest left behind by the mysterious collector many years before. What she has discovered may change her world forever.  This is a story with a simple premise (and let’s face it, that’s always the way with the best ones).  Created by Ryan Kravetz during his time at the University of Southern California it will come as no surprise that this has been included in over 25 festivals and screenings around the world.  It’s just lovely.

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