I decided to bring this public again! Enjoy!

Louie from Brian Moore on Vimeo.

“Louie” is a documentary I directed with a couple of people in my Documentary Production class at Emerson (Neight Brescia, who masterfully edited it, and Minting Zhao who produced). Louie Evans, as many bostonians know sometimes (and very well) as “the guy who rides the tricycle making the siren noise”, does just that—he rides miles upon miles around Boston on his tricycle every day.

Other stories from the documentary that couldn’t fit, from his ‘trike getting stolen to the many mileage computers that he’s burned through over the years to the 12,500-member-strong Facebook group dedicated to him, could easily fit the running time of a feature.

Back Bay Bicycles, where most of the interviews take place, pays out of pocket for all of Louie’s repairs and tune-ups (thousands of dollars now), so if you’re in the Boston area, I strongly suggest giving them business. Plus, their student discount is pretty awesome and the guys in there, as you can tell, are pretty cool as well.

If you know me, you know that I never really enjoy flying. I’m aware it’s the fastest way to travel, but that’s usually where its advantages end. Security is a pain in the ass, flights are often delayed, and comfortability is minimal.

While talking to my friend Eoban about Virgin Atlantic, he brought up how much he loved flying them. About a year ago, I was lucky enough to fly Virgin America, Virgin’s latest spin-off company in the states. While their ads have been covering Boston lately, I feel like I got sort of a sneak peek into the service, since I was flying before even their first birthday. I told Eoban it was my favorite airline I’ve flown.

Aside of the mood lighting, the nice music in the bathrooms, the awesome entertainment systems, and the high-quality (for an airline) food, possibly the one thing that stood out more than anything was the safety video. Check it out:

Whoever created this safety video did an excellent job. Why? Because, they were able to add humor, sarcasm, and interesting graphics into something that is always boring and mundane on other airlines. Through light jokes and eye-catching animation, the creator was able to make the viewer laugh, stay interested, and learn without making them uncomfortable or uneasy. I am certain that the ability to make a flight safety video funny without belittling the importance of emergency procedures isn’t easily found.

The result of this? Increased knowledge of the viewer.

I bet that if you did a study and had people watch this versus the traditional safety video, they would retain much more knowledge from the former. The other airlines should learn from VA, but maybe they’re just too boring in every other way to get the picture.

UPDATE: With a little bit of research, I discovered that the safety video was animated by W!LDBRAIN, Inc.. Cheers to them!

I’m happy to say that I’ve seen almost every nominated film within the top awards in this year’s Oscars, and after seeing my friend Mike’s list of predictions, I thought I’d do the same myself. As he did, for each award, I’ll cover what will win, who should win, who should’ve been nominated, and maybe a little bit of commentary.

So, here goes:

Best Picture
Who will win: Slumdog Millionaire
Who should win: Milk (or, Wall-E, had it been nominated)
Who should’ve been nominated: Wall-E

Slumdog Millionaire was a good movie. I enjoyed it through and through, but come on, best picture? I’m an absolute sap for romantic/adventure films, but I don’t know why it’s up there so high. Milk was an excellent film (maybe save for Diego Luna) and while not creamy-cream-of-the-crop, it’s better than Slumdog in my opinion. But, not even on the list is Wall-E, which is the best film of 2008. Even if sad little robots get me choked up easily, it was a great film. It deserves more. Friend Mike thinks that Dark Knight should be nominated. Eh; it’s overrated, in my opinion (no offense, Mike).

Best Director
Who will win: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
Who should win: Gus Van Sant (Milk)
Who should’ve been nominated: I’m fine with these nominations.

Again, I guess it’s the same here as with best picture. Slumdog was great, but especially when it comes to directing actors, I think Milk ekes this one out.

Best Actor
Who will win: Sean Penn (Milk)
Who should win: Sean Penn (Milk)
Who should’ve been nominated: Fine with this, too.

This one is definitely going to be a nail biter. Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) was absolutely fantastic. It’s his comeback after so many years, and he really deserves this one. But Penn was just incredible, and it helps having just seen The Life and Times of Harvey Milk. His portrayal of the man is just spot-on.

Best Actress
Who will win: Kate Winslet (The Reader)
Who should win: Kate Winslet (The Reader)
Who should’ve been nominated: Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky)

Kate Winslet was definitely incredible in The Reader. It’s interesting, though—I’m not sure this fits entirely as a leading role. Sally Hawkins was incredibly natural and fun to watch on screen. Why didn’t she get a chance