Canon and Vimeo are attempting a video-equivalent of a Twitter novel. What probably excites me most is the fact that these short films – or at least the first one by Vincent Laforet – will be shot on Canon SLRs, in HD.

The renting of professional HD equipment was always one of the biggest expenses we had on student projects. Almost everything else was provided, but if you wanted to experiment with the HD format, you needed to find a camera with lenses and trimmings that you could afford to rent.

Now you have people shooting professional-grade short films on Digital SLRs, with bodies and kits that are a fraction of the price of their dedicated-video counterparts. The kids can now play with the big boys and actually get to grips with post-production in HD.

If you work in media production, broadcasting or filmmaking that experience is sorely needed and these past few years have seen a gap form between what the schools and colleges are equipped to impart and what the industry demands. Now we’re seeing that gap bridged.

I hope at least one student or amateur project makes it to the finals of Canon’s contest. Even if it doesn’t, I dig it!

Didn’t anyone tell Buena Vista Columbia Tristar of Sony that in their own mothafreggin movie, Old Bruce isn’t a Surrogate.

Also…the movie…wasn’t bad, but you’ve pretty much seen it if you’ve caught the trailer. So save yourself the tenner and hit up Appl…ehem…I mean MSN Video

After a “legal dispute” derailed EMI’s plans to release his new LP, Dark Night of the Soul, Danger Mouse found his own way to fight back.

He was the producing-half of Gnarls Barkley and the genius behind the (in)famous Grey Album. Now his next release will be a collectors boxed-set with detailed liner notes, album art and … a blank CD.

Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Joseph Burton) intends for fans to download/record their own copy of the album (now streaming online through NPR), and burn it to the packaged CD-R.

Just because a label says no why should Burton’s work be confined to torrents and bootleg MP3s? And if my dollar has to go somewhere, I’d be glad to send it the way of a great musician who thinks so far outside the box, the law has yet to catch up.

Also, by putting out a blank CD-R with trimmings, he takes a shot at the business models labels are pursuing online — all born out of a paranoia that if the track goes free, they’re doomed.

Here’s a producer who has a label standing in his way and he manages to figure out how to work the situation to his advantage. Give the music away for free and have ‘em pay for the liner notes.

I hope he tops Billboard with a blank CD. Even if he doesn’t, I adore the guy for trying.

When it has gotten to this point though, you have to ask yourself who exactly are standing in the way of the artist.

Dark Night of the Soul can currently be streamed on NPR Music for free (here).

Trailer:

First 3 minutes:

I had only seen bits and pieces of this video until now.

What stuck it in my craw was the fact that parts of it are downright vulgar but the video remains haute.

The way it’s styled and choreographed is on point. No other Hip Hop or R&B mistress has the confidence to pull those moves off unaffected.

Catch Justin’s face when Ciara goes over the top tho. There’s a very amusing look of fear that grips Timberlake’s cheekbones.

Poor guy.

I’m a little late to the ball on this one. Fink is a singer/songwriter/producer/DJ from Brighton who has been on the scene since 2000.

To be fair, he’s only had three records out and his first (“Fresh Produce”) really wasn’t my cuppa, fitting more into the Electronic genre. His second (Biscuits for Breakfast – 2006) and third (Distance and Time – 2008) have me over the moon though.

I heard the song above a few years ago, while still in London, but never figured out who it was by. Then “This Is The Thing” was featured in last week’s episode of “Lie To Me” (another new love — a TV show starring Tim Roth), and I tracked Fink and his discography down.

The boy is smooth and has the type of rainy-day soul that, you can tell, was bred in bad weather. It is his sense of rhythm that is so hypnotic and addictive though. He doesn’t let it out for every song but when he does, it reels you in.

For those moments when you’re craving some Damien Rice but don’t feel like slitting your wrists.

Official write-up:

The sequel to Fahmi Reza’s cult favourite 10 Tahun Sebelum Merdeka, Revolusi ‘48 chronicles the largely forgotten armed revolution for national liberation launched against British colonial rule in Malaya 60 years ago. This documentary tells the untold story of those who struggled in the anti-colonial guerrilla war of independence, during the Malayan Revolution of 1948.

This is the best documentary I’ve seen from a Malaysian filmmaker. It was directed and edited by Fahmi Reza. I’m a little late to this one. I believe it’s a year old. Glad I found it though. Rather late than never.

So much of our history isn’t taught to us and films like these help reacquaint Malaysians with the parts of our past that we’d do well to remember.

We brush off and make light of the inherent flaws in our political system, jokingly saying that “it’s Malaysia” — with a tone of voice that volunteers the “What can you do?”. Behind that are managed expectations and ideals that would never dare extend past the conservative.

Just to know that there were once Malaysians who had bold national ambitions and a set of values similar to mine, lifts a weight off. All from a video on Vimeo. Bless.

As far as I’m aware this documentary was mainly distributed online. Circulated through links and seen through YouTube and Vimeo squares like the one above you.

The smart editing choices make the piece versatile enough for this medium and also attest to the competence of the filmmaker.

