I love when “research” time comes around at the office. It gives me a valid excuse to do what I clandestinely do the rest of the week: Surf the Internet. We’re deep into work on an architectural firm and researching all things architectural and found a documentary on West Coast Modernism called “Coast Modern: Open space, modern mind.” . It seems to fall in the footsteps of Helvetica and Objectified. No real information on the website about official release, though the blog talks of a fall release. Can’t wait to see it!

Though a relatively famous short film, I saw C’était un rendez-vous by french director Claude LeLouch for the first time this morning. In short, it’s an 8 minute tour through Paris by way of a camera strapped onto the front of sports car, allegedly a Ferrari, going by all accounts somewhere between 140-200 miles/hour. The official story was that an unnamed Formula 1 driver was at the wheel, while it has also been suggested that LeLouch himself was at the wheel and later overdubbed the sound of the Ferrari to finish the film.

Regardless, it’s a fun watch of a high speed romp through Paris! (via Scout Magazine)

DOXA Documentary Film Festival Needs Our Help
Graphic designers don’t often participate in documentary filmmaking, which is a shame. Just as our craft helps shape culture, documentaries are powerful storytelling vehicles, often revealing subjects, issues, and even entire movements we’d otherwise never understand. Heck, Gary Hustwit’s documentary film Helvetica was a good example of this and I was proud when GDC were able to bring it to Vancouver, and his next film, Objectified, is soon to be screened here as well.

Sharing a passion for documentaries, Ben and I both recently joined the leadership group behind the DOXA Documentary Film Festival and would like to ask for your help. You see, we’re proud to bring together a variety of awesome films from around the world to Vancouver each year, but with the current economic climate and resulting arts & culture cut-backs, our festival requires the generous support of people like us to remain viable.

What is DOXA?
DOXA Documentary Film Festival is Western Canada’s largest documentary film festival hosted by The Documentary Media Society in Vancouver each May. DOXA is a non-profit, charitable society devoted to sharing inspiring, innovative, and thought-provoking documentary films from around the world. For example, on April 16th, DOXA is screening Recipes for Disaster, the hilarious and thought-provoking story of a young Anglo-Finnish family as they rid themselves of all oil-based products for a year in an effort to live environmentally sustainable lives.

DOXA’s role in the community.
There are numerous worthy charities, but DOXA is specifically doing terrific work in the arts and culture sector, helping expose not only documentary films and filmmakers to the world, exposing important issues and encouraging dialogue, and exposing Vancouver to the world as a significant city with creativity, innovation and high quality storytelling through world-class documentaries.

Beyond showcasing terrific films, DOXA also works hard to get youth involved with two amazing programs, Connexions Youth Forum and Rated Y for Youth. Connexions gives young adults the opportunity to be mentored by seasoned filmmakers and then allows those participants to create their own short documentaries to be screened at the festival—an opportunity I would have died to have when I was their age. And Rated Y for Youth is a DOXA initiative showcasing documentaries suitable for youth aged 12-18 to promote intelligent dialogue and critical media literacy to a new generation, through non-fiction, media arts.

DOXA’s plan for the future.
Doxa has made significant structure improvements to create a solid foundation and plan for the future of the festival. The festival is expanding, improving its programing, producing more screenings and events, and is producing two exciting youth initiatives this year—introducing young people to documentary films and directly to the filmmakers and film making process itself. Awesome!

Why would I care?
As a community of passionate, intelligent, “switched on” creative professionals, I image most of you have an appreciation for good filmmaking. And I hope you agree that it’s easy to go see a Hollywood movie anytime, but never as enriching or thought-provoking as a compelling documentary. Documentaries are where the truth is told, where learning happens, where movements take flight, and where change happens. I believe you are like-minded in your view of the arts and its impact on culture, and understand the financial need created by this economic climate which includes provincial and federal financial cutbacks.

