Category Archives: Video

This music video was made with 700,000 Lite-Brite pegs in stop motion

Design, Music, Video, , , ,

Never heard of David Crowder Band?  That’s fine because the most interesting part of their new music video “SMS (Shine)” are the visuals.

The video portraying a love story made completely of LITE-BRITE pegs was done solely by hand. Even details such as the piano playing in the background and the monkeys beating a drum in perfect time was done free of digital affects and computer animation. It took 2,150 man hours, 1,200 LITE-BRITE images, 83 friends and 148 pizzas to complete the video.

Yeah.  Enjoy!

[Via Engadget]

Dean Kamen’s Luke prosthetic arm in action

Technology, Video, , , , , ,

You remember Dean Kamen and his advanced prosthetic arm codenamed Luke, don’t you?  After shopping it around on The Colbert Report, Kamen brought his impressive prosthetic to the grocery store, and this time it was attached to Jerry, a Vietnam veteran who lost his arm in battle.  Look at the level of sophistication and precise movements this artificial limb can perform.  It really is quite extraordinary and I’m excited to see where this moves beyond the testing stages.

[Via BoingBoing]

Review: Kanye West premieres short film ‘Runaway’, previews songs from upcoming album

Music, Review, Video, , , , , ,

Kanye West travelled to Prague not so long ago to film a 35 minute short film called Runaway.  The film, directed by West & written by music video collaborator Hype Williams, plays like an extended and highly perfected music video.  Nine songs from West’s upcoming fifth studio album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy are interspersed throughout the film that premiered Saturday night simultaneously on MTV, MTV 2, MTV.com, BET, BET.com, and VH1.com.  Watch it uncensored after the break.

The film tells a short story about a beautiful phoenix (played by model Selita Ebanks) falling to Earth and falling in love with a man played by Kanye.  It opens up with a short introductory quip by Nicki Minaj (in her overzealous British accent) as she invites the viewer to “gather ’round children, zip it, listen!”  Then the first beat drops.  As Kanye drives his luxury car through a wooded area populated by grazing deer (who appear to be CGI), ‘Ye raps the title track “Dark Fantasy.”  In the distance up in the sky a plume of fire quickly descends to the ground, crashing into Kanye’s car and forcing ‘Ye to come to the rescue.  As the track goes “Can we get much higher?  Oh, oh, oh oh…” we catch our first glimpse of the Phoenix injured on the pavement.  Kanye picks her up and carries her away from the wreck, walking slowly towards the camera as the fire blazes in the background and “Dark Fantasy” winds down.  The title card “Runaway” appears, the track ends, and the story resumes at Kanye’s home.

The Phoenix wakes up and finds herself disoriented in our markedly different world.  Ebanks does a fantastic job throughout the film portraying this sense of feeling out of place in a foreign land–the ruffling of her feathers, the way she moves her claws and darts her head.  All of these small but very distinct qualities add to her stranger in a strange land mentality that brings the film’s overall theme into focus when the conclusion rolls around.  She is startled by a breaking news story shouting from the TV; Kanye appears and informs her, “First rule in this world baby: Don’t pay attention to anything you see in the news.”  Take note: the film does not contain much dialogue (not including the songs, obviously), so listen carefully to what Kanye and Ebanks’ characters have to say.  Kanye’s message is not hiding–it lives in the songs, the visuals, and also in what he (and the Phoenix) have to say.

Next up is “Gorgeous” — Kid Cudi sings the chorus and Kanye raps a verse as we watch the Phoenix interact with nature and animals.  While she’s frolicking in the backyard and getting acclimated to our world, Kanye looks on from inside the house.  He’s in love with the mysterious bird that fell into his lap.  Quite abruptly the track ends and a distinctly new version of “Power” begins.  Kanye plays with the beat on his sampler and the Phoenix twitches along with it.  A wave of comfortability hits the Phoenix and so she fearlessly begins to seductively dance to the heavily sampled “Power.”  Then as abruptly as it started “Power” ends and the signature horns of “All of the Lights” are introduced. Continue reading Review: Kanye West premieres short film ‘Runaway’, previews songs from upcoming album →

