Young Terry Gilliam Shows You How to Make Your Own Cutout Animation

in Animation, Art, Comedy, Film | August 12th, 2011

Put aside 14 min­utes and Ter­ry Gilliam, the leg­endary Mon­ty Python ani­ma­tor, will show you how to make your own cutout ani­ma­tions. Gilliam start­ed out his career as an ani­ma­tor, then moved to Eng­land and joined up with Mon­ty Python’s Fly­ing Cir­cus. For years, he worked as the group’s ani­ma­tor, cre­at­ing the open­ing cred­its and dis­tinc­tive buffers that linked togeth­er the off­beat com­e­dy sketch­es.

If you’ve nev­er tak­en a good look at his work, you will want to spend some time with The Mir­a­cle of Flight from 1974, or this ani­mat­ed sequence, Sto­ry Time, from 1968.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

John Cleese on the Ori­gin on Cre­ativ­i­ty

The Mon­ty Python Phi­los­o­phy Foot­ball Match Revis­it­ed

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Crater Lake Under the Stars

in Art | August 11th, 2011

Ben Canales took a trip to Crater Lake to shoot the stars, sac­ri­fic­ing mon­ey and per­son­al rela­tion­ships along the way. But he’s not com­plain­ing. The results are just painful­ly pret­ty…

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The Adoration of the Mona Lisa Begins with Theft

in Art | August 4th, 2011

Every year, five mil­lion vis­i­tors stream into the Lou­vre in Paris, mak­ing it the most vis­it­ed muse­um in the world. And, more than any oth­er paint­ing, vis­i­tors head to see Leonar­do da Vin­ci’s Mona Lisa, paint­ed cir­ca 1503 — 1519.

It’s tempt­ing to attribute the pop­u­lar­i­ty of the Mona Lisa to the endur­ing genius of da Vin­ci. But, as NPR’s All Things Con­sid­ered recounts, there was a time when the paint­ing hard­ly attract­ed pub­lic atten­tion, and what turned the paint­ing into an object of pub­lic ado­ra­tion was some­thing baser than genius itself: brazen theft. Click here and NPR will tell you the sto­ry of the great Mona Lisa heist that went down on August 21, 1911, almost 100 years ago…

Relat­ed Con­tent:

A Vir­tu­al Tour of the Sis­tine Chapel

Google “Art Project” Brings Great Paint­ings & Muse­ums to You

MoMA Puts Pol­lock, Rothko & de Koon­ing on Your iPad

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The Tarantino Mixtape (NSFW)

in Art, Film, Music | July 29th, 2011

Take Quentin Taran­ti­no’s movies, then let Eclec­tic Method decon­struct and recon­struct the scenes, leav­ing you with The Taran­ti­no Mix­tape, which is a lit­tle Not Safe for Work.

Based in Lon­don, the mem­bers of Eclec­tic Method have been exper­i­ment­ing with audio-visu­al mix­ing of sounds and images for a good decade. 60+ of their videos appear online, includ­ing their lat­est release — a Star Wars remix called Dark Wars. H/T Devour

Relat­ed Con­tent:

What if Taran­ti­no Direct­ed the Super Bowl Broad­cast?

“Tarantino’s Mind,” Award Win­ning Short Film

Tarantino’s Favorite Films Since ’92

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Life in Moments/Moments in Life

in Art, Film, Life | July 28th, 2011

Back in 2009, the folks at Radi­o­Lab tack­led anoth­er big ques­tion: “What hap­pens at the moment when we slip from life…to the oth­er side? Is it a moment? If it is, when exact­ly does it hap­pen? And what hap­pens after­ward?”

The show (lis­ten here) inspired film­mak­er Will Hoff­man to shoot a video the med­i­tates on the lit­tle moments that give life (and death) their mean­ing. Some moments stand in iso­la­tion. Oth­ers moments are con­nect­ed, cre­at­ing a link between birth and death, cause and effect, begin­nings and ends. In this audio clip, Hoff­man talks with Radi­o­Lab co-host Robert Krul­wich about the vision inform­ing the video sim­ply called Moments. And, if it delights, don’t miss two oth­er Hoffman/RadioLab pro­duc­tions, one sim­ply called Words, the oth­er Sym­me­try.

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Improv with New Yorker Cartoonists

in Art, Comedy | July 27th, 2011

When you think of The New York­er, you think about two things — long-form arti­cles and leg­endary car­toons. The two art forms have gone hand-in-hand since the mag­a­zine began pub­lish­ing in 1925, and, decades lat­er, a younger gen­er­a­tion of car­toon­ists still deliv­ers the laughs. Thanks to the Gel Con­fer­ence 2011 (see all videos here), you can spend 25 min­utes inside their artis­tic world. Matt Dif­fee, Drew Der­navich, and Zach Kanin talk about their some­times con­tro­ver­sial work at the mag­a­zine and draw improv car­toons based on audi­ence sug­ges­tions. Fun guar­an­teed for all. H/T @opedr

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Ein­stein’s Rel­a­tiv­i­ty: New York­er Car­toon Ani­mat­ed

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Lucian Freud (1922 — 2011)

in Art, Video - Arts & Culture | July 22nd, 2011

Lucian Freud, dis­tin­guished artist and grand­son of Sig­mund Freud, died yes­ter­day at the age of 88. The painter was best known for his con­tri­bu­tions to fig­u­ra­tive art and his uncom­pro­mis­ing por­traits, which The New York Times has col­lect­ed in an impres­sive online gallery.

Freud was also known for his rig­or­ous (some would say cru­el) demands on his sub­jects. From his New York Times obit­u­ary:

To the artist and Freud biog­ra­ph­er Lawrence Gow­ing [Lucian Freud] said, “For me the paint is the per­son.” Mr. Freud’s dingy stu­dio became his artis­tic uni­verse, a grim the­ater in which his con­tort­ed sub­jects, stripped bare and there­fore uniden­ti­fi­able by class, sub­mit­ted to the artist’s unblink­ing, mer­ci­less inspec­tion.

You can learn more about Lucian Freud’s work and lega­cy through a dis­cus­sion of his paint­ing Stand­ing by the Rags at SmART His­to­ry (video post­ed above or click here).

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

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Classic Jazz Album Covers Animated & Brought to Life

in Art, Music | July 18th, 2011

Back in 2009, Blue Note Records, the influ­en­tial jazz label, was cel­e­brat­ing its 70th anniver­sary. And The Bel­la Vista Social Pub, look­ing to pro­mote its own sum­mer jazz con­certs in Siena, Tus­cany, came up with a smart idea. Why not pay trib­ute to Blue Note (and pro­mote the Ital­ian con­cert series) by ani­mat­ing the cool cov­er designs that graced Blue Note albums dur­ing its hey­day. These cov­er designs were the work of Reid Miles, a graph­ic design­er who moved from Esquire mag­a­zine to Blue Note around 1955, then designed hun­dreds of aura-cre­at­ing cov­ers until he left the label in 1967. The ani­mat­ed video above, called Hi-Fi, brings Miles’ work back to life. Graph­i­col­o­gy has more on the nos­tal­gia-induc­ing clip here.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

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