Please join me in supporting the DOXA Documentary Film Festival, which is meeting real, humble needs right here in our own community. We’re proud of what has been accomplished and excited by what it can become with the right kind of support and people behind it. DOXA is a registered charity run by a dedicated group of volunteers. There are numerous ways you can help support the festival along with their youth programming.

Here are the ways you can help:

• Donate online via our secure online donations page. and receive
• Download, fill out and send back the DOXA donor form.
• Donate your unused Aeroplan Air Miles points to DOXA to reduce travel costs for guests.
• Consider becoming a DOXA partner or advertising with the festival.
• Check out how you can get involved as a volunteer.
• Buy tickets for screenings and the festival in May, 2009.

If you have any questions, you can visit the DOXA website or ask me directly at mark@industrialbrand.com.
Thanks for your support!

I have just discovered that Tim Burton is making a live-action and CGI version of the classic “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” to be released in 2010.

Christopher Lee, Alan Rickman join his usual cast of Johhny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.

No trailer yet but check out the IMDB page for more info.

Objectified Documentary

Our old friend Gary Hustwit, who brought us the feature-length film Helvetica about typography, graphic design and global visual culture, is putting the final touches on his newest documentary project, Objectified—this time a fascinating look at the creativity at work behind industrial design, from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. The first Objectified trailer is now posted on the film’s official website.

Filminute is billed as The International One-Minute Film Festival and now the 2008 finalists are all online and awaiting your vote! You do the math: 25, one-minute films won’t take that long to watch. Screen them all for the shortest film fest to hit your desktop since that late-night free p0rn extravaganza. And this one you can talk about.

This came in today via LiquidTreat. It’s a documentary called Died Young, Stayed Pretty which is billed as a candid look at the underground poster culture in North America. These artists dig deep into the culture of our times, and past times, in an ever increasing effort to stand out amongst the clutter that surrounds us.

Along the way, they manage to create posters that are strikingly obscene, unflinchingly blasphemous and often quite beautiful.

At Industrial Brand, we have more than a tiertiary interest in this subject ever since we worked with Bob Masse on a project for Hemlock Printer’s Metal FX campaign. There is certainly a contrast between Bob’s classic work and that of these new renegades, yet, perhaps a level of eccentricity is mandatory for anyone venturing into the craft. From what we’ve seen, it seems to require a sense of adventure and willingness to experiment. And for sure these days, mischieviousness.

Let’s face it: Gary Hustuit’s documentary Helvetica was a runaway hit. I certainly didn’t expect so many designers and non-designers alike to get so goofy about a film about a typeface. Building on his success and reputation as a top drawer documentary filmmaker and design aficionado, Gary Hustuit is planning on doing again—this time with a look inside the world of industrial design. Called Objectified, this feature-length film is described on its promotional website as:

a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the people who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability. It’s about our relationship to mass-produced objects and, by extension, the people who design them.

Through vérité footage and in-depth conversations, the film documents the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential designers, and looks at how the things they make impact our lives. What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround ourselves?

The film is still in production and slated for an early 2009 release. If it’s as well researched and produced as Helvetica was, it’s destined to be another resounding success. I can’t wait to see it.

With cameras in computers, cell phones and who knows where else, we seem to take for granted that cameras can go anywhere. In the early development of the movie camera, they were much more stable and harder to move around. When this new technology started to become popularized, film makers started experimenting with the range of possibilities.

In 1929 Russian Director Dziga Vertov produced Man with a Movie Camera, a highly experimental Russian film exploring the possibilities of how the camera can be moved about. Many of the film technique we now take for granted (tracking, slow/fast motion double exposures et al) were first used, or popularized in this movie. Originally a silent film performed to live orchestral music, The Cinematic Orchestra reset the movie to their own sound track in 2002 which assists the overall arc of the storyline. Check out a snippit on youtube or better yet, track down the whole movie. Not really the movie you wanna invite friends and pop popcorn for, but a great piece of cinematography. (and the sound track is wicked also!)