Those of you that have spent idle minutes, (or hours!), browsing the internet will know that an animated GIF image can be a thing of comedy genius. From a laughing baby, to a panda on a slide, or even a father dropping his daughter to catch a baseball, these short animated clips sit somewhere between video and a picture and, in my opinion, the internet is a better place for them.
Cinemagrams aren’t used to create comedies though, nor are they used to record video. No, Cinemagrams are all about movement.
The name alludes to Instagram and although very different, Cinemagram has adopted a community feel similar to that of the $1 billion Facebook acquisition, allowing its users to share images and comments and enabling community appreciation with a following function.
Although making a Cinemagram is an easy enough process to learn, it requires a few goes to master.
In simple terms its just a combination of video and masking that allows users to create an image that has some still and some moving elements. First you take a short piece of video, and then draw, (mask), around the areas where you want to retain movement. The rest of the image remains frozen creating a hybrid between photo and video.
The result can be very clever! And users are given the option of adding a range of vintage filters too, giving their creations a stylised look.
Here is a selection of our favourites…
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A few years ago I was listening, as I do everyone week, to Dr Karl Kruszelnicki’s science podcast, when he mentioned that he was going to be off air for 6 weeks whilst he walked something called the ‘Camino de Santiago’. Apparently this was some sort of ancient pilgrimage to the Cathedral at Santiago in Spain. I was curious as to why a man of science was taking part in a religious pilgrimage but following a little research I found that the Camino is walked for many reasons by people of all faiths, or no faith at all, (like me). I decided that this was something I would like to do, but when was I ever going to be able to afford to take 6 weeks off work? So the idea was shelved under the heading ‘One Day…’
But the thought persisted and so earlier this year I joined the Camino forum where I discovered that many people choose to complete the walk in stages. Plan! I booked my flight, packed a small rucksack and headed to St Jean Pier De Port – one of the main starting points for the Camino.
It was an amazing trip. I started alone but by the end of my week a small band of walkers had assembled. Everyone was so friendly and despite all the aches and pains that come with walking 15-20 miles per day, often over steep mountainous parts of the Pyrenees, no one ever complained. And that’s what really struck me when I was walking the Camino – just how much people complain on a daily basis. When it rained there were none of the usual gripes you get from people here about the weather. The were no TVs, so no one was able to moan about the terrible programming whilst remaining rigidly glued to their set. No transport woes, because we walked everywhere. It was completely refreshing and I can’t wait to go back and complete the next stage. (I managed 170km this time – further than I’d planned).
So if you’re looking to escape the rat race for a while then I suggest buying a good pair of walking boots and heading for Spain. Thank you Dr Karl!
For those of you who don’t know, here’s what the fuss is about. Between 1994 – 1995 a fresh faced Brazilian-born guy called Amon Adonai Santos de Araújo Tobin recorded his first album, Adventures In Foam, under the name of Cujo, taking inspiration from a Stephen King novel. That album paved the way for a number of collaborations with well-known producers and prompted his signing to the prestigious Ninja Tune label in 1996. Soon, Amon Tobin became one of the label’s brightest stars.
I would describe Amon as a force in musical innovation and diversity. He combines stunning electronic sounds with visual shows to rival Etienne De Crecy. And like De Crecy, he is an advocate of music’s power to create an emotional reaction among his audience.
The depth and scope of Amon Tobin’s work have garnered respect amongst producers and artists both within electronic music (such as D’n'B legends Noisia) and well outside of this world, such as the classical avant garde Kronos Quartet.
His versatile productions allow him to create radically diverse original scores ranging from George Palfi’s cult cinema oddity Taxidermia, to Tom Clancy’s video game blockbuster Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. In the 2007 album Foley Room, Amon explored the role of ‘found sound’, recording animals from insects to lions, as well as documenting them on film. More recently, the famed London Metropolitan Orchestra performed selected works from his musical repertoire at the Royal Albert Hall.
Now 14 years and seven albums on he has created a new record called ISAM; from my point of view a more electro/dubstep influenced sound, similar to the likes of Aphex Twin. Be warned, you will need patience to make sense of its meandering melodies.
