PEOPLE NEED TO TAKE THIS MATTER SERIOUSLY

Look at this bird:

Looks like a normal bird, right? I mean ya its pretty cute in what not but what is so special about it? What you are looking at is the New Zealand Dotterel, and endangered species of bird only found in certain parts of New Zealand. 

The reason I bring this bird up is because recently I was watching Taylor Swift's music video "Out of the Woods" (if you haven't seen it, check it out)  http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/75580001/Taylor-Swifts-new-music-video-Out-Of-The-Woods-showcases-New-Zealand

and I realized that the location where most of the filming takes place is very similar to that of where the Dotterel roost. I became a little concerned that maybe Taylor Swift and her film crew perhaps intruded on this species' home so I decided to do a little research, and it turns out I was exactly right.

http://www.nme.com/news/taylor-swift/89978

The above link is an article that I stumbled upon while doing some research that claims that Taylor Swift's film crew disrupted the Dotterel's natural habitat and harmed some of the birds. The crew supposedly drove over a dozen vehicles onto the beaches where they roost and potentially murdered some of the birds. Now I personally am a firm believer that a filmmaker must do whatever it takes to get the perfect shot. But when it comes to endangered birds, thats where I draw the line. No birds life is worth a flawless dolly, especially that of a Dotterels. 

I do enjoy Taylor Swift and I think the music video is a beautiful homage to New Zealand's natural landscapes, but there are certain things that I just can't turn a blind eye to.

Please share this.

The Hobbit 3D: An Unexpected Journey

I like many other saw the Hobbit last night at midnight.  I thought it was very much worth it to go see it in 3D.  The visuals were stunning, and it played along well with the beautiful landscapes of New Zealand.

They did a great job creating the underworld caves of the goblins.  It looked just like I imagined it.  It went weaving through the mountain many layers deep and fo course there was the Goblin King.  In this great scene Gandalf slays the Goblin King in true epic fashion.

When Bilbo falls down to the bottom, everyone who read the books knows what was coming.  Probably my favorite scene in the book, the game of riddles between Gollum and Bilbo.  Gollum looks great and it was perfect to see a Gollum still with the ring briefly.

I thought The Hobbit was a great film, even keeping in the flaming pine cones, that I thought might be at risk.  It really is a must see and I would suggest seeing it in 3D.

Violins, Assassin's Creed, and Parkour

One of my friends a couple of weeks ago showed me this video of an amazing violinist, Lindsey Stirling. He said, "Danielle, you have to see this girl. She's freaking amazing." Expecting to see some live performance or a classic homemade youtube video where the girl presses the record button, gives a little introduction, and then plays some really complicated music, I was pleasantly surprised to see such a beautiful and well made video accompany such a talented artist. I could not tell at first whether I was more impressed by the musician or the cinematographer.

The cinematographer, who makes his living solely off of youtube videos, is Devin Graham. I could not find much biographical information on Devin, except that he is primarily located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Lindsey and Devin have teamed up to create a multitude of sensational videos since early 2012. My favorite videos tend to be the ones that contain medleys from video games like Zelda and Skyrim. I also throughly enjoy the Lord of the Rings one and of course the video 'Shadows,' which you can watch on the link above. These videos are visually very aesthetically pleasing. First off, the locations are incredible. For the Lord of the Rings video they actually went to New Zealand, where they shot the LOTR trilogy, and for the Zelda video they are in an unspecified location, but it is in the mountains of a beautiful, desolate, area that is absolutely breathtaking. The colors on these videos are gorgeous and highly saturated. The pacing and style of the editing and video effects are fantastic and create a lot of energy. What I also love about these videos is that the cinematographer, Devin, often releases a Behind the Scenes video to accompany the original, which is very helpful in understanding how he filmed it (what camera he used) and how he did some of his stunning visual effects. He often uses his RED Epic, 5Dmkii (which he has now upgraded to a mkiii), and his Glide Cam HD 4000.
Here is another video that blew me away.

For those who don't know, Parkour is when someone finds a route from point A to point B and tries to quickly go from one place to another in the quickest, most efficient, and (sometimes) most entertaining way while encountering several obstacles in-between.
To make this video happen, I love the attention to detail Devin Graham has because he knows if something video game related is done wrong, this could upset the diehards gamers. He worked hard on getting a good costume, score, and making sure that his (stunt) actor played the game for inspiration on how to walk and execute moves similar to the video game character. He also mentioned that he did not get a permit to shoot anywhere because he did not want to close off sections of streets and instead wanted to have regular non-actors in the background because in the video game, this character runs amongst similar crowds. Granted, I haven't played Assassin's Creed so I don't know if he is accurate or not, but if he says that he tries to stay true to the video game, I believe he does whatever he can to closely resemble the game's character in a modern day setting because he is very thorough with all of his videos.
If you haven't seen any of his videos already, you should definitely check them out!