Ada - Short Film
DISCLAIMER: This film blatantly discusses suicide and self-harm. If you’re having suicidal thoughts, call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) to talk to a skilled, trained counselor at a crisis center in your area at any time (National Suicide Prevention Lifeline). Or call/text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org. If you are located outside the United States, call your local emergency line immediately.
Also, language.
Happy to share my friend’s latest short film! I was also lucky enough to go to its premiere in a real, physical theater, alongside two other shorts, as a small anthology series. Everyone I talked to there agreed that’s the ideal way to premiere your personal projects. I hope everyone gets the opportunity see this (after acknowledging the above disclaimer) in as large a format as possible.
Relentless and deliberate, rather than slow and steady.
The pain of regret and discipline is the same.
I wish I had taken note of where and who these came from, but they’ve been in my head the past few months.
After Effects Plugins Q3 2024
- Auto Motion | FREE - I’ll be honest, I’m glad I’m reviewing these because I forget what I installed this for, but going through the manual makes me want to try it.
- Parental Controls | FREE - Also haven’t used this as much as I thought I would, but seems like it’d be super handy. Maybe I need to make my rigs better to utilize this.
- Collage | FREE - Think I just went on a freebie splurge this quarter; again think I used this once, but would like to use it more.
- One Click Parallax | FREE - This one I have used a lot, just works. Pretty sure I got this from a mention by SternFX.
- Reducer | FREE - Don’t think I’ve used this yet, but can definitely see using it if I need to get a specific comp out of and old file, or the regular handoff process. Seems like what should be built in.
Watch Carbon Dioxide Move Through Earth’s Atmosphere | NASA
Sobering. Mesmerizing. This helps so much in understanding the problem. I think one of the biggest things that helps that they don’t really mention is the compression of time. These visualizations are something like a day per second. The scale of the problem is sometimes difficult to comprehend (which I realize that phrase alone is a cliche, but it’s the most accurate way to say it), but by compressing the scale a little bit—–time––you can see this amazingly big ecosystem look like something you may have seen before, maybe another time-lapse video. And that comparative nature helps to understand what’s happening, and thus, what must be done.
Every Frame a Painting (for a limited time) | Patreon
Figured I should log this as a pleasant event to look back on at the bare minimum. (I’m guessing if you’re read this blog, you’ve already heard of this from other people in these circles.)
Taylor and Tony are having a little comeback / publicity tour. As part of a “marketing campaign” for their new short, they will be releasing a series of new EFAP videos!
Some more details from their Patreon.
patreon
Not only is the quality of work and what these videos are about excellent, I believe in the method of how they’re made. They peeled the curtain back a bit in their postmortem ‘video’, and it’s so clear how strongly they believe in withholding a piece of work until it’s polished enough to be released. This series is a stellar example of how much more rewarding and richer things humans make can be when they’re cared for, and not sacrificed at the alter of an algorithm, attention, or apathy. Slow and steady, keeping focus on what they want.
For ultimate vanity, and because where else am I going to put this, here’s my Patreon badge. I mostly jest, but I also want to support them however I can, and by showing there’s actually other people out their supporting them, I hope to do a small part of normalizing putting your money where your mouth is.
EDIT: Complete sidebar, but I love how they do not create custom thumbnails for their youtube channel. Each video (eh, film) is well named, and the work speaks for itself.
See also: New Every Frame a Painting | kottke.org
BTS Link Dump
I guess somewhat serendipitously, I have come across some really great behind-the-scenes coverage the past week or two. In no particular order:
Entertainment Weekly - Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes - This is kind of unprecedented, showing raw and final footage side-by-side.
This Guy Edits - Reservation Dogs — Rare footage of an editing bay at work, and some of the “cutting room floor” footage.
Whatever It Takes (podcast) — This seems to be a small series about the post-production of Marvel’s Infinity War and End Game movies. Six episodes interviewing one or two people each from the assistant level post-production; this is some really unique insight into some very interesting stories about a massive production. These are from 2020, so the official website seems to be down, but here’s the links to Apple Podcasts and Overcast.