Werner Herzog Vs Little Superstar

Copyright car-crash waiting to happen, or pixel voice of the masses? Either way youtube.com continues to carve out a video niche. Doomed for replacement like Napster the mp3 file sharing software? Irrelevant really, it’ll only be replaced by a gazillion even better sites or services.

Germany’s most famously eccentric yet arrrestingly provocative documentary maker, Werner Herzog was in fine form on Henry Rollin’s TV show recently, but proved a little too much for his interviewing host to grapple with. To be fair to the bodybuilding Rollins, it’d be a challenging interview to have the person opposite you speaking with Werner’s distinctive voice, and telling tales of ‘ecstatic truth’, a need for ‘new ways to use film to document reality’ and dismissing ‘minor flesh wounds’ ( about a sniper who had shot him during another recent interview, an event which didn’t seem to worry him too much ).

This is the same man who made a film about eating his shoe, an event he filmed on stage while give a talk ( he boiled it up apparently ), travelled to the jungle to drag a huge ferry up and over a mountain(!) and well, so many other crazed adventures that Rollins never stood a chance.

Not sure what Little Superstar would be like at interviewing Herzog ( tho i’d be watching every minute of it), but if we were talking dance-off – any sane gambler would instantly dump their life’s savings on the Little Grinner. As others have written, you may well ask “Why did no one tell me about the awesomeness of “Little Superstar”?” Ask and you shall receive ( from the combined words of several enthusiasts ) :

“If you haven’t seen Little Superstar yet, just please trust me – your life isn’t complete. the newest and smallest viral video superstar.A short little something to haunt your dreams… Little Superstar – a Dancing Machine! Breakdancing indian midget. Watch this 1/2 pint get down to some good ol’ hiphop! He dance like usher!! yeah!! The greatest video I have ever seen. Ever. This video is indescribable. It’s spectacular. I want it playing on all my TVs, looping over and over all day long. Little Superstar of Bollywood. Gotta be a little man … thats no kid. There’s not much to say, except that guys like Usher need to watch out, because this little guy is ready to take over. Emmanuel Lewis aint got shit on Little Superstar. That little oompa loompa scares the hell out of me. That little guy is so clearly gonna get gang banged by that group of kids ( thanks for the imagery, metalboxproducts at the dubstepforum.com )[ MAKE IT STOP SMILING. MAKE IT STOP. ] ”

The 2 minutes of youtubed gold that is Little Superstar, is already ( ja, ja ) remixed as a drum n bass version, a death metal version and a rave version, each still utterly compellingly, mesmerisingly brainmelting. Via the ‘Little Superstar aka King Kong’ blog, it can be discovered that this clip is from a 1990 Tamil movie called Adhsaya Piravi ( the tamil movie industry is called Kollywood, the Hindi movie industry is Bollywood ). There’s also a link to a google video of the entire feature film for those inclined, and via Monkeys for Helping – a youtube link to a videoclip for the song being played in the background – Holiday Rap by MC Miker G and DJ Sven.

by Sean Healy, October 16, 2006 0 comments

Fringe Mobile Projection Unit

Plug N Play VJs ( jean poole / dpwolf / keith greyspace, VJ Ari, Lindsay Cox & SDzeit.[state] ) have been invited to steer the Mobile Projection Unit on the following nights during the Melbourne Fringe Festival :
Friday 29th @ 5pm ( to coincide with the critical mass bike ride), Tue 3 Oct, Sat 7 Oct, Tue 10 Oct & Sat 14 Oct – all @ 8pm AEST ( +10 gmt ).

This means – we drive around in a van and project imagery at special locations, *and* the van’s encoder and wireless connection sends both the projection, and a view of it from the street – 2 live streams to a web interface – where viewers can also send messages directly to the van, or view it’s real-time position on a google map ( using the van’s GPS unit ).

Drop a line if u manage to check it out~! Should be some crazy fun~!
mpu

by Sean Healy, September 29, 2006 2 Comments

Run Wrake News

run wrakePingmag have a nice recent interview up with champion animator and illustrator, Run Wrake. ( found via accent feed ) Seems he was visiting Japan for the Hiroshima International Animation Festival – where his new short ‘Rabbit’ picked up a special jury prize. Plenty of screenshots and storyboard shots in the article too, worth a look. And especially exciting to hear he has his eyes on a feature film.

Run Wrake’s home page,
director showreel site,
& compilation DVD @ Gasbooksrun wrake
Ye olde Skynoise Runwrake interview here
( and aye :: suffering some blog-formatting issues @ ze moment, hence sidebar down the bottom of page…. any words from wordpress wizzes welcome… )

by Sean Healy, September 27, 2006 2 Comments

Reline 2 : DVD Review

Another disc full-o-mutant pixels hoofs over the horizon, this next galloper into town being the ‘difficult second album’ follow-up to the acclaimed Reline DVD compilation.

Reline 1 contained a fantastic spectrum of lo-fi to hi-fi visual explorations, noodlings and generally provocative work. The sequel, co-curated and produced by Scott Pagano & Phoenix Perry, focusses much more on the expensive end of that spectrum, it still manages to provide quite a diversity of approaches, in line with the goal of showcasing “artists engaged in the creation of new visual forms deriving from experimental techniques and the re-orientation of high-end production processes.”

Clocking in with 64 minutes of abstract patterns and dense visual rhythms, black and white grains juxtaposed with saturated colours, and all manner of aesthetic invention, the disc veers from hypnotic to stroboscopic, turning a lounge room into something more akin to a nightclub or art gallery, than perhaps the party atmospherics provided by say a Resfest or music-video compilation. The niche being exploited here is a category blur of motion graphics, visual effects, sophisticated aesthetic manipulation and music video – at least where the audio and visual elements heavily interplay. The disc to that extent is an excellent collection of stunning visual experimentation, and those interested in any form of video manipulation will find much of it exquisite. Those same themes of visual play however, at times make the disc feel like a collection of clips in need of a stronger directorial hand – one which might better leverage the visual techniques in service of an overall idea, or overall momentum.

Highlights
robert seidele3 by Robert Seidel is a delicious hybrid of organic and inorganic, morphing and at times sharply mutating the soft curves of a 3 month gouache painting diary, into gorgeous screen pulses of mesmerising shapeshifting. The music by Michael Engelhardt of 4memusic in 5.1 surround sound matches the piece quite well. There’s a hazy, mirage-like otherworldliness to this piece, the muted colours and dirty textural noise in constant ebb and flow. Continue Reading →

by Sean Healy, September 22, 2006 2 Comments