Eagle Vs Shark

I saw Eagle Vs Shark the other day, mainly because the main character (Jermaine Clement) is also in Flight of the Conchords. Yay.
Basically his character, Jarrod is an older, New Zealand, less likable version of Napoleon Dynamite. Eagle Vs Shark tells the story of two social outsiders, getting together and drawing a line under school bullies.

I loved their fancy dress! I think even though it is a tale that we have heard a million times before, there are numerous individualistic details that save the film from just being an 'indie-off-beat-romance' homage: Bowie songs, little animated apple cores, side-burns, shell suits and shark costumes. I thought the film was pretty good, even if you want to kick the characters occasionally.

Son of Rambow

I went to see the Son Of Rambow yesterday. It was very very good! Basically, as a Bretherin who is not allowed to watch tv, Will meets Carter, and then sees his illegal copy of Rambo. For a competition they decide to make their film 'son of rambow' and will is the stuntman. The film basically highlights the problems of growing up and friendship.
I particularly liked when will imagined his role as the 'son of rambow'and we saw the naively animated scenes, with the chains and 'movement marks' I think they fit very well with the drawings that Will had done and also with the time in which the movie was set, mid-80s. I especially liked how everyone in the 6th form was a new romantic.
Ace.

Eric Anderson

Eric Anderson is the brother of Wes Anderson. Until recently I didn't realise that it was Eric who created a lot of the illustrations that feature in Wes's films.
Eric's work is featured most in the film, The Royal Tenenbaums. He helped visualise the set, and when i was watching the extras on the dvd, I learned that he has illustrated a lot of the wallpaper that was put up in the various rooms in the house! He also illustrated the portraits of Margot Tenenbaum that were created by 'Richie Tenenbaum' in the film.

You can see the wallpaper in this frame:


I am so impressed at the amount of detail in the films. They have gotten me thinking about my film. I really think that little details like this really adds to the character of the film, making it more believable and easier to slip into just accepting it. I think they also help to say a lot about the character, and whilst they may be slight exaggerations, it is after all a film!
Whilst I don't have the money or the time to be doing up my sets, it doesn't mean that I can ignore them. I intend to create pieces to hang on the walls of my characters room, and really take into account what little i can do that will add to the overall feel of the story.

Tom Gauld

Tom Gauld is a Scottish cartoonist / illustrator. Much of his work includes very detailed textures, often in monotone. His work has been used for multiple book covers and he has a weekly cartoon in the Guardian Newspaper.

His pictures are often quite minimal, the dark and light draws attention to the subject matter. His images are dryly humorous. All of his marks are totally detailed and precise and within his pictures he manages to make them different.

His pictures often contain few words, as they manage to be self-explanatory purely through the visuals. There are however, lots of reoccurring themes that carry through his images, particularly monsters / mechanical beings and astronauts. His images are often surreal and a modern take on these widely used themes.

Gauld recently published some of his work in a series of mini comics; in each set were two sequential comics and one book. I think that the nature and characteristics of his work suits this format completely! I think Gauld shows just how much detail you can achieve through limited space.

Jacques Henri Lartigue

Jacques Henri Lartigue (June 13, 1894 - September 12, 1986) was a French photographer and painter, whose photos seem especially before their time. Non-composed compared to the rigidity of other photographs of his era, his photos had a great sense of movement and spontaneity. Lartique started taking photographs when he was 6 and his photographs seem to have soaked in his childlike experience of his surroundings. There certainly seems a degree of glee and romance within his photos, but all the subjects remain dignified with a retained elegance. Over composed / planned photos just seem ridiculous in comparison to these, the monotone palette outwarms full colour completely!

Prim mag.

Prim Magazine is an online mag, in the vein of neet magazine. Pretty obviously aimed at youngish 'indie' types, I think it could be onto something. The layout design needs to be sorted out a little, but for a fundamentally basic d.i.y. magazine I think it's been done well. I think we may be getting bored of all the cynical / crass vice copies soon enough, and there's no reason we can't try sincere attempts at niche interests instead.
(Also I think publishing it on the web was the best way to collect their audience)