I’ve struggled to express why I don’t get too into dramatic books, movies, or (especially) video games despite admiring the craft, but this from a rare Bill Watterson interview is a pretty close approximation:
I’m shockingly ill-read. I’m not proud of this, but when faced with a work of fiction–a book, a movie, or anything–I tend to think, “You know, I’ve got problems of my own.”
Somehow as my own life and work got more complicated, my tolerance for drama in my free time has diminished. Still a sucker for comedy though.
Not sure how that exactly squares with my last post though. See, complicated!
[Neal Stephenson identifies the paradox](http://damiengwalter.com/2014/05/07/nealstephenson/) of a tech-centered society that is attracted to visions of technology failing:
> At the mass-market consumer level, we have a strange state of affairs in which people are eager to vote with their dollars, pounds and Euros for the latest tech but they flock to movies depicting a relentlessly depressing view of the future, and resist any tech deployed on a large scale, in a centralized way, such as wind turbine farms.
Previously: [The impact of the future](http://bob.ryskamp.org/brain/?p=5420)
> I always believe in research. No matter what the subject matter is. You cannot do enough research, because so much believability will come out of what’s really there.
[Some fun insights in this writeup](http://www.fastcocreate.com/3023518/designing-a-future-of-comfort-color-and-gorgeous-gadgets-in-her) of the production design for [_Her_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6p6MfLBxc):
> “We kept asking ourselves, ‘What is his new desktop going to look like when he puts the new (Samantha) software in? Finally, Spike came to this brilliant realization, saying, ‘There’s a reason we haven’t figured this out, because it shouldn’t be anything.'”
> “We had this concept: what if we could only see advertising that was all in gorgeous slow motion and there were these beautiful abstract images? Then it becomes kind of a viral game where everybody’s trying to decipher the notion of what these different ads were.”
> Barrett’s most radical re-invention for future Los Angeles: There’s not a car in sight. Steering clear of freeway traffic jams, inhabitants ride bullet trains, take subways and walk. “One of the first things I said in designing Her was, ‘I don’t want to show any cars.'” says Barrett. “It’s another gesture of going away from technology. When you look at any film from any time period and see a car, you can place it right to the year.”
> “The device wasn’t designed to stand out like a gleaming new phone, but to be something you’d lay on the night stand, like your wallet or your address book. We wanted to go right past the surface of the device and into Samantha’s voice.”
Once studio session – The way the mixing guy gets gradually interested, the sheer sense of exhaustion at the end of the night, the way they all head out into the sun in the morning. The build of the scene is awesome. The linked scene is just part of it; the scene starts at 56:00 in the full movie.
Making The Incredibles (some clips; the DVD has the best stuff) – My all-time favorite. About 90 minutes of in-depth stories and explanation about the process of making the film, with a ton of similarities to great product design. I watch this at least once a year. My notes.
The Mystery of Picasso – Picasso painting on an illuminated sheet of glass, so you see the strokes build and change into something completely different than he started with. The paintings at 1:00:00 and 1:04:30 are mind-blowing.
Comedian – Jerry Seinfeld tries to follow up his outlandishly-successful sitcom career by getting back on small comedy stages and writing a new standup act. Inspiring to see the courage and introspection that goes into it. My notes.
Sketches of Frank Gehry – Gehry’s experimental way of developing buildings combines art and science in a unique way. My notes.
Art and Copy – I find advertising has a lot of parallels to concept design, and this film collects the thoughts and processes of several different advertising luminaries. My notes.
The Pixar Story – The way they build collaboration among roles in a team is unparalleled. My notes.
Tough Room – Ok, this is just audio (from NPR) but The Onion’s headline pitch session is amazing. I love how they judge stories by the headlines alone.
Six Days to Air – How each South Park episode is made in a week. The forced constraints have created a lot of innovation in process and technologies.
Get Back – The extended version of The Beatles’ Let it Be sessions is worth watching in its 9-hour entirety to see how the famous band actually operated. I love how they mostly sound like a bad Beatles cover band, forgetting words and hitting the wrong notes, until you realize they’re coming up with the iconic songs on the fly. My highlight is watching Paul noodle his way to the composition of Get Back over 4 amazing minutes.
[A nice comparison of film directing styles](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-galenson/not-all-auteurs-are-dicta_b_909764.html) by David Galenson, ranging from the conceptual dictator to the experimental collaborator. Also draws parallels to the different design approaches of Apple and Google.
> [Robert Altman] encouraged his actors to improvise: “What I want to see is something I’ve never seen before, so how can I tell someone what that is? I’m really looking for something from these actors that can excite me.”
> Altman considered collaboration the essence of creativity: “If the vision were just mine, just a single vision, it wouldn’t be any good. It’s the combination of what I have in mind, with who the actor is and then how he adjusts to the character, along with how I adjust, that makes the movie.”
Galenson expands on the two styles in [a post exploring the “lifecycle” of creativity](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-galenson/the-two-life-cycles-of-ar_b_758086.html).
[Some incredible videos of Switzerland](http://www.newlyswissed.com/?p=12467). My favorites are the [realtime HD video *hikes* through Graubunden](http://www.webwandern.ch/etappen/) (St. Moritz, Berninapass, etc).
Amazing how just a click can bring me right back to the country!
[Ken Burns talks about why he loves conflict, villans and complications](http://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2012/05/ken-burns-on-story/257165/). A few choice quotes:
> My interest is always in complicating things.
> All story is manipulation.
> The kind of narrative I subscribe [to] trusts in the possibility that people could change.
> We do coalesce around stories that seem transcendent.
I think [watching this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXDMoiEkyuQ) would be a pretty good way to start each day; filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg explores gratitude, mindfulness, and the beauty of the world we live in and people we live with:
Could also be seen as the sentimental counterpart to [Louis CK’s celebration of the modern world](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk).