‘photos every day’
this is a spot by tbwa/chiat/day for apple, called ‘photos every day’. the craft is fantastic, and there’s some subtle, unusual attention to detail in it.
let’s take a look at the sound mix. here’s a waveform of the spot:
and now here’s the waveform of a conventionally mixed spot — this is that ‘old spice’ commercial everyone flipped out for a couple years ago. it might as well be any ad you see on tv today.
huge difference. there’s incredible restraint in the amount of compression applied to the music in ‘photos every day’. (from wikipedia, compression “reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds by narrowing or “compressing” an audio signal’s dynamic range”.) my point here is that if you caught this on tv, it would be substantially ‘quieter’ sounding than other ads around it.
the other interesting thing about the mix is that the iPhone shutter click sound is substantially undermixed. it comes across as incidental, and unobtrusive. the ambiences are the real star here, and the sound editor wasn’t even afraid to drop them out entirely for effect (see snowy skyscraper, 0:23).
other observations:
• there’s a real nice match-cut at 0:06 of the guy jumping off his skateboard into the shot of the jogger running.
• 0:25, the iPhone bobs up and down at a concert, and halfway through, the shot itself starts bobbing with the phone, keeping the screen stationary in the frame.
• overall, there’s a very careful variety of perspective, scale, and involvement. are we peering over someone’s shoulder? watching from across the street? ostensibly taking the picture, ourselves?
• i could have done without the voiceover at the end.
Mumford.
The Super Supercapacitor | Brian Golden Davis (by Focus Forward Films)
Roman Opałka was a French-born Polish painter who painted numbers. In 1965 he began painting a process of counting – from one to infinity. Starting in the top left-hand corner of the canvas and finishing in the bottom right-hand corner, the tiny numbers were painted in horizontal rows. As of July 2004, he had reached 5.5 million.
On August 6th 2011, Roman Opalka completed his work: “the finite defined by the nonfinite”
(Source: victimize, via really-shit)
via @lisatwight
Homework table by Tomas Kral
digg:
It only took an hour to print our own model of Winterfell. (Accidentally in Lannister red)
If you have access to a 3D printer, here’s the file.
Treehouse referral link - 50% off Treehouse subscription for your first month ($12.50 instead of $25.00). I’m using this a lot.
Direct link: http://referrals.trhou.se/danielwhite
Foyers.
Lancelot Speed, from Footsteps of Dr. Johnson, George Birkbeck Norman Hill, London, 1890.
(Source: archive.org)
Photo Friday with Caleb Charland
Caleb Charland’s work is the quintessential pairing of photography and science. The Maine artist is inspired by the mysteries of day to day life, and presents his drop-jawed viewers with stunning art and physics lessons. Many of the experiments exhibited in his photographs may be familiar to us from elementary school, a time where we were perhaps less equipped to appreciate the beauty of nature’s order. Through his work, Charland reminds us of science’s wonders, and surprises us with images that are even sometimes difficult to discern.
In his artistic statement, he notes that he is interested in how we measure and understand our place in the world. Simultaneously, I think Charland reminds us of the beauty of things in which humans have no part, other than playing spectator.
On his site, he includes an Einstein quote that can help us better understand the motivations behind his work, and the fascination we all have with the intersection of art and science:
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
You can find Caleb Charland’s work here.
