joshholtsclaw.com – An incredible blog post from Josh Holtsclaw, an Art Director at Pixar. I love coming across these. This post in particular documents a lot of the process, design thinking and iteration that goes into the art direction for the film Incredibles 2
Film & TV
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The Graphic Art of Incredibles 2 — Josh Holtsclaw
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1 min read
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The Shining’s iconic Overlook Hotel July 4th Ball photo was created using unconventional means
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1 min read
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According to an interview between the Kubrick and Michel Ciment, Kubrick attempted to create this photograph initially using extras. But was unhappy with the result. The photo we now know, was ultimately shopped together. Kubrick literally photographed Jack Nicholson from an approximate high angle shot peering down. Then airbrushed Nicholson into the “picture library” photo Kubrick found. Incredible.
Did you have all those extras pose for the last shot?
“No, they were in a photograph taken in 1921 which we found in a picture library. I originally planned to use extras, but it proved impossible to make them look as good as the people in the photograph. So I very carefully photographed Jack, matching the angle and the lighting of the 1921 photograph, and shooting him from different distances too, so that his face would be larger and smaller on the negative. This allowed the choice of an image size which when enlarged would match the grain structure in the original photograph. The photograph of Jack’s face was then airbrushed into the main photograph, and I think the result looked perfect. Every face around Jack is an archetype of the period.”
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New ‘Alien: Romulus’ teases the classic Alien facehugger
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1 min read
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I’ll let the poster artwork do all the talking here. I could not be more excited for this movie.
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youtube.com – Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie sit down to chat with Christopher Nolan about The Curse. Nathan reveals the inspiration for the series. A great talk that wanders around a range of creative angles with no spoilers. An unresistible roundtable that can’t be missed.
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Carl Weathers has died
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2 min read
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I’m a little at a loss for words.
Carl Weathers has played so many wonderful roles over his tenure as an actor. I always thought he had such a lovely voice and brought us so much delight on the screen. It wasn’t until recently I learned he was an Oakland Raider in the NFL briefly!
Weathers has had some iconic roles in the past, and frankly it’s a tragedy he doesn’t have a Hollywood Star. Maybe that could change posthumously. The man had major roles in Toy Story, Rocky, and Predator. Those 3 titles alone, were some heavy-hitters.
Take a few moments to take in Weather’s considerate thoughts about how he perceived the character Greef Karga. You can tell that he was very jazzed to be him. Weathers is a studied man of many talents — chief among them is theater and he’s a director himself too. I just love hearing him carefully choose his words here. You can really tell he’s excited to have such an amazing opportunity to essentially take part in a modern western, and carve out Karga as a benevolent complex character on-screen.
Here’s a few other noteworthy (and hilarious) characters he’s portrayed.
High Magistrate Greef Karga
(a starving) Carl Weathers as himself in Arrested Development
Who could forget Chubbs Peterson?
Rest easy Carl ❤️
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The Original Star Wars Logo
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1 min read
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The original Star Wars logo from 1976, which was suddenly dropped before the official theatrical release.
Here’s what 20th Century Fox went with instead in 1977:
And here’s the Star Wars worm-like logo we know and love today:
h/t 1000logos.net
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The Boy and the Heron – Official Trailer
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1 min read
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The trailer’s description on YouTube reads:
A young boy named Mahito yearning for his mother ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning. A semi-autobiographical fantasy about life, death, and creation, in tribute to friendship, from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.
Seemingly ominous! It seems to have all the trappings and flow of a classic Miyazaki films. I’m excited for this one to drop. This couldn’t come any sooner. Looks like the US will see a theatrical release in December 8th.
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2022 in Review
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5 min read
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Every subsequent year feels like it’s worse than the previous year. That’s not the reality of course. It just feels that way. Due to the connected nature of life now (thanks to Twitter and the Trinet). Each of us are saddled with an incalculable weight of the year’s past. We sulk around with so much in our little heads. The inane, the devastating, the memes, the news, the crosswords, the work, the emails, the to-dos, the payments, the notifications and yes — even your parents social status updates from Facebook.