This Saturday Amon Tobin will be presenting his new sound design, music production and visual performance at London’s O2 Academy Brixton. He will be stepping away from previous DJ-centric performances, and instead provide a large-scale live audio/visual show, designed in conjunction with Blasthaus, VSquared Labs, Vita Motus Design, Leviathan and others. My expectations for this couldn’t be greater; I suspect it may even bring a tear to my eye!
What interested me most about this advert though wasn’t the message; it was the medium. Buses, particularly London buses, seem to be making a habit of acting as mobile billboards for some debatable pronouncements lately.
It started in 2008, when the British Humanist Association, bankrolled by atheist in-chief Richard Dawkins, adorned the capitals double-deckers with the words: “There’s probably no God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life”.
The Christian Party, a minor political organisation supporting, er, God, surprisingly took issue with such overt displays of agnosticism and responded with a bus ad of their own: “There definitely is a God. So join The Christian Party and enjoy your life.”
This was all quite childish, and dare I say it, pointless. After all it’s unlikely that many devout Christians suffered a crisis of faith because the number 19 to Finsbury Park station told them to. Equally, I doubt lots of uncompromising atheists found God on the strength of a poster plastered onto the side of the N253. The phrase preaching to the converted has never seemed so apt. I personally take solace from the fact that both sides agree we should definitely be enjoying life.
But after gay rights group Stonewall emblazoned 1000 London busses in April with the seemingly innocuous phrase “Some people are gay. Get over it!”, it all got a bit ugly. A group known as The Core Issues trust, (one must assume ironically since they seem to spend a great deal of their time taking offence at bus advertisements), prepared a response. Their now infamous “Not Gay! Ex-Gay, Post-Gay And Proud. Get Over it!” campaign, was pulled after TfL understandably ruled it didn’t quite fit with their ethos of promoting “a tolerant and inclusive London”.
Whether it’s imploring us to vote in local elections, or persuading us that one sexual preference or belief system is better than another, the humble bus is in danger of becoming an unwitting mouthpiece for all those things they warn you not to talk about at dinner parties.
Personally, I’m thankful TfL stepped in when they did. The morning commute is stressful enough without adding moral dilemmas to the mix. Do I agree with the message on this bus? Do I object enough with the message on this bus to not get on and hope the next one is more agreeable and on time? Would this be an acceptable reason to arrive late to work? Does getting on a bus sporting a controversial message somehow signify consent for the viewpoint advertised, or is this whole matter entirely inconsequential? These are just some of the many questions I don’t want to have to negotiate first thing in the morning.
It was their recent illustration series ‘Legendary Cities’ that caught my attention, as they created a set of 7 prints based on Atlantis, Babylon, El Dorado, Gotham, Megapolis, Metropolis and Troy. The prints look like they are based on aerial shots of these cities with an incredible attention to detail. Upon first glance they look very familiar but its only after taking a closer look that you can really appreciate the thought and skill that went into creating them.
Browsing through the studios site you can see that architecture plays a big role in their illustration and design as you can see in the creation of the fonts “Construct’ and ‘Outer Space’. As a designer its always such a great source of inspiration when you come across work like this as it feeds your own hunger for creation and pushes the boundaries of your own work and style.
Take a look at their site here
Oakley, the famed sunglasses brand, is developing Augmented Reality (AR) glasses. Oakley is already the first brand to build in an MP3 player to a pair of sunglasses. Although expensive at $129 for 512MB of storage, the glasses are still profitable for the business.
The new technology will enable information to be projected directly onto the lenses. Speaking to Bloomberg, CEO Colin Baden said, “As an organization, we’ve been chasing this beast since 1997. Ultimately, everything happens through your eyes, and the closer we can bring it to your eyes, the quicker the consumer is going to adopt the platform.”
Oakley is targeting its range at athletes and sportsman, an area where their products are already popular especially within the world of skiing. However, in the future military, lifestyle and driving options could also be available. “Obviously, you can think of many applications in the competitive field of sports,” Baden said. “That’s the halo point of where we would begin, but certainly you can transcend that into a variety of other applications.”
