Instagram. Yet another iPhone app that's become all the rage. Photographers, both professional and amateur have built enormous legions of followers by posting and sharing images transformed by Instagram's many easy-to-use filters. Its produced a genre of shutterbugs who describe themselves as street style photographers. I've used it myself and a simple click will take you right back to the 70's replete with terrycloth short shorts and knee high tube socks. Who thought looking like Larry Bird could be so easy?
In the 90's anyone with a Mac and the appropriate software was instantly a "desktop publisher" much to the chagrin of the creative industry. The universe quickly got littered with poorly designed communication that was better suited for the digital landfill. Software jocks were suddenly competing with trained designers only because the tools were readily accessible.
So when I read statements from Instagram users which include "Even the darkest and least remarkable photos are transformed into art with Instagram’s filters," I shudder. While it's clear that technology is starting to blur the line between substance and style, a squalid house will always be a squalid house no matter what color its painted.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
David Fincher's remake of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
David Fincher is one of America's great filmmaker's with an impressive resume that includes Aliens3, Se7en, Fight Club, The Social Network and more recently the adaptation of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. There have been discussions all over the internet about whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Defender's of Fincher repeatedly point to his pedigree while detractor's wonder what the need for adaptation is for in the first place? Fincher is the least of my worries as I find myself wondering if the girl from Bedford, NY can do justice to the Lisbeth Salander character.
English movie translations date back to the 1930's. A much abbreviated list includes Tortilla Soup, Brothers, The Birdcage, Blame it on Rio, Dinner for Schmucks, Three Men and a Baby, True Lies and Twelve Monkeys. Despite the "I hate the French and the French hate Americans" rhetoric that permeates American life, the majority of adaptations are indeed French. That's probably because the French make outstanding films that don't necessarily rely on the American formula which leans toward highly paid actors, ad nauseam CGI and enough subwoofer to rattle your neighbor's fillings loose. So why does a country that produces The Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, Its a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, Doctor Zhivago, The Manchurian Candidate, Rebel Without a Cause, The Godfather, Star Wars American Graffiti, Easy Rider and Pulp Fiction insist on creating remakes when we have our own unique take on the world?
Are Americans lazy? Are they self-centered? I know several people that won't entertain reading subtitles because they are "too much work." "Too much work" should be reserved for one's phD thesis or digging a ditch from upstate New York to Manhattan, but not because the native rhythm of language or unfamiliar landscapes jars American sensibility.
Do Americans really require a Big Mac instead of a Max Hamburgare? A Walmart instead of Gekås? A Rooney Mara instead of a Noomi Rapace?
There's a whole world waiting out there for you America. All you have to do is open your eyes and read.
English movie translations date back to the 1930's. A much abbreviated list includes Tortilla Soup, Brothers, The Birdcage, Blame it on Rio, Dinner for Schmucks, Three Men and a Baby, True Lies and Twelve Monkeys. Despite the "I hate the French and the French hate Americans" rhetoric that permeates American life, the majority of adaptations are indeed French. That's probably because the French make outstanding films that don't necessarily rely on the American formula which leans toward highly paid actors, ad nauseam CGI and enough subwoofer to rattle your neighbor's fillings loose. So why does a country that produces The Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, Its a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, Doctor Zhivago, The Manchurian Candidate, Rebel Without a Cause, The Godfather, Star Wars American Graffiti, Easy Rider and Pulp Fiction insist on creating remakes when we have our own unique take on the world?
Are Americans lazy? Are they self-centered? I know several people that won't entertain reading subtitles because they are "too much work." "Too much work" should be reserved for one's phD thesis or digging a ditch from upstate New York to Manhattan, but not because the native rhythm of language or unfamiliar landscapes jars American sensibility.
Do Americans really require a Big Mac instead of a Max Hamburgare? A Walmart instead of Gekås? A Rooney Mara instead of a Noomi Rapace?
There's a whole world waiting out there for you America. All you have to do is open your eyes and read.
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