You can't beat a good monster, and from the first time I saw "Pan's Labyrinth", I thought the Pale Man scene was one of the creepiest, and most original, in movie history.
But after randomly watching the 1985 film "Return to Oz", I'm not so sure. Are these scenes similar or is it just me?
Stranger things have happened than a macabre film director being influenced by a Disney film!
I absolutely love this little tune (and music video) from Rondò Veneziano. They're an Italian chamber orchestra that play Baroque-period music, but fuse traditional instruments with synthesizers, bass guitar and drums.
This song, "La Serenissima", was released as a single in 1983, but was later featured on an album compiled by the "Venice in Peril" Fund (a charity established to protect art and architecture in Venice against rising sea levels). I'm assuming this is why the surreal music video features robots being submerged by water.
Whatever the reason - it's unique and cool... and pre- Daft Punk! Enjoy.
A man makes a documentary about his life by using voice messages left for him over a twenty year period.
When asked in an interview what the biggest lesson he learnt from making the film was, Mark Craig replied "Life's short, and nothing stays the same for long."
A few years ago on youtube I stumbled upon 'Alice' - a song entirely composed of sounds from the Disney film 'Alice in Wonderland'. It was one of those moments where you feel you're experiencing something special.
Looking
at his work is not only inspiring from a creative standpoint. In these
times of copyright/pirate warfare, Pogo seems to be giving massive
corporations the finger, and getting away with it! Read on...
Pogo (Nick Bertke) is an electronic music artist living in Perth, Western Australia.
He creates music by taking chords, bass notes and vocal samples from a
film, and sequencing the sounds together. This sampling-and-remixing
method of making music was first made popular in the 90's by House
music producer and UK Garage influence Todd Edwards, but Pogo brought a new dimension to it by creating awesome electronic tunes from children's cartoons.
'Alice' is his most famous track (it's gotten nearly 5,000,000 views on YouTube) and since then Pogo has worked his way through the Disney films, producing tracks from 'Mary Poppins', 'The Sword in the Stone', 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', and most recently 'Snow White' ('Wishery').
Interestingly, off the back of this "plagiarism", Disney/Pixar, contacted him and commissioned him to compose a track from their film 'Up'.
The condition was that he remove his previous Disney mixes from public
view. Nick adhered, and produced 'Upular', plus two more commissioned
mixes from 'Toy Story' ('Toyz Noize' and 'Buzzwing'). When his
contract with Disney ended, the old Disney mixes were made public again
;D Which is great, because personally I think these commissions pale beside his self-inspired
work. (I quite like this one from TV series 'Dexter').
Not everyone is as sympathetic as Disney though. When Pogo released 'Bangarang' - featuring footage and sound samples from 'Hook', Sony Pictures Entertainment freaked out. Pogo responded, saying:
"My
work serves as free viral marketing to the organisations that own the
films I sample from. It's high time the music industry pulls its head
out of its ass, and realises that today's remix culture is an asset,
not a liability. To shoot down the potential here would be utterly
illogical."
He
removed the video, but several YouTube users protested by uploading
their own, previously saved versions of it (the same had previously
been done for 'Alice'). Amazingly, the outcry was loud enough to
convince Sony that they had made a mistake, and 'Bangarang' was
returned to YouTube within weeks.
Another commission came Pogo's way in the form of 'Pirates Of The Caribbean'.
He regards the mix as one of his best, but Jerry Bruckheimer Films
decided they want nothing to do with it. On his blog, Pogo says:
"The
sad reality is, Swashbuckle was contracted work. I’d literally have to
start saving the money that Disney would sue me before making the
decision to upload it. But who knows? It might just come to that. My
music is my mark in this world. If I have to pay to watch it entertain
millions of people, then so be it."
What a cool guy.
He continues to inspire fans, who often make tribute videos to him, which he acknowledges and applauds on his blog.
And want to hear something that will make you sick? He was born in 1988. I need to find some more late bloomers ;)
I highly recommend checking out his website, where all of his tracks are availbale for download as mp3s.