The company has been developing the technology for about 15 years and filed over 600 related patents. However the glasses may put them in direct competition with Google, whose Project Glass offering is an experimental effort to build smartphone features into eyewear. The search engine’s co-founder Sergey Brin was already sporting a prototype pair at an event in San Francisco this month, but refused to let anybody else try them out.
It is impressive to see a firm like Oakley, who could remain a successful eyewear and optics business, innovating to stay ahead of the competition. As a new entrant into AR technology market ditto will be keeping a close eye on proceedings!
In the meantime check out this Parody of Google’s Project Glass. There’s still some room for improvement I’d say.
Setting up ditto has meant becoming completely digital, so a couple of years ago I was persuaded to start a monthly subscription with Spotify making a universe of music available to me at the click of a mouse. It was perfect; my laptop had all the albums and my mobile had all tracks available, for whatever mood I was in. I became a convert discovering amazing music on Spotify, new and old, but you do need to know what you are looking for. It is actually a very similar experience to visiting those record shops, apart from not having to deal with the sparkling personalities of their shop assistants. It also meant that my iPhone became the main playback device – Apple Loseless and FLAC files. My vinyl was hidden away in its own cupboard along with my CD collection. Digital bliss – I stream from my music to wireless speakers placed throughout the house. A digital musical heaven.
But sometimes events occur that change your direction and rekindle past thoughts and behaviour. Last Saturday’s Record Store Day was one such occasion for me. RSD started in 2007 when over 700 independent stores in the USA came together to celebrate their unique culture. The UK followed suit and 2012 marked the fifth celebration of the UK’s own independent sector. This is the one-day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day.
The night before I ended up in Phonica in Soho and I asked what they were doing for RSD12. They mentioned the DJs and musicians playing throughout the day (including ditto’s own Ashley Beedle) and that the day is extremely popular and with people queuing from 6am to get their copies of the exclusive limited releases. I checked out what was being released but couldn’t decide if I was going to come down at some point. For some annoying reason I was woken on Saturday at 6am, so deciding to seize the day I made my way into Soho where Sister Ray was opening from 8am. I thought I would be in and out. How wrong I was. I got there are 7.30am with 200 people already queuing from Berwick Street right around to Wardour Street. To cut a long and freezing cold story short, I entered the shop at 10.30am and was served at 11am. Sister Ray were great hosts, looking after everyone as much as they could, keeping customers updated with sales and offering coffee along with entertainment from Billy Bragg and others.
But this blog is about me, getting older and rediscovering my love for things from my past. The rush of warmth from the shop meant that I ended up spending £150 on the following records: Pharcyde singles box set (with jigsaw puzzle, poster, new linear notes and CD of all the tracks); Cold Specks 12”; Richard Hawley 10”; Elbow 7”; Wicker Man 7” (on yellow vinyl); Dr Who Special Effects (on yellow vinyl); Sex Pistols 7” picture disc; Gregory Porter remixes; ESG 7”; Carolina Chocolate Drops/Run-DMC 7” (on clear vinyl). At home I found and unpacked my record player and then spent the rest of the day playing my new purchases. It was just like 20 years ago – carefully unwrapping the discs, making sure any stickers were saved, reading every word on the cover, inner selves and disc labels and then playing each track again and again. It was great. My attention then turned to my vinyl collection, exploring a storage cupboard filled with 12” records.
I carried on torturing my wife late into the evening, with her flinching every time I shouted at her ‘just listen to this one!’
I have rediscovered my love for vinyl – collecting and playing it. I love the size and physicality of discs, the care you need when handling it and when putting the needle on the record. I really love being able to easily read the writing on the cover and having big and beautiful artwork.
How do I make room for this new rekindled love? Will these the giddy days of a rekindled romance last forever, or will practicalities, (finances and the mobility of Spotify), kick back in? Well currently all the vinyl is still spread out across the living room, but I’m sure that by the time I get home tonight it will have been put back into the storage cupboard, not correctly categorised or easily available.
