On the 30th of September 2011, in front of a sell-out theatre at the BFI in London, Charlie Kaufman delivered the final lecture in BAFTA’s 2011 Screenwriters’ Lecture Series.

 

Juxtaposing extracts of Kaufman’s speech and complimentary visuals, filmmaker Eliot Rausch has made one helluva good short; and further solidifying the theory that anything involving Charlie Kaufman is gold.

The full 70 minute lecture can be found here.

The latest from the great SoundWorks Collection website.

With two prior DUIs, David Wheaton led cops along highways around western and northern Houston, at one point reaching 92 mph, the official limit for the micro-vehicle. Eventually Wheaton drove all the way to his driveway, where police arrested him without fuss.
via

• Today’s rhetorical question: A prequel to The Shining: ‘Wholly unnecessary’?
• The curious case of the blind man who can still see
• I need to keep better track of Australian billionaire Clive Palmer, he wants to clone a dinosaur for a Jurassic Park-style resort
• Bruce Lee on transformation
• DARPA and NIH to fund ‘human body on a chip’ research
• Energy Efficiency: New Drywall Building Material Can Cut Buildings’ Energy Consumption by 40%
• Abraham Lincoln Scrawled This Astonishing (Seven Word) Note To Save a Soldier’s Life
• This YouTube video could help cure Vertigo
• What Aurora Victims Might Face if James Holmes Pleaded Insane
• Answered: Do Olympic/Competitive Swimmers Pee in the Pool?
• A Glossary: of ‘carny’ slang
• Cooking Mama: Breaking Bad edition
• Visualised: the business of Bond films
• Tumblr: Go Cook Yourself

Also, Google Maps is teaming up with NASA to add street view of the Kennedy Space Center. Awesome.

Looks good.

A well done recut that just goes to show how powerfully subjective editing can be and thus renewing my general distrust of marketing and movie trailers in general.

Also, it’s awesome.

Asperatus clouds over Scotland via The Cloud Appreciation Society

• Olympic opening ceremony: Ai Weiwei’s review
• South Korea’s Im Dong Hyun:the ‘blind’ Olympics world record setting archer
• There Are Four Olympic Athletes Without Countries To Represent
• The Greatest Chris Brown Album Review of All Time: ‘No Stars Ever’
• Music Labels Won’t Share Pirate Bay Loot With Artists
• Computer confirms: All music sounds the same these days
• Strong evidence that a real name policy would fail to improve comment systems
• The New York Times is Now Supported by Readers, Not Advertisers
• Celebrities and their Unnecessary Public Apologies
• From Forbes: “The porn industry as I knew it is dead. And it appears a new industry has arisen.”
• Heath Ledger’s Joker was probably inspired by Tom Waits (gets an automatic yes from me)
• Where Did John Wayne Get His Walk?
• Ancestry.com Claims Obama Is Descendant of John Punch, First Enslaved African-American
• Mitt Romney follows up insulting London with straight-up racism in Israel
• Horror Hospital: The Most Shocking Photos And Testimony From The Dawood Military Hospital Scandal (warning: very graphic)
• Fall, Mortality, and the Machine: Tolkien and Technology
• Climate change study forces sceptical scientists to change minds
• The 50 Best Socially Awesome/Awkward Penguin Memes

Almost 20 years after Baraka, Director/Cinematographer Ron Fricke is returning to cinema with Samsara and the film looks nothing short of fucking amazing.

Filmed over 5 years, 25 countries and 100 locations, Fricke’s follow up will also be devoid of dialogue, text and narrative and instead, tackle the theme of “humanity’s relationship to the eternal” purely through music and images.

Goddamn beautiful images at that.

The movie was shot entirely on 70mm film, but is set to be released via digital 4K projection, with no plans for a 70mm print; which is a damn shame and hopefully not another nail in that looming coffin for 35mm and film (stock). Mind you, I’ll be just as happy to get an actual theatrical of this awesome looking film considering a supposed ‘lack of market’ in NZ.

Anyhow, check it out (and in HD if that wasn’t obvious enough).

Yeah, looks good.

• Awesome: European Agency Backs Approval of a Gene Therapy
• The ‘chemputer’ that could print out any drug
• Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math
• The Artist’s Lens: What It Means to See the World With an Eye Toward a Facebook Update
• Silicon Valley Warns That Their Products Are Addictive
• Oldest record in the world: recreated from photographs
• The most polite cease and desist letter ever
• The ‘feasibility’ of gun control in the US
• A man’s penis stolen by thieves in his sleep
• Website: An ermahgerd translator/generator
• Gorilla Youngsters Seen Dismantling Poachers’ Traps
• Pretty visualisation: Prime number patterns
• Chart: Distribution of colours in movie posters between 1914 and 2012
• 30 Awesome Behind The Scenes Photos From Old Movies
• 15 Hacks That Will Make You Life A Whole Lot Easier
• 10 of the Most Doomed Expeditions in History

Treat me right baby, I’ve been burned in the past… well, the selection in this video essay by flavourwire is a great range and certainly makes me all the more antsy to get back into some film stuff after all this play who-ha is over. I’m also starting to wonder how much more mileage can be sapped out of Clint Mansell’s score for Moon; a bit more I’d say, only because that score is that awesome.

Anyhow, see how many you can pick out (and extra points for naming the cinematographers). Full list can be found here.