Mindgun blog

Here’s some awesome s*** (to inspire and rock out to)

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 02:02:24 +0000

Damn, I love music videos. At least I used to, then they seemed to go the way of Betamax and the cathode ray tube about 10 years ago and then…

Something amazing happened all to do with a new generation, low cost advanced technology and the explosion of the internet (meaning bye bye broadcasting standards – you can show kind of pretty much ANYTHING online these days) and now…

We have amazing music videos again.

For my daily music video and general creative inspiration fix I head over to Promo News run by an amazing man called Dave Knight. He’s a true expert, a long term lover and promoter of the art form and kind of a national institution. And he runs something called Bug which happens regularly and you should check out. (Dave was also instrumental in the Outstanding Achievement Award that went to the Troll King, Bronx Film Warrior and comrade-in-arms in the film wars, Barry Wasserman at last years MVAs).

Anyway, I’ve been watching a lot of music videos. And maybe it’s something in the water these days, or perhaps I’m just tired and emotional but recently I’ve been watching work that makes me want to tear up and cry it’s so good. The imagination. The boldness. The music. Damn, it’s a pure form when artist and a director are on fire and umbilically linked right at the root of their creative skishkas.

So here’s three videos, all in the last month, I think are extraordinary. Watch them, tear up, get down, be inspired, get back up, go out & shoot some awesome shit:

Genius, your name is juxtaposition.

Hoxtonian Psycho. Say no more.

So simple. So pure.

The Return

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:47:33 +0000

He’s b-a-a-a-a-ck. ‘Hollywood’s craziest director’:

“Everyday is like a war. You’re at war with yourself.”

RIP Alain Derobe

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 08:59:00 +0000

Sadly Alain Derobe died yesterday.

He was a 3D pioneer, stereoscopic master and visual philosopher who taught me and many others 3D storytelling at the EFA a couple of years ago. He was a truly inspiring man whose legacy will live on through his work and the many film-makers he inspired.

R.I.P. Alain.

NYC 82

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 11:21:24 +0000

There is only one reason for art

To know that you are alive

Art Lee Quinones, photo Martha Cooper

New commercial for Britvic

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:23:58 +0000

Check out my new commercial for Britvic airing right now. A whole bunch of post on this one, kept the steam-powered VFX turbines at the Mill grinding till late.

Here’s the 40″ version:

And here’s the 30″ with super groovy bike stunts by the amazing local talents down at Gurnell park:

Happy Christmukkah

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:17:14 +0000

Schadenfreudegasm

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:53:00 +0000

Humans are funny people imbued with a natural sense of schadenfreude. We slow to peer out the window at traffic accidents. We have an insatiable hunger for films about our own destruction and an unquenchable thirst for the misfortunes of others more famous and successful than us. And we love, LOVE, to see someone’s career evaporate in real time. Which is what happened to Republican presidential Rick Perry last night.

Governor Perry’s realtime career hara-kiri is so good it goes straight into the top three real time career-killing calamities where a politician has tanked himself and his future in public view. The amazing thing is that you can spend decades sowing the seeds of your own destruction, but when the moment comes it’s suprisingly short. And completely irrevoceable. It just takes a few seconds to fuck everything up beyond repair.

So without further ado here’s my top three career killing political moments as they happened. Welcome to the schadenfreudegasm:

Spoek Mathambo

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 18:39:57 +0000

Check out this stunning, and stunningly well shot, video for Control by one of the great new generation photographers, Pieter Hugo:

A fantastic cover version, too.

If you don’t know Pieter Hugo, you may recognise him form the iconic pictures of men and street animals in Nigeria — Mad Max-y looking dudes holding lions and hyenas on rope leashes. Check ‘em out here.

Rebel Rock

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:28:34 +0000

Amazing picture from the fall of Sirte. Qaddafi falls to the strains of three bar blues.

Somewhere, Joe Strummer is smiling.

Getty Images

Occupy LA

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:17:56 +0000

Hot day, ditched meeting, I went downtown to the occupation at City Hall. Kind of a cross between the aftermath of a festival and a 24 hr rolling demo. Everyone seemed relaxed and peaceful, maybe that’s just the California clmate: it’s easier to protest in Autumn when the temperature’s over 80. LA’s finest — not known for their restraint — were totally unconcerned and cars honking every which way as they went past.

“There’s something going here and you don’t know what it is do you..?”

Let’s see.