I’m gonna stop here with the gushing. Watch the documentary above and post your own REACTion to it, if you feel so moved.

Fahmi has a second documentary up called Revolusi ‘48. I’ll post that too, once I’ve watched it.

51st Grammy Awards Highlights: Best Moments
51st Grammy Awards Arrivals: Red Carpet

Related: Good Love Gone Bad: Chris Brown attacks Rihanna

19 year-old Chris Brown has been charged for assaulting (he bit and punched up) his girlfriend Rihanna. He’s out on $50,000 bail.

I hope Rihanna’s ok but more than that I hope she got a few kicks of her own in. Hopefully at Brown’s nuts. Ri has the same birthday as me, Feb 20th. This year she turns 21. Ms. Fenty, start dating older men. Conincidentally, I’ll be turning 25.

Rihanna has cancelled two concerts this week. One in Jakarta (previously postponed to this Thursday due to a bomb threat in the Indonesian capital, now pulled altogether). She has also postponed her concert in Kuala Lumpur, originally scheduled for this Friday.

Malaysian fans will have to wait two weeks to hear from Pineapple Concerts about a new date.

I’m disappointed. Was hoping to snag an interview.

Got the scoop from the concert’s organizers about the postponement yesterday but as always didn’t get a chance to blog about it because I was on the clock. The story was a clicker on MSN though.

Found this on YouTube:

Not an eye was on Beyonce and you can tell it got to her a little

BTW: On his second day in office Obama ordered the shutdown of Guantanamo (albeit moving all the prisoners to Australia – which is a little ole’ school British of him), ordered a cutback of troops to Iraq, instructed generals to draw up plans for a withdrawal and fought to save his blackberry (Read all about it!).

Progress!

We were told from the start that it was going to be a 13-part series, running only one season. Low and behold, a year later and it’s back on FX. The season premiere is now available for download on iTunes.

For years now Jay Chow has been referred to as the Chinese King of R&B, an assertion that has always annoyed the hell outta me. Don’t get it twisted, I’m not saying that Jay isn’t talented. I’m just saying…you have more of a chance squeezing an R&B riff out a Russian White-Supremacist than one of ole’ Jay’s pop songs.

Back to the new guy.

He’s actually been around for a while. His name is Khalil Fong (方大同) and his fourth release, Orange Moon, came out earlier this week. If you like Robin Thicke, early Brian McKnight or Joe, meet your brand new jones:

Merry Christmas by the way.

I know I’ve neglected to post a Christmas wish. It’s been too painful to actually think about the friends so far away I have to actually round up the distance between us to the nearest thousand miles. I miss you all and I’ve been praying, wishing, hoping to see you soon.

I’ll be back to wish you a Happy New Year in another post. And since most of you are at least 8 hours behind me (if not 12 or 14) – I’ll let you know about this whole 2009 thing.

My beloved Ms. Jones pulls this off beautifully. From cadence to rhythm, it’s fresh…yet still her. I’m glad Q-Tip’s back. I’ve been in desperate need. This track is off his new release The Renaissance. In stores now.

I’m fine with expression having limits, but why must your limits be mine. I have eyelids. Put away your scissors.

When I found out that Zachary Quinto (Skylar from Heroes) was going to play Spock in a new, J.J. Abrams Star Trek I heard the geek in me shout, “Oh hell NO!”

I took the early teaser as a sign of weakness. It revealed nothing but the awkward angles of a new Enterprise.

Apple.com has finally gone live with a full-length trailer and after seeing it I’m close to being won over.

They have Chris Pine in the lead as James T. Kirk. I’m glad I didn’t find that out beforehand or I might have shunned the movie altogether. Pine, of Princess Diaries fame, looks alright in the role but you’d think him as Kirk would be a bad idea on paper – much like the rest of this movie. To be fair, he did an extremely watchable D-list flick called Blind Date that I liked. He’s a good actor, from the little I’ve seen, and I hope this takes him to the next level.

Other cast members of note include Simon Pegg, Eric Bana and Leonard Nimoy (the original Spock).

The visual effects are the work of Industrial Light & Magic. The trailer is a good taster of what looks like a stunning revamp of the Star Trek universe.

There is a harder edge to this film, suiting Abrams’ visual style. It lacks the optimism and campiness of the first series and TNG.

Knowing how big this franchise is I don’t think they’d do a hack job on it, economic slowdown and Hollywood desperation notwithstanding. It’s probably aiming to beam a whole new generation of fans on board, which it just might.

This much change in an old staple would put even Obama on edge though. But much like the state the American President-Elect is inheriting, the Trek needed new blood. You can tell I’ve been stuck in the newsroom too long.

Just don’t let the ole’school fanboys keep you from seeing it because they usually hate everything until an anniversary edition comes out on DVD.

The film drops in May and I can’t wait.

This is her latest, Single Ladies. It’s a weird song to lead with considering the fact that she recently became Mrs. Z. Her album comes out later this month. It’s called I Am…Sasha Fierce.