Following Friday’s release of Marley, the late, great reggae star joins fellow musicians Johnny Cash, Ian Curtis, Ray Charles and Bob Dylan in big screen immortalisation. The intimacy this company has with the green room in the sky must be making Dylan understandably nervous. But fear not Bob, as later in the year you’ll be making room for the decidedly still-living Paul Simon and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem.
Starting with the other Bob though, it’s surprising a “definitive story” of Marley has taken so long to reach the big screen. Scotsman Kevin Macdonald is the third director to work on the project. First Martin Scorsese, well schooled in musically themed documentaries, (The Last Waltz, Shine a Light, No Direction Home), dropped out, then Jonathan Demme, whose previous credits include Talking Heads’ concert movie Stop Making Sense and a Neil Young documentary trilogy left the project citing creative differences with Marley’s producer Steve Bing.
Macdonald’s ambition for Marley was to produce a “man behind the legend” flick. No easy task then, considering the man in question has been dead for 31 years, while his legend, healthy as ever, continues to accrue mystique. At times the film cannot resist the type of hero-worship Marley inspired in his fans. But insights into the artist’s troubles as a mixed-race boy growing up in black, rural Jamaica and a warts and all account of the singer’s infidelity, help tell the lesser-known, more human side of his story. However, after close to two and half hours of thoroughly researched documentary footage, the “ordinary” Bob Marley felt as elusive as ever. This is not meant as a criticism of Macdonald’s filmmaking abilities, but merely recognition that his subject was an exceptional man who led an extraordinary life.
Not quite in Marley’s mythic class, although they both still have time on their sides, there’s a strange symmetry to the forthcoming LCD Soundsystem and Paul Simon films.
Shut Up and Play The Hits documents LCD Soundsystem’s farewell gig in Madison Square Garden last April. Released at London’s Sundance Festival at the end of this month, the film’s trailer opens with an epitaph: “If it’s a funeral let’s have the best funeral ever”. Throughout, a tired looking Murphy is questioned by a radio presenter over his decision to break up a band in their prime. LCD’s farewell has long been thought of as a defining moment, an end, or at least an evolution, of the hipster era they inadvertently helped usher in a decade earlier. As Brandon Stosuy, editor of US Magazine The Believer put it: “How many upcoming 30-something novels can we expect to use LCD Soundsystem’s final show as a metaphor for something?
Under African Skies (released in June), the story behind the creation of Paul Simon’s Graceland album, on the other hand is a film that promises to put the band back together, 25 years on for one last hurrah. Again the trailer features a series of radio voiceovers, alluding to the album’s success and the social, political and racial controversy that surrounded its creation in Apartheid era South Africa.
Three releases in as many months seems ample evidence of the growing popularity of music biopics and documentaries. And that’s discounting, (due to matters of taste), the forthcoming Elton John film, rumoured to be starring Justin Timberlake and set during the singer’s obligatory rehab phase. With music journalism derided in certain circles for being “like dancing about architecture”, perhaps music biopics have finally become the preferred medium for telling the story behind the stars; introducing fans of old music to new films and vice-versa.
Here at ditto’s Tech Lab, we like to think of ourselves as tech and music aficionados. Some may dismiss us as geeks or music snobs, but for us there is nothing cooler than tweaking dials and bangin’ bass!
So with that in mind we’d like to introduce our new favourite App, Figure by Propellerhead. For those in the know, Propellerhead is a name already synonymous with the leading desktop music production software, Reason. Reason is a virtual studio rack with all the tools and instruments you need to turn your ideas into music.
Figure however is an iOS App, designed specifically for the touchscreen phone. Its interface is graphical and easy to use, instantly allowing users to play with the features.
Music production is split into 3 steps. Drums – tap out a beat using the 4 percussion sliders. Next, add Bass. This uses one finger over a touch pad. Finally add some Lead, using two fingers. And there you have it – you are a superstar producer!
Well, at least for the duration of your commute you are. Get some headphones on and its not long until you’ll be adjusting and tweaking your loops like a pro…
Available for a bargain 69p in the iTunes store now: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/figure/id511269223?mt=8