No excuses: movie making on iPhones

While I was running on Sunday morning in 8 degree temperatures, I passed two elderly women walking down the Lake Shore Path, one using a walker, the other with her hand under that woman’s arm. They were on a stroll.

I was running with my GoPro. I pointed the camera at them and once past them, I looked at the lens and said, “There’s no excuses. If they can be out here, no reason anyone cannot be out here.”

The above movie trailer is for a Steven Soderbergh film shot completely on iPhones called Unsane. There’s an article and discuss thread here.

Like any topic on ANYTHING, you have dissent and agreement. The response range is typical. But the message, at least to me, is clear. Storytelling is storytelling. Whether you do it on a $45,000 camera or a $1000 one. Or a $150 one. Making, generating and publishing content is easier than it has ever been. And I’ve been pushing myself to crank out as much work as I possibly can.

It’s part (im)mortality. Part creativity. Part instinct. Part necessity.

I need to create. I have no children. I claim to be an artist. So fucking art (as a verb), mother fucker.

That’s what I tell myself, anyway. And I guess I can tell you, too. If you’re so inclined.

Right now I’m creating a lot of content on a GoPro 7. It’s not excellent quality, but it works. I pick it up. I run out the door with it. I create with it. I don’t hate the footage. I don’t hate the sound. But I don’t LOVE it. But I’m not letting good stand in the way of perfection.

I, for one, am inspired.

Those smartass MIT professors and their knowledge of economics is enough to make a billionaire’s head explode

A billionaire and a Washington Post journalist laugh at @AOC and her 70% tax rate for the super rich. Then an MIT professor corrects them both.pic.twitter.com/QVml24n4Op

— Negar Mortazavi (@NegarMortazavi) January 27, 2019

A documentary shot on 70mm film about Apollo 11? Yes please and wham bam thank you, ma’am!

I saw this trailer and drooled.

Miller and his team collaborated with NASA and the National Archives (NARA) to locate all of the existing footage from the Apollo 11 mission. In the course of sourcing all of the known imagery, NARA staff members made a discovery that changed the course of the project — an unprocessed collection of 65mm footage, never before seen by the public. Unbeknownst to even the NARA archivists, the reels contained wide format scenes of the Saturn V launch, the inside of the Launch Control Center and post-mission activities aboard the USS Hornet aircraft carrier.

The find resulted in the project evolving from one of only filmmaking to one of also film curation and historic preservation. The resulting transfer — from which the documentary was cut — is the highest resolution, highest quality digital collection of Apollo 11 footage in existence.

“The film is 100% archival footage and audio. They’ve paired the footage with selections from 11,000 hours of mission audio.”

The other unexpected find was a massive cache of audio recordings — more than 11,000 hours — comprising the individual tracks from 60 members of the Mission Control team. “Apollo 11” film team members wrote code to restore the audio and make it searchable and then began the multi-year process of listening to and documenting the recordings. The effort yielded new insights into key events of the moon landing mission, as well as surprising moments of humor and camaraderie.

In a dual between accurate and dumb as rocks

Must-read multimedia package —> Gone in a Generation: How climate change is disrupting American lives https://t.co/cWboKY5mJp

— Dan Eggen (@DanEggenWPost) January 29, 2019

In a bout of ignorance as predictable as global warming itself: 

In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2019

But fortunately, the Washington Post reports:

According to the poll, 56 percent of registered voters — a clear and statistically significant majority — say they will “definitely” not vote for Trump in his 2020 reelection bid. That’s bad enough. But the Post-ABC poll provided the option that asks if people would “consider voting for him.”

In regards to 45’s tweet, I’ll post a memetic response under the fold.