Inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, “Morris Lessmore” is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor.
Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story.
Using a variety of techniques (miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation) award winning author/ illustrator William Joyce and Co-director Brandon Oldenburg present a new narrative experience that harkens back to silent films and M-G-M Technicolor musicals. “Morris Lessmore” is old fashioned and cutting edge at the same time.
“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” is one of five animated short films that will be considered for outstanding film achievements of 2011 in the 84th Academy Awards ®.
Three guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage... all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films. A trip of a lifetime.
All six films—running between five and ten minutes and covering issues from public health to poverty—are now available to watch for free here.
The final film to be released, Youth Build: BuildingYouth, will also premiere at the first-ever Building a Grad Nation Summit in Washington D.C. this week.
Filmmakers Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern created this film, drawn from a longer documentary which highlights Youth Build's innovative approach to supporting young under-served urban Americans as they work to graduate high school and continue their education.
Click here to read more about the Youth Build program, or watch the short film.
Here in SoCal, we have five seasons: Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall and Award Season. The grand finale of 'Award Season' are the Academy Awards.
This year the ceremony takes place on February 27, 2011 at the Kodak Theatre and will be hosted by Gen Y stars James Franco and Anne Hathaway.
It's been a rough couple years for the annual telecast with ratings taking a bit of a hit---especially among Millennials. However, last year the Academy Awards made a concerted effort to attract youth to the show and it paid off with a 14% boost to Oscar TV ratings among 18-49 year olds.
The 2010 Oscars youth strategy included a more social media experience, the inclusion of teen friendly stars like Miley Cyrus, Zac Effron and Taylor Lautner as presenters, two original Oscars web series (Behind the Dress & The Road to the Oscars), extra video features and live streaming of the Red Carpet arrivals.
This year The Academy of Motion Picture Art & Sciences is once again rolling out the red carpet in a bid to attract a more youthful and technically savvy demographic with a new interactive technology that gives online Oscar fans the ultimate insider's view of Hollywood's biggest night.
The new premium feature is called Oscar All Access, and gives fans an insider’s view of the evening from the Red Carpet all the way through the Governor’s Ball.
Members (signing up is $4.99) actually will have the ability to control their own experience using the groundbreaking “360 cam” technology to control multiple cameras along the Red Carpet, at the Awards show, and afterwards at the Governor’s Ball.
In addition to Oscar All Access experience, the Academy also has an official Backstage PassiPhone and iPad App that allow you to have a more interactive social entertainment experience with the Academy Awards show. Hopefully next year they will expand the Backstage Pass to include all types of Android mobile devices.
It's great to see The Academy embracing new media and providing fans with a more interactive experience. Last year was a step in the right direction and hopefully their social TV friendly approach will pay off in big ratings boost among younger and tech savvy demographic groups.
P.S. As long as I have your attention, if you haven't already--go see Oscar host James Franco in his Oscar nominated role for the film 127 Hours. The story, the acting, the cinematography are amazing. Go James! Go Danny Boyle!
Remember back a few years when Flickr introduced video and everyone freaked out and lamented the "YouTube-ization" of Flickr?
Well thankfully indie media artist and photographer Matthew Parsons ignored the weeping and wailing and got to work creating videos that prove short form video does indeed have a place on Flickr.
Matthew, who goes by Fanboy30 on Flickr, RedBubble and Twitter, has created a short film titled "Immersed" that is nothing short of amazing.
Lean forward and watch this mesmerizing bit of indie filmmaking.
DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help public school students in need. Public school teachers from every corner of the US post classroom project requests on DonorsChoose.
Things like pencils for a poetry writing class, violins for a school recital or microscope slides for a biology class. Then anyone can browse the classroom requests and give any amount to the ones that inspire them.
Donors Choose is one of my favorite charities. I like to support projects geared towards kids who live in rural or inner city school districts who are looking for donations to buy books.
But the beauty of Donors Choose is that you can support any public school request you want! So if you want to support sports, technology or other projects, you can! At DonorsChoose.org folks can give as little as $1 and get the same level of choice.
Here's another way you can help DonorsChoose and learn more about the American education system. Waiting for Superman is a new documentary by Davis Guggenheim that explores the current state of education in America and how it's affecting our children.
The film was recently featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show and has received both rave reviews and condemnation. The truth, as it most often does, lies somewhere between the two extremes.
But here's the deal. Nothing will get better unless we start the conversation. And that is exactly what Waiting for Superman does so effectively. It gets the conversation going and will hopefully motivate people to jump in and help be part of the solution.
DonorsChoose is part of the solution. It's a ground level, hands on way to effect change, one classroom at a time. Here's an easy way to get involved: For each "Waiting for Superman" movie ticket purchased on Fandango or book purchased, you'll receieve a $15 gift code that you can use on DonorsChoose to help fund a classroom request.
