Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.

This is a great little film, wonderful portfolio piece. It does a great job at establishing a look and a mood. I love that Spy Films also put their Making Of on Vimeo as well. It shows exactly how much work went into it.

(via ProVideo Coalition.com)

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Dozens of striking film and TV writers are negotiating with venture capitalists to set up companies that would bypass the Hollywood studio system and reach consumers with video entertainment on the Web.

This has been expected since the strike began. The writers are frustrated with the system and realizing that they can own it all. The musicians have been living this for a while, but it takes a bit more people to produce a tv show than an album. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Look at all the episodic stuff on the web these days. Let a million small studios bloom!

[via Core77]

So, it’s a contest, kinda. They’ll cover the HD DVD authoring fees for you, and then you’ll use the CustomFlix service to sell the new DVDs. I’m assuming that the HD DVD authoring isn’t too cheap and I’m also assuming that if they are doing 1000 of them for free, that you probably won’t have much say in the authoring itself.

I just watched the DVD for “Stranger Than Fiction.” Good movie, but I really like the title sequence and the nice use of motion graphics as part of the story telling, integrated into the video. Bummer is that they don’t have any of it in the most recent reel on their site, but you can check out their other work which is also quite nice.

[Added 3/14/07]

from avclub, I found a link to one of the sequences MK12 did in the film.

Both of these pieces are doing something similar. They are using motion graphics and typeography to help illustrate and enliven spoken word material. I think that the Master Plan piece is better visually (which is admittedly much easier at 3:15 instead of 36:00. However, the content of Lawrence Lessig’s piece is far more effective if only because he is much more experienced at speaking and he is much more knowledgeable about his topic. It definitely shows how substance can beat out style, but it also shows how compelling voices and messages are really the most important part of a informational, educational or political piece.

The Lawrence Lessig film is below:

welcome to Ruairí Robinson’s webpage. No loitering.

Once nominated for an Oscar, Director Ruairi Robinson has since been doing a lot of commercials. He has decided to post his newest short film on his website in both standard and HD, which I very much dig as a way to promote your work.