Naturally, we’re all very tired. I guess we live for this, right? We are after all, members of the human race. Despite what the madness every year brings us, we’re also graced with some good things too. When the years brings good tidings more so than bad tidings, I’d call it a good year.
2022 was mostly a good year, I’d say.
Let’s look over a few things from this past year. I even threw in a couple of things from 2021 I was dying to get caught up with.
TV & Film
There was a lot of content to watch this year. Ever since the pandemic became an endemic, I’ve found myself in theaters more than ever before. Alamo Drafthouse, I love you so ❤️ But the fact remains that streaming is now the de facto means to consume America’s greatest export, film and TV programming. Here’s some of my favorites from this past year (in no particular order or grouping).
- Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Severance
- Slow Horses
- The White Lotus
- The Offer
- Our Flag Means Death
- Yellowjackets (2021)
- Knives Out: Glass Onion
- Barbarian
- Nope
- Jackass Forever
- Top Gun: Maverick
- The Resort
- The Banshees of Inisherin
- The Whale
- The Menu
- The Midnight Club
- Andor
- House of the Dragon
- The Bear
There’s so much more that belongs on this list 🥲
Music
- Low Roar – maybe tomorrow…
- Anthony Green – Boom. Done.
- Digitalism – People & Machines
- L.S. Dunes – Past Lives
- Leon Vynehall – Rare, Forever
There’s so much more I listened to, but I’m my favorite artist I discovered in 2022 is probably Sugar Candy Mountain. If you enjoy Tame Impala, you’re going to love them.
Art
Didn’t see much art this year. But, thankfully I had a friend who came to visit, and had a big list of exhibitions and galleries to see. We hopped around all day seeing art. I’ll need to see more art in 2023, that’s for sure.
The Diane Arbus exhibition at David Zwirner was a once-in-a-lifetime exhibit.
- Anne Vieux: Mirror Proxies
- Mario Ayala: Truck Stop
- .cataclysm. The 1972 Diane Arbus Retrospective Revisited
Games
I played a lot of games this year. Or maybe I should say, I played a lot of Modern Warfare II this year. Activision/Blizzard really knocked it out of the park. But there were a few games that really outshined others.
- Death Stranding – this game is just… wtf
- Callisto Protocol – 😳
- Golf with your friends
Apps
I have become a person who regularly relies on apps on my iPhone and Mac now. Wether or not I enjoy that admission is another thing.
- TickTick – I don’t know where I’d be without this app
- Duolingo – learning Korean, Finnish and Spanish!
- Citymapper – old trusty, my daily carry for getting about NYC
- Letterboxd – the original film diary
- iA Writer – literally nothing compares
Places
Every year, my goal is to travel somewhere new. This year, I flew to Las Vegas twice. I traveled by Amtrak once in the summer. I hope to do more train trips in the future. It’s a luxurious and chill way to travel.
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Saratoga Springs, New York
- Great Sacandaga Lake, New York
- Fort Worth, Texas
Books
I’m notoriously slow at reading. I have a Kindle that I swear by, but alas — like you, I am a mere mortal and only have so many hours in the day (and night). These books I really enjoyed (a few on this list, I have yet to finish, oops).
- Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants
- Book Lovers
- This Is Your Mind on Plants
- The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
- Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
- The Social Conquest of Earth
- A Little Life
- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
- The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
- Sea of Tranquility
- Dreaming Of Jupiter
Looking Ahead
A lot happened in 2022. Personally, and globally. Not a lot of good things happened globally honestly. But, personally I feel like I’ve grown a bit. Things are looking up, I’m feeling positive about myself, and where I’m headed.
Looking at my calendar for 2023, I really hope to travel more. Wait, why does that sound familiar? In 2022, I went back to the gym, and rode the ol Peloton quite a bit. Next year, will hopefully be no different. Another goal I have in mind is to speed up my reading habit, because I’m not getting any younger. Looking ahead, feeling’ rad. See y’all around✌️