This interactive map, powered by Bing, displays classroom projects actively seeking support that were posted by public schools in your area. The map automagically detects your location and shows local schools in your area who are seeking support through DonorsChoose.org!
So stop Waiting for Superman to find a solution! Be a superhero by getting involved in the PTA, your kids' classroom and by supporting on the ground organizations like DonorsChoose!
Update: Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, announced on the Oprah Winfrey Show that he has created a foundation—Startup: Education—with an initial gift of $100 million to improve educational opportunities for young people in America.
The foundation’s first project will support Governor Christie and Mayor Booker’s bipartisan initiative, PENewark (Partnership for Education in Newark), to ensure every school-aged child in Newark has access to a high-quality education that prepares them for a successful future and a better quality of life.
For three weeks this summer, twenty African artists met on the Island of Manda, Kenya to take part in Sundance Institute's first-ever East African Theatre Lab.
To support the development of their original stories for the stage, the Institute's staff and advisors encouraged participating artists to freely explore the creative possibilities within their work.
Lab participants represented a new generation of African writers, musicians, and performers, and their work promises to introduce storytelling that is exciting and innovative to audiences around the world.
It is with support from people like us that Sundance can continue to advance originality, diversity, and authenticity in independent film and theatre. Be a part of the stories that need to be heard.
A video by indie filmaker, Andrea Dorfman, and poet/singer/songwriter, Tanya Davis.
Davis wrote the beautiful poem and performed in the video which Dorfman directed, shot, animated by hand and edited. The video was shot in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and was produced by Bravo!FACT.
Hewlett-Packard is finding unusual comrades -- members of China's
Communist Youth League -- to help expand its business in rural China.
The HP USVO "Creating a Better Life" contest, announced in December
2009, encouraged USVOs to submit plans on how IT can help their
respective villages. The U.S. company received over 1,000 submissions
and whittled the entries down to 100. Almost 59,000 USVOs and village
residents cast online votes to name 30 finalists.
The "Creating a Better Life" program was hosted on a micro-site (cunguan.youth.cn/hp)
on the Communist Youth League's web platform Youth.cn. That's a "major"
show of government support for the contest, said Mr. Seow, because the
Youth.cn site falls directly under the authority of China's Communist
Party.
Some of the twenty-something USVOs who took part in the contest
already have a relationship with HP. As college grads who mostly come
from China's most sophisticated cities like Beijing, Shanghai and
provincial capitals, many were already tech-savvy consumers, exactly the
target market for HP's earlier three-year "My Computer, My Stage"
program.
"My Computer, My Stage" was designed to show budding filmmakers, artists
and musicians how much fun HP products could be in the pursuit of
self-expression.
What does your Life
in a Day look like? Everyone has a story. Every day has a story. Sundance and YouTube want you to share your story with the world.
Sundance
Institute are joining forces with YouTube and filmmakers Kevin Macdonald and Ridley Scott to create the first-ever user-generated filmshot in a single day. The film will document one day on earth
(July 24, 2010), as seen through the eyes of
people around the world.
Want to take part? Here’s what to do:
1. Visit the “Life in a
Day” channel on YouTube and learn more about the project. Be sure to read through
the steps you need to take to participate and the guidelines for
creating your video(s). Also check out some of the sample videos for
inspirational ideas.
2. On July 24, capture your day on camera.
3.
Upload your footage to the “Life in a Day” channel any time before July
31.
Regardless of whether your footage makes it into the final
film, your video(s) will live on on the “Life in a Day” channel
as a time capsule that will tell future generations what it was like to
be alive on July 24, 2010.
If your footage is selected for the completed film, you’ll get the chance to attend thepremiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.This is your chance to be part of cinematic history!
Kenyan-based Just-a-Band have
sparked what many are calling Kenya’s first viral sensation with a new 1970s themed music video for their song "Ha-He" featuring a Chuck Norris-ish, kung fu, butt kicking character known as Makmende.
Makmende, a Swahili slang word which means "a hero", is a term used by Kenyan youth in the early to mid 1990s to refer
to
someone who thinks he’s a superhero. The name supposedly originated from a mispronunciation of Clint Eastwood's phrase "Go ahead, make my day" (Mek ma nday) from his 1983 movie Sudden
Impact.
Since the release of the video, Makmende has exploded across the web,
including a Facebook Fan
Page, a Twitter
account and a website. In addition, Makmende has been the biggest trending
topic on Twitter in Kenya.
If Makmende mania continues to build throughout Africa and continues to the US and UK, expect to see a Makmende action film on the silver screen (or playground) near you!
Recent Comments