Year: 2012

Five things on Friday #16

Five things of note from the week ending Friday, April 20th 2012
(shorter than most weeks – blame being ill, still) 

1. Awesome Drive art is Awesome

Any excuse to post more stuff about DRIVE – aka the best film of 2011 – really, via my usual source of brilliant stuff.

2. Being ill sucks
I was diagnosed with acute sinusitis on Tuesday (having been out of action since last Friday) and the only thing I know about it is that a mate of mine at college used to suffer with it a lot. ‘Sicknote’ we called him, bless. But, if you’re reading this now – Bodger – I apologise. I take it back. This thing is agonisingly painful and OH MY GOD I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone.

Also, I can’t go outside.

3. Happy Birthday David
More (read: better) Prometheus goodness. This time in the shape of Michael Fassbender’s take on the now-required Ridley-universe Weyland android.

Watch this with your eyes –

I like, a lot – via Total Film.

4. Useful QR codes?
Maybe.

5. Just add Monsters

I love this stuff; Artists Chris McMahon and Thryza Segal like to buy second hand paintings and then just add monsters. Apparently the trick is to match the paint originally used (e.g., acrylic or oil) and try to blend the monsters into the original scene as if they were always there. I’m actually tempted to give it a go myself.
via Siany

5. WWE kick ass at social
Who new?

 

Bonuses this week are a two super great long form posts that I read in my sick bed –

Travelling every bus route (much more interesting that interesting than it sounds) –
Tumbling to success (the story of Tumblr) 

MOVIEBARCODE

I hate the word ‘movie‘, but this site, MOVIEBARCODE, (that I found (and have been meaning to blog for) just over a year ago now), I can forgive for the staggeringly gorgeous work it produces.

This, from The Matrix, for example:

The premise is simple, but Flowing Data describes it best –

Choice of color in a movie can say a lot about what’s going on in a scene. It sets the mood, changes the tone, indicates a change in point of view, so on and so forth, which is why moviebarcode is so fun to click through. The concept is simple. Take every frame in a movie and compress it into a sliver, and put them next to each other. Voilá. Movie barcode.

Seriously, as a film lover this site is a veritable treasure trove of thematic insight. Plucking a few favourites from the extensive site index, you can really see how this works both as art and as a window into how directors use shade and colour to help bring their overall vision to life.

Hero

The Lion King

If you’re as enamoured as I am with these images then you’ll be pleased to know that prints are available and, if the film you’re looking isn’t available, Mr Reid has published a handy ‘how to’ guide too.

Enjoy.

 

 

 

Freefall Photography: The HTC One

First up, watch this –

The video description:

The Experiment: We chucked a photography student out of a plane to see if he could take the perfect fashion photo. We gave him a model, lighting guys, a makeup artist and smoke machines. The only thing we didn’t give him was a camera. We gave him a phone.

This is the commercial that’s currently running in the UK globally to mark the worldwide release of the HTC One. While it’s not the most original idea in the world, it does have great piece of backing music (Tick of the Clock, Chromatics – most recently heard on the DRIVE official soundtrack), some great imagery and… well, that’s about it.

It sounds harsh but, I’m not entirely sure what the advert is for.

Yes, it’s for the HTC One, I get that much, but why are they jumping out of the plane? Why is the HTC One being used in this instance? From what I’ve read, it’s to help show off  ‘the One’s low-light capabilities’ – if that’s the case, why can’t I see the image and/or video quality that ‘Nick’ shot with the phone in the advert?

The very last second of the ad ends with ‘Watch Nick’s story online’, let’s get online and find that content then shall we?

A Google image search for ‘HTC One free fall fashion shoot‘ only turns up images shot by other cameras that were present on the day; DSLRs etc… keep clicking and eventually, on page 3 of the search, this image shows up via All Things D –

I’m not sure, but I’m thinking that this might be the actual image that our man Nick shot with his HTC One. Not bad, right? Right. But I want the full image; the original, uncrunched image, with EXIF data.

But I can’t find it.

Even the official photo album from the shoot, the one from HTC UK’s very own Facebook page, doesn’t have the full file [instead uploading a frustratingly bad and super-compressed FB-friendly version]. Additionally – and still, according to the ad – Nick was recording video and trying to get the perfect photo at the same time. Guess what? No sign of that footage either.

I’m labouring the point, I know. But if you’re going to make a big deal about a fashion student being given the opportunity to take part in a one-of-a-kind free-fall fashion shoot, then surely you’d make a big deal around the actual content that said fashion student produced. No?

Just me then.

Read the press release, make your own mind up.

 

Introducing: LooTube

A few days ago, I wrote this post suggesting a feature for mobile-based video services, the overall idea being that the app might display different length content based upon the user’s location.

I cheekily surmised that perhaps content should be served depending the answer to the following question: 

“Hi, where are you? In bed, on the train or on the toilet?”

Terence Eden, one third of the brains behind awesome mobile web Twitter service, Dabr, commented on the post with, amongst other things –

“Hmmm… You’ve given me an idea for a weekend hack…”

Well, it’s the weekend, and Terence has finished hacking – LooTu.be has arrived!