Prepare for the ‘Walking Dead’ zombie invasion, coming to a city near you! [Update: video compilation]

News, Television, Video, , , , , , ,

Can you believe it!?  The highly anticipated TV adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comic book The Walking Dead is set to premiere this weekend!  To promote the upcoming series premiere, AMC and Fox International Channels have teamed up to stage real live “zombie attacks” in 26 cities around the world over a 24-hour period.  Inspired by the show’s makeup artist Greg Nicotero, hundreds of undead extras will begin the invasion tomorrow, October 26 at daybreak in Taipei and Hong Kong.  After speading the outbreak to major landmarks including the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., Big Ben in London, the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, and the Acropolis in Athens, the zombies will end their spree in Los Angeles, just in time for the big LA premiere event.  Look after the break for a full listing of the promotional zombie tour stops.

The Walking Dead premieres this Sunday, October 31 at 9PM on AMC.

Update: Jump after the break to watch an “Invasion Compilation” of the day’s events.  Hundreds of zombies literally roamed cities all around the globe–and they looked very convincing!  Unfortunately no one was harmed in the filming.  Want to see more?  Head over to the FICTheWalkingDead YouTube channel to watch more footage categorized by city and time of day.

[Via THR; IGN] Continue reading Prepare for the ‘Walking Dead’ zombie invasion, coming to a city near you! [Update: video compilation] →

Trailer: Scream 4

Movies, Video, , , ,

He’s baaaack.  Ten years has passed since the last Scream movie from Wes Craven, and Ghostface is ready for some vengence on the Woodsboro gang.  Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette return as Sidney Prescott, Gale Weathers, and Sheriff Dewey Riley, respectively, and they are joined by Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Nico Tortorella, Rory Culkin, Alison Brie, and Adam Brody in this reboot of the late ’90s horrorfest.  The trailer is chillingly fun, so go on and mash play.

Scream 4 hits theatres April 15, 2011.

Kinect TV ads: YOU are the controller.

Technology, Video, , , , , , , ,

Here we go!  Microsoft has officially begun the marketing blitz for Kinect.  At the center of all these commercials is the philosophy that you don’t have to have any previous knowledge of playing video games; you are the controller, so it all comes naturally.  Look after the break for two more ads featuring flailing children in large, brightly lit living spaces plus an extended commercial highlighting Xbox Live with Kinect functionality.

[Via Joystiq] Continue reading Kinect TV ads: YOU are the controller. →

24 Hour Coco Cam is LIVE right now!

Hilarity, Television, Video, , , , , ,

On October 20th at 1PM EST/10AM PST Conan’s HQ in Los Angeles started broadcasting LIVE to the Internet!  They shoved a camera in the stairwell of their “comedy bunker” and you don’t want to miss all the crazy shenanigans that’s going down right now.  The camera will remain on for a whole 24 hours.  So far you’ve missed dancing tacos and a dude in a dog suit playing poker and drinking a water bottle through his eye hole.  Watching the live stream is quite mesmerizing in the strangest way possible.  Click here to access the stream.  And if you’re on Twitter, go on and request the production crew/interns that pass by to do something crazy; don’t forget to hashtag your tweet with #LiveCocoCam.  Right now it’s 4:30AM EST on the 21st, and there’s a late-night party going down, so whatcha waitin’ for?

Update: It’s over, folks.  Head over to Team Coco to watch highlights from the 24 hour cam.  Every wonderful shenanigan has been saved for posterity in video and still image formats.  Fun fact: according to early estimates, some 660,000 people tuned into the live stream at some point during the 24 hour period.  As Deadline so emphatically points out, that is the average audience TBS gets in the 11PM hour with George Lopez!  Get ready America, Coco is coming.

[Via TeamCoco]

Band loses gear, rocks out on NYC subway using iPhone instrument apps

Music, Technology, Video, , , , , , , ,

Brooklyn-based band Atomic Tom supposedly had all their instruments stolen earlier this month.  So they decided to hop on the B-train and perform their single “Take Me Out” using nothing but iPhones and musical apps.  The video went viral and has garnered around 2.1 million hits on YouTube.  I say “supposedly had their instruments stolen” because this all went down about three months after their debut album The Moment hit iTunes.  Publicity stunt or not, these guys are super talented.

