Drones For Life

One thing I have truly been fascinated by is the growth and development of drones for cinema. This past couple weeks I really got to get up close in personal with one, and see how they work. You would think that it would be pretty simple to fly because they are so attainable, but thats completely false.  The controller has two pannels, one that deals with the flight pattern and another controlling the camera. Im so proud that I developed a true appreciation for how difficult it is to pilot one. Now heres a sick fucking drone video

http://devour.com/video/air-time/

American Beauty

American Beauty is a film from 1999 that embodies the dysfunctional beauty of one family, and relates it to the overall American cultural experience. The main character, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), sees no point to his existence: he is in a trying relationship with his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening); he barely talks to his daughter Jane (Thora Birch); and he has been put under fire at work. After a series of occurrences in his life such as meeting his new neighbor Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) smoking some pot, and becoming captivated by Jane's high school classmate Angela (Mena Suvari), Lester undergoes a remarkable transformation and decides to stop being a conformist. He quits his job, much to the irritation of his wife, and begins to work at a Burger King.

There is a great deal of suspense in this story line of this film: we are give the ending right at the beginning: that Lester will be dead in a year's time. However, how and why this is the case isn't revealed until the very last minute. The movie tries to tell us that conforming to a lifestyle dictated by society leads to dysfunctionality. But finding freedom as illustrated in the film isn't exactly great either.

As the movie proceeds, each of the characters experience a transformation that breaks them out of their rut and enables them to advance to the next level of existence. Each transformation is characterized by the movement between living a routine life and living a dynamic life, where everything is uncertain. At the end, only Lester has found true freedom. Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper), the homophobic father of Ricky is left to confront his own issues; Jane and Ricky move away to become professional drug dealers; Carolyn's transformation leaves her alone; and there is nothing to fix Angela's insecurity.

The Power of Time-Lapse and Tilt-Shift

A few years ago I found a time-lapse video online that I watched at 2am and I was struck by so much awe and beauty I bookmarked the video and it's been on the top of my browser ever since.  Give it a quick look... I promise you'll feel calmer in about 15 seconds:

The soundtrack is what I think really sells it. Even without the visual, the piano is so calming it makes me want to melt away like warm butter into a soft and beautiful sleep. Okay enough of this poetry-mush... let's get down to business. The first question is how do they get these beautiful steady shots over a period of time? For that, let us turn to the magical world of the internet, also known as the largest free education database in existence:

Okay, so now we all know how to create a stunning time-lapse videos. Good. But photographer Keith Loutit has taken it a step further and added another element to his time-lapse videos: tilt-shift. 

Tilt-shift, for those less aware, is a stylistic type of blurring that can make large landscape pictures look like little miniature models. I grabbed these two pictures as examples... and even though these are normal real-life shots taken over a large area, this simple blurring effect makes them look very small. 

So what happens when you combine this effect with a time-lapse video? Cool looking shit, that's what. 

Check out Loutit's time-lapse over the skyline of Shanghai: