Movies | Dominik Mayer – Products, Asia, Productivity

Changeling

Director Clint Eastwood’s soundtrack to Changeling.

Nian

Every Chinese New Year, Apple commissions a short film.

This year it’s about the mythical Nian. Wikipedia explains:

Once every year at the beginning of Chinese New Year, the nian comes out of its hiding place to feed, mostly on men and animals. During winter, since food is sparse, he would go to the village. He would eat the crops and sometimes the villagers, mostly children. […] The weaknesses of the nian are purported to be a sensitivity to loud noises, fire, and a fear of the color red.

Hence the fireworks, noises and the red color everywhere. I remember riding my bike through Shanghai on Chinese New Year with things exploding left and right. It felt like crossing a battlefield.

Here’s the making-of video to the short film with director Lulu Wang and colleagues touting the iPhone 12 Pro Max as a cinema camera:

Every C-3PO Costume

Wired:

Anthony Daniels, who most famously portrays C-3PO in the Star Wars series of films, sits down with WIRED to discuss, in detail, the variety of costumes he has worn while filming Star Wars. Anthony explains just how he was able to fit into the costume and what his thoughts were when he first saw Ralph McQuarrie’s designs.

The Story of Nearest Green  

Emmy-Award winning actor Jeffrey Wright narrates the story of Nearest Green.

This beautifully shot short film tells the extraordinary legacy of the first known African-American master distiller. It’s a story of honor, respect, and an unlikely friendship, that would forever change the whiskey industry. Perhaps the greatest American story you never heard.

Heads Up: The Oral History of Iron Man’s Original HUD  

Visual effects and animation journalist Ian Failes (isn’t that an amazing title?) interviewed the creators of the original Ironman heads-up display.

Kent Seki: I have to say that ‘First Flight’, in which Tony dons his silver Mark II suit, is one of my favourite parts. In the beginning of the sequence, you see components of the armour being applied, followed by a POV of the mask coming up to his face, then the very first HUD shot of Tony as the graphics turn on. This is the moment where the HUDs could succeed or fail. Luckily for us, we got things more right than wrong. The audience was with us.

That’s what it looks like in the movie:

Daughter

Also check out the behind the scenes video:

Still the Water

I love the movie and I love the soundtrack.

Wanderers  

What if we could live on the other planets of the Solar System? Here’s Erik Wernquist’s take. He writes:

The film is a vision of our humanity’s future expansion into the Solar System. Although admittedly speculative, the visuals in the film are all based on scientific ideas and concepts of what our future in space might look like, if it ever happens. All the locations depicted in the film are digital recreations of actual places in the Solar System, built from real photos and map data where available.

Watch a 100-Year-Old, 28.5-Liter Engine Scream to Life  

Check the linked article for more information and a second video.

The Force Awakens

This feeling of the old movies. Wow.