[Via Digg]

Back to the Mac: iLife ’11, FaceTime, Mac OS X Lion, MacBook Air

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Today Steve Jobs hosted an Apple keynote presentation appropriately titled Back to the Mac.  In it he demonstrated the new version of iLife ’11, highlighting major upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand; introduced FaceTime for the Mac; previewed the next version of Mac OS X; and unveiled two new MacBook Air notebooks.  It’s breakdown time.

iLife ’11: The latest version of iLife packs the usual suspects–iPhone, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD.  The former three have been given major upgrades in functionality.

iPhoto ’11 features a new full-screen mode.  With a click of a button (the green [+] located at the top left corner of the window), desktop applications, the menu bar, and other distractions disappear.  In full-screen mode you take advantage of more screen real estate when viewing pictures in Events, Faces, Places, Albums, and Projects.  Projects is a new way to view your collection of books and letterpress cards on a wooden bookshelf.  The ability to create custom letterpress cards is a new feature; 15 distinct themes are at your disposal to customize and order directly from Apple to send to relatives and friends.  When you go to create a book or letterpress card, a new dynamic theme browser in carousel style will be presented to you.  There are also a bunch of new slideshow themes including Holiday Mobile, Reflections, and Places.  Want to email a group of photos to a friend?  Now you can create and send an email message within iPhoto; no need to jump out and into a mail client.  You can choose from eight themes to customize how you want your pictures to be presented in the email.  And lastly there’s Facebook enhancements.  Within iPhoto you can now publish photos directly to your wall or to an existing album, and if your friends leave comments on your photos you’ll be able to view them in iPhoto.  You can also tag faces and browse all of your Facebook albums in iPhoto; no need to jump out and into a browser.

iMovie ’11 features new audio editing tools.  Detailed wave forms are color coded, so now you can see where audio levels are too loud or quiet and adjust them properly.  Also there’s a new single-row view that shows you your entire movie project in one horizontal row, making it easier to edit your soundtrack.  One-step effects are also at your disposal.  Adding visual effects like instant replay, flash and hold, and jump cuts at beats can be done with minimal amount of clicks.  The new People Finder feature works similarly to Faces in iPhoto; the software will analyze your video to identify the parts with people in them.  It also finds the close-ups, medium shots, or wide angles making it easier to find these specific shots during an edit session.  There are two new themes: sports and news.  And now you can publish your movies directly Vimeo,CNN iReport, and Apple Podcast Producer in addition to iTunes, YouTube, Facebook, and your mobile devices.  Last there’s movie trailers.  You can choose from 15 templates to create professional-looking movie trailers out of your clips.  Apple commissioned the London Symphony Orchestra to record (in Abbey Road Studios) and perform original tracks for you to use when creating movie trailers.  Outline and storyboard views make it simple to put together a movie trailer in no time.

GarageBand ’11 includes two new features called Flex Time and Groove Matching.  Flex Time allows you to fix timing mistakes on the fly; you can literally click and drag any part of a waveform to change the timing of a note or beat.  Groove Matching is described as “an automatic spell checker for bad rhythm.”  If one (or multiple) instruments appears to be out of rhythm, all you have to do is select the one instrument that has the perfect rhythm (called the Groove Track) and all the other instrument tracks will instantly match it.  A new feature called “How Did I Play?” gives you the opportunity to play along with a piano or guitar lesson, record yourself, and test how you’re doing in real time.  Like Guitar Hero, the GarageBand lesson will keep track of your performance with a performance meter and show you missed notes in red to help you perfect your skills.  A track progess bar will show you how better (or worse) you’re performing a particular song by date.  Finally, there’s new lessons for piano and guitar, as well as new guitar amps and stompbox effects.

