Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip To The Moon) is a classic silent film by revered French director Georges Méliès. Released in 1902, this legendary 16-minute film is widely considered one of the most important works in film history, and the very first to use science fiction as its theme, incorporating special effects that were very state-of-the-art at the turn of the 19th century. It was loosely based on two popular novels of the time: Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon and H. G. Wells The First Men In The Moon.

In 1993, a long-lost hand-painted color print, the only one known to exist, was rediscovered in Spain. It was in desperate condition, and so in 1999, two foundations—Fondation Groupama Gan and Fondation Technicolor—began the highly delicate preservation work of rescuing and digitizing the elements of the film. After many years of painstaking work, a magnificent restoration of the film was ready to be launched, allowing a 21st century audience to rediscover this major cinematic work.

Eager to put a contemporary spin on this classic silent film and reach a new audience, the foundations decided to approach AIR’s Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel, to compose an original modern soundtrack, an enormous honor for French musicians, considering the film’s place in the canon of French cinema. With the aim of premiering at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, AIR set themselves a tight deadline, locking their studio doors and working around the clock to serve these classic images with brave new sounds. Complete with a new soundtrack by AIR, the film debuted at Cannes on May 11, 2011 to immediate and unanimous acclaim.

Spurred on by their work on this short movie, AIR decided to develop the project into a full album inspired by the film. Expanding the original musical themes beyond cinematic instrumentals, the album also features the vocal talents and lyrics of Au Revoir Simone and Victoria Legrand (Beach House). The band’s lunar fascinations have been evident since the beginning of their career with the release of the seminal 1998 classic Moon Safari. Now in 2012 Nicolas and JB have returned to explore the further regions of their very unique musical “space.”

Nicolas explains: “‘A Trip to the Moon’ is undoubtedly more organic than most of our past projects. We wanted it to sound ‘handmade,’ knocked together’, a bit like Méliès’ special effects. Everything is played live … like Méliès’ film, our soundtrack is nourished by living art.”

The three producers of the restored version have agreed to let EMI release a special Limited Edition version of the AIR album Le Voyage Dans La Lune, which will be released on February 7, 2012 on Astralwerks. This will consist of the album plus a bonus DVD or digital download of the restored colorized film with AIR’s original film score, strictly limited to 70,000 global copies.

iOS transition effect in slow motion from Lim Chee Aun on Vimeo.

This is screen-recorded using Quicktime Player.

Protip: This uses the ‘Toggle Slow Animations’ option in the iPhone Simulator, under the Debug menu.

**Edit**
A friend, just showed me this article, “A closer look at iPhone transition animations” with more in-depth thoughts behind the transitions.
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(credit: ★cheeaun)

The Shrine / An Argument from Sean Pecknold on Vimeo.

Music: Fleet Foxes
Album: Helplessness Blues
Director: Sean Pecknold
Animators: Sean Pecknold & Britta Johnson
Character Illustrations: Stacey Rozich
Art Assistant: Natalie Jenkins
Producer: Aaron Ball
Multiplane: Greg Pecknold
Post/Edit : Sean Pecknold
Particle FX: Britta Johnson
AE Assist: Austin Wilson
Sound FX: Shervin Shaeri
Story: Sean Pecknold
Labels: Bella Union & Sub Pop
Made in Portland, Oregon
friendlondon.tv
Made with Dragonframe

(via my co-worker PPWalker, esquire)

(credit: ★hectocotyli)

“The whole point of animation to me is to tell a story, make a joke, express an idea. The technique itself doesn’t really matter. Whatever works is the thing to use.”

(credit: the ever impressive link finder, @LettersofNote)

(credit: Laughing Squid)

EXTRAS that shows a longer interview with the person currently talking in the film.
- MORE WORKS shows additional videos from the artist/company currently on screen.
- A relevant WEBSITE of the person currently on screen.
- The music currently playing in the movie. By clicking on the artist’s name you will be
directed directly to their profiles (Spotify or Soundcloud).

Also when an artist first appears on the screen, an info tab will show up giving you a little blurb about that artist with accompanying links to their work.

The film is also available to purchase through iTunes and Amazon.

(Thanks to Erik Sellgren from House of Radon, for informing me!)

Thirteen episodes will be broadcast from 18 to 25 September on Radio 4. This epic masterpiece, centred around the bloody battle of Stalingrad, charts the fate of both a nation and a family in the turmoil of war. Completed in 1960, the novel was deemed so dangerous by the KGB that the book itself was arrested. All the episodes are available to download.

Life & Fate TVC from devilfish on Vimeo.

Credits
Agency: devilfish
Creative director: Lee Edwards
Producer: Lucy Hunt
Designer: Ben Newman @ Pocko

Prohibition, the new Ken Burns documentary will premier first on PBS’s iPhone, iPod touch & iPad app (free) starting tomorrow (September 23 through Friday, October 7).

The show will be on the PBS network starting October 2-4. But those who don’t have access, the episodes will be streamed live on video.pbs.org at the same time.

PROHIBITION is a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed.

The culmination of nearly a century of activism, Prohibition was intended to improve, even to ennoble, the lives of all Americans, to protect individuals, families, and society at large from the devastating effects of alcohol abuse.

(credit: CNET)