Marc Fennell: January 2010

in the loop = awesome.

The Thick of It is one of the best, funniest brilliant TV shows about politics. If you haven't seen it get into it NOW - but in the meantime - it's been spun off into a movie In The Loop. My review is below (It's only 2 min)

If the above player isn't showing up you can right-click & download the MP3 of the review here.

It's been out for a week or so, so I'd love to read your own thoughts down in the comments if/when u've seen it.

And you can subscribe to the reviews at the triple j movies podcast. (No iTunes? head here)

how to make a news report

Yet another reason why Charlie Brooker is my hero:

seriously good tv

My love of Channel 10 idents & promos is well-documented but this really takes the cake. Natalie Basightwittle is the best.

mememarathon

I try not to post too many memes, but this is pretty amazing - because it's every meme. This is over 10 years of viral phenomenons combined to music. Sure, this video has been around for about 4 years - but I'm slow & out of touch:)

nine

Or as I like to call it, Misogyny! The All-Singing, All-Dancing Spectacular!! Review below (cmon, its only 2 min)

Would love to read your own thoughts down in the comments if/when u've seen it.

And you can subscribe to the reviews at the triple j movies podcast. (No iTunes? head here)

massage my medium

If you got 40 minutes to spare, this is the whole show (except the bit in the middle where we interview a celebrity) that Dan Ilic & I did at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. It's a show all about television and how its dying. Think 'Top Gear' meets 'Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe': a couple of media junkies ready to rip apart Australian television live on stage then save it.

From memory, this was my least favourite of the 6 shows we did, so please be kind:)

up in the air

It's considered to be one of the hot favourites for this year's movie awards season, but is George Clooney's oscar-baiting flick worth the bite? And can I pack more hamfisted metaphors into this blurb? find out in the audio review below (cmon, its only 2 min)

Would love to read your own thoughts down in the comments if/when u've seen it.

And you can subscribe to the reviews at the triple j movies podcast. (No iTunes? head here)

the bigger screen

Sometimes we get so caught up in the story, characters, cinematography, design & performance that we forget the most basic element of a movie: the screen.

Here's one pretty damn amazing projection that uses a screen (okay, a wall) to create something that's very very amazing.

APPARATI EFFIMERI Tetragram for Enlargment from Apparati Effimeri on Vimeo.

bran nue dae

An all-singing, all-dancing indigenous extravaganza? I can't tell you how much I wanted to love this movie. Maybe my expectations were too high but... well, have a listen to the review down below, its only 2 min.

Would love to read your own thoughts down in the comments if/when u've seen it. I know it played MIFF last year if you were around.

And you can subscribe to the reviews at the triple j movies podcast. (No iTunes? head here)

why arial (the font) is bullshit

And we're back rolling.... Ahead of the new season of Hungry Beast, there'll be tonnes of new stories going live - including this.

UPDATE: before you all go whinging about my font header being Arial, is in fact Akzidenz Grotesk Bold according to Natasha.

virtual sets

Ever wondered how many of your favourite TV locations were faked?

Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot Demo from Stargate Studios on Vimeo.

ten thousand pictures of you

broken heart? answer = revenge. This is an amazing bit of stop motion using real people. very very clever.

Ten Thousand Pictures of You from Robin King on Vimeo.

From the Director, Editor and Animator Robin King

"The whole film took about a year: roughly three months each for development, prep, shoot and post - although due to the nature of the film, part of the post bled into the shoot.

The programs I used were Photoshop, Premiere 6.5 and some bespoke programs I coded myself (a 3D animatic planning program and another to smooth out some of the tracking shots). To be honest my machine and the software weren't up to what I needed from them, and I would have a much better time of it now, with my macbookpro, FCP and a tablet...

I used a Canon Eos 350D Digital SLR to shoot, and took roughly 26,000 photos overall."

UPDATE - No one is saying that this is particuarly new, but it is a very effective technique, no? Another great example is this 1952 movie by Normal McLaren (via James Russell)