What this is, is an animated Excel spreadsheet with footage of the band performing. Dude!

It was made for “corporate drones,” as Gizmodo put it, “as spreadsheets navigate office firewalls with ease!“.

The Excel vid was done by a couple of guys at Sony BMG London to promote the band’s new album, Black Ice, which is being distributed exclusively on CD. That’s right. The same guys who rocked the Excel music video are shunning digital download stores.

It’s a risky move now that the number one music retailer in the States is Apple’s iTunes Store. But the album’s already gone #1 in 29 countries, including the US, UK and Germany (I needed a third thrown in there).

Kinda suits their audience tho. I’d bet good money that there’re a decent few in the band’s fan base who’d like to fight the move to digital downloads. So this might’ve been a smart marketing move on their part. Give the fans a cause over which to get up in arms.
Anyway, here’s the video on YouTube. If you’d like to download the full version you can get it here, off the band’s website.

Nokia recently launched a series of mobile phones that Come With Music. Released in time for holiday shoppers, the phones are targetted at parents who worry that their kids might be downloading music illegally.

The fee, for a year’s subscription to Nokia’s all-you-can-eat music service, is worked into the price of the handset. After the year is up the user can choose to renew their subscription or buy a new handset.

The Economist’s Business View column (from the Oct 4th-10th International Issue), discussed the merits of this new model for music distribution.

As they put it, this is meant “to reconcile the demands of teenagers, who think music should be free, with those of record companies, which want to make money.”

To pull this off Nokia’s taking a loss on the cost of running the music service, paying more in royalties than they can make back in fees.

The mobile phone manufacturer is hoping that after the first year is up a teenage owner will decide to buy a new phone instead of just renewing his/her subscription, since “teenagers like to be seen with the latest model,” according to Elizabeth Schimel, the head of Nokia’s music business.

When did it become alright for a business model to bank on overspending. Shouldn’t purveyors count on their service being a value-add while being profitable, particularly with a recession about to hit?

The Economist went on to quote a market researcher who said that over time Nokia may be less willing “to absorb the cost of running the service” and either “labels will have to do with less or mobile operators will have to pitch in.”

My main “qualm with music” is the industry’s inability to adjust to changes in the market. Mainly due to how inflexible labels have been, expecting everyone else to adjust around them.

How many of you scoffed at the notion of labels doing with less? I did, the moment I read that line because I’ve paid attention to the frivolous lawsuits, insanely high royalty fees and the unfair dispatching of take down notices. Not to mention every episode of MTV Cribs.

A major issue for publishing houses in the past year has been their dependence on Apple’s iTunes storefront. Music labels are now scrambling to find a competitor and it’s not because Apple is failing to make them money but because they feel they’ve lost control.

The column pointed out, “at the moment, record labels have to accept Apple’s terms.” Terms mind you that saved their hides when these labels botched online distribution with overpriced subscription-based services at the start of the millennium.

Now here we are again, back to the subscription model, and this time you’re actually looking for retailers/partners who want to take a loss in hawking your product.

A generation of music-lovers already exists who hate the publishing houses enough that ‘music activism’ has become a movement to topple ‘the label’.

The death of the label would really be the end of an era and there are those of us who wouldn’t want the baby thrown out with the bathwater. But with that much murky bathwater in the tub, that baby’s close to drowning anyway.

The zealous pursuit of every royalty fee is read as greed and obscures the positive role the label could play in the industry. The driving force behind a move to the commoditization of music has been the general public’s distaste for the way these labels do business.

As naive as it sounds to say focus on the positive, in my opinion, that’s what today’s labels need to do instead of obsessing over the upper-hand they’ve lost.

The strength of these publishing houses used to be in their distribution links/channels. Technology has however changed that and given independents access to the same storefronts and online warehouses as the ’signed artists’ get.

But the label system, much like the studios of old Hollywood, still has a unique way of uniting talent and creating hype. The focus should be on the quality of product and the nurturing of artists.

Instead of doing the things that make me wanna pirate just to spite you, remind me why I used to like you. It is the educated who choose to pirate music online. People with enough of a disposable income to afford the tech and bandwidth to download — not to mention the savvy to avoid spyware, trojans, viruses and DMCA traps. They don’t mind spending money on Rainbows because they know all of it is going Radiohead’s way and they don’t mind spending the time on an illegal download because they take pleasure in knowing their money won’t go your way.

It is those consumers who you need to win over. That disposable income could once again be your bread and butter. Shut down and outsource the distribution end and refocus your business model on improving A&R and content creation.

Remind us that Aretha wouldn’t have that sound if Atlantic didn’t team her up with Wexler and Ray Charles would never have tapped into his full genius if it hadn’t been for Ahmet Ertegün. Every artist needs nurturing, despite what some modernists say.

So take off that suit, roll up your sleeves and do you…better!

Sullivan is a new recording artist with a voice that can skip your heart a beat. Her debut album just dropped but here’s a little taste:

As the financial crisis hit Wall Street even harder last week, this is what aired “Live from New York” on “Saturday Night”.