While not the most tasteful of mobile web apps available today, LooTube is awesome as it answers the challenge I posed last week: why can’t mobile video be served in order of length (based upon your location)?

Amazing, nicely done Terence.

Give it a go yourself, next time you’re headed to the can – hit up http://lootu.be on your mobile and see what you fancy watching.

UPDATE:
Terence has posted too – ‘Context Specific Content Surfacing‘ 

 

Why I love Instagram

I started writing this post last weekend, before the big Facebook sale was announced, as I wanted to talk about – in light of the recent Android-owners backlash – I use (and enjoy) Instagram. It’s funny now though how that very same backlash has not only continued but also now includes all things Facebook. Incredible. C’est la vie.

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I love Instagram. There, I said it.
I also don’t own an iPhone.

So how?

Anyone who’s been reading this blog for any amount of time knows that I am a Nokia fan. My current phone du jour is the Nokia Lumia 800 and before I now I have waxed lyrical about its predecessors the N8 and the N86. Similarly, regular readers will also know that I am an iPad-owner also. Of that too, I am also a fan.

I am a social media junkie; If something is new and shiny, I take a(n educated and measured) interest and, in all honesty, the lure of Instagram was too much.

The next logical step? Install Instagram onto the iPad.

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While there isn’t an official Instagram iPad app, the iPhone version doubles up just fine. Problem solved, right? Well, yes but that’s not enough. I own an iPad 2 y’see and, while it does have an onboard camera, you may as well give a packet of crayons to a pack of blind monkeys for all the use it’ll do you. A decent image it produces, not.

The great thing about Nokia devices however, is that the top end bad boys tend to come packing high-end mobile camera technology. Which is great, and as 99% of the images I snap with my Lumia end up on my Flickr account – all I need is a method of getting those images into Instagram.

Well, that’s where Flickr Studio comes in –

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I can browse my Flickr photostream and download the images I want/need onto my iPad (you can see where this is going can’t you) which closes the circle nicely –

Lumia – >; Flickr
Flickr – iPad
iPad – >; Instagram

Yes, it’s a lengthy process and yes it’s not exactly ideal either but like I said, I like the network and I like the people I follow there. I installed Instagram onto my Nexus S a couple of days ago and I’ve hardly used it. I prefer the iPad experience. Plus, my pictures are infinitely better.

Since the Android release last week it’s almost too funny how much the elitist iPhone-owners have spat back at the network [EDIT: even more so now after the sale]. Apparently some slighted iPhone-Instagrammers are even flocking to new services to escape the influx of ‘tasteless’ Android-ers. Hilarious.

I’ve enjoyed being a part of the Instagram community and have never uploaded an iPhone-created picture, ever. That makes me happy inside and that’s how I use (and why I love) Instagram.

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PS. As I said earlier this week, post-sale, Instagram will be fine –

;

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Five things on Friday #15

Five things of note from the week ending Friday, April 13th 2012
Sidenote: less effort this week, sorry – I am ill.
Rubbish.

1. How to make onion ring eggs (amazing)

Flower power eggs look cool too.

2. I know that feel bro

These are awesome. The above one is entitled ‘Genetic Experiments’ and it’s by far and away my favourite. But really, the whole series is great, check them out.

3. Finding your Kryptonite
I drew this (with Paper) –

Flight #madewithpaper

And someone else wrote this (using my other pics for support).

I like.

4. Star Wars Condoms

Alas, these aren’t real. But still, they made me chuckle.

5. Lulz

Mind. Blown.

Bonuses: Last week I told you to read Dan’s blog, I did and I found this; Argentinians doing cool things with Twitter; and this awesome momentum-based blog post from my mate Ross. Follow him, he’s a good lad.

An idea for iPlayer mobile

(or TED, or any video-based mobile app)

When I open the application, I want the app to gauge my time and serve me content accordingly. It could ask me ‘How much time do you have?’ but that’s boring. My thinking is you could get quite cheeky with the measurement –

First question: location. Based upon your answer to this, the app takes an educated guess as to the length of video you want to consume at this time.

Like so –

Thoughts

“Hi, where are you? In bed, on the train or on the toilet?”

In bed, you get everything; on the train, you get everything up to say…  30mins? – and on the toilet, well, you get content up to ten minutes. Obviously there’d be other (probably more user-defined) options available, but you get my point

I’ve mentioned this before (to the Beeb itself at one point) and I don’t know why this hasn’t been done or why content isn’t browse-able by length at all* in fact. I’ve got a 15 minute journey ahead of me so therefore I’d like to see all content that is 15mins or under in length. Simple.

.

What is the behaviour of your mobile user?

 

*if it has, I haven’t seen it and well, I fully expect to get told about it within minutes of hitting publish….

Florence / John / Janelle

aka – Three Track Thursday #2

Florence + The Machine covering Otis Redding – ‘Try a little Tenderness’

Gorgeous..

Next, John Mayer covering Lana Del Ray – Video Games (Instrumental)

Hauntingly soothing.

Finally, Janelle Monae covering The Jackson 5 – I Want You Back

Not as good as I’d hoped, but still good nonetheless.

Until next time…