Ahmed Aldoori – Dune V Lawrence of Arabia

Ahmed Aldoori recently put out a reaction and artist critique video of the recent Dune trailer from Denis Villeneuve. I thought the trailer looked interesting, I hadn’t seen any visuals from this new film yet and I have really loved Villeneuve’s work in the past.

Mr Aldoori had some criticisms, specifically about the use of color in the film grade. He brings up the point that overall the feeling is grey and muted down. And that while this is supposed to be a stark dry desert planet, that doesn’t necessarily mean ‘colorless’. As a counterpoint he shows many examples from the 1962 masterpiece, Lawrence of Arabia. Also in the desert, also stark, also dry. But because of the film stock, and the realities of a real desert location. Colors lighting that could be easily missed by a very green screen-heavy, matte-painted, digital filmmaking process.

He also takes issue with the reluctance current digital filmmakers tend to have at avoiding black and silhouettes. People shoot raw, they have details in the shadows, and theres a tendency to want to keep that information because its there. And also people all down the line from directors and DP’s to post production artists are more used to seeing this footage where even in the blacks, there is detail. And that affects the final grade.

Ahmed talks about blacks, and their use in a composition to lead the eye. As a way of making a photograph bold and graphic.

Lusine – Just A Cloud

This video for Just a Cloud by Lusine, like I’m fond of saying, succeeds as a simple premise well executed. It shows transcendence through a solitary moment, losing oneself as you might do with sensory deprivation or psychedelics…

There are obvious allusions to 2001 and the portal, a cinematic reference that you see over and over again because its so powerful and so well done. I’ve even tried to reference it, its such a huge landmark in effects an storytelilng and cinema.

Reisinger says he wanted to explore the idea of somebody waking up to the realization that we live in a simulated universe…

"In a lot of fictional examples, a character awakens from a simulated world and into the real world, where everything is the same. Color, light, matter—all behave the same as in the simulation. I wanted to put our character through a similar awakening, but into a reality that's overwhelming and incomprehensible. It's the same idea Arthur C. Clarke expressed about advanced civilizations appearing magical to us. If there is a higher reality, experiencing it for the first time would probably be completely disorienting."

I’m not sure I got that message, or if thats what I would have thought without reading that that was the case from the people behind it. I saw it more as an inward journey. The expansion of the of the self, of the mind. But that was just my take. This was a very well done exploration either way though.

There a lot more extended coverage here from Creators Project.

Lusine at Ghostly.

Kerala – Bonobo

Bonobo Kerala - Directed by Bison

I love this video. Its so simple in concept but so effective in its storytelling. It's simply hypnotic in a way of only revealing a few more frames at a time with each loop back. Also the subtlety in the visual effects here is impressive. Things are happening, but we are a little unclear exactly what, or how. And with each loop back we are both teased and pulled away from what we just saw and given another chance to watch it through.

Well done, Bison.