iLife ’11 is available for purchase today at $49.  A family pack, which includes 5 licenses, goes for $79.  Keep in mind iLife ships free with every new Mac. Continue reading Back to the Mac: iLife ’11, FaceTime, Mac OS X Lion, MacBook Air →

Samsung Galaxy Tab coming to Verizon Wireless November 11 for $599.99 [Update: Sprint & T-Mobile details]

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If you’ve been hunting for an iPad alternative to satisfy your tablet needs, look no further than here.  Samsung’s Galaxy Tab will be sold through Verizon Wireless for $599.99 come November 11.  You want specs?  Oh, I got specs.  The Tab sports a 7-inch (1024×600, WSVGA) multitouch display, 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor, rear-facing 3 megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus, front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera, 2GB of onboard storage with 16 GB pre-installed on a microSD card (expandable memory up to 32GB), 802.11n WiFi, A-GPS, and a headphone jack.  It weighs 13 ounces and is 12 millimeters thin; Sammy says it can “easily fit into a jeans’ backpocket”, but I’m not so sure about that.  The display supports full HD 1080p video playback and the rear-facing camera can shoot up to 720p at 30 fps.  The browser supports Adobe Flash Player 10.1.

The Tab runs Android 2.2 (aka Froyo) with a tweaked version of Samsung’s TouchWiz skin on top.  Google Maps Navigation and Google Goggles come preinstalled, along with Swype keyboard functionality.  Apps like Qik and Fring are available to download in the Android Market and can be used for video chatting over a WiFi connection.  In addition to its custom skin, Samsung is throwing in some of their own apps they think will be useful for users.  The Media Hub offers a “vast lineup of critically acclaimed films and TV programs for rent or purchase.”  Samsung has partnered with MTV Networks, NBC, Paramount, and Universal Studios Home Entertainment to bring media content to Tab owners.  Purchased content can be shared with up to five devices that carry the Media Hub application.  The Social Hub “works with the user’s Messaging and Contacts to initiate the sending and receiving of information, whether it is e-mail, instant messaging, social network updates or SMS messages.”  Also, calendar information from portal calendars like Google Calendar and social networks can be unified into one calender view.  There’s also a Document Viewer & Editor that can open and make changes to any Word, Excel, Powerpoint or PDF document, AllShare DLNA Technology can stream content to DLNA-compatable devices, and Daily Briefing gives you access to updated weather, news, stocks, and schedules.  Accessories will be sold separately: keyboard dock ($99.99), desktop dock ($49.99), car/GPS dock ($99.99).

The Tab will eventually be sold through all major US carriers (including AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile), but it’s coming to Verizon Wireless first.  The Tab on VZW will sell for $599.99 with no strings attached, meaning there’s no required 2-year contract obligation.  You can access the Internet on it using WiFi, and if you so choose you can add an optional 3G plan and pay $20/month for 1GB of data.  Users can access  V CAST Apps, Verizon’s mobile storefront for apps, and the Tab will come preloaded with V CAST Music, V CAST Song ID, VZ Navigator, Slacker Radio, Kindle for Android, BLOCKBUSTER On Demand, and a game called “Let’s Golf.”  Text, picture and video messaging is supported, but voice calling is not.  I repeat, the Tab is not a cell phone.  It may look like an oversized Android handset, but it cannot make and receive calls in the U.S.

Look in the gallery below to check out the Samsung Galaxy Tab from all angles, and jump after the break to watch a 10 minute “official demo” of the Android tablet.

Update (10/25): Today Sprint shared pricing details for their version of the Galaxy Tab.  Sprint customers can purchase the Tab for $399.99 with an obligatory two-year contract and they’ll need to cough up $29.99/month for 2GB of data or $59.99 for 5GB.  Preorders start today and it releases November 14.

Update 2 (10/27): T-Mobile will sell the Tab for $399.99 on a two-year contract.  A $35 activation fee is required.  Goes on sale November 10.

Update 3: The Tab is also coming to U.S. Cellular, but price and a release date have not been detailed yet.

[Via Samsung; Engadget, here, here & here; IGN]

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Tab coming to Verizon Wireless November 11 for $599.99 [Update: Sprint & T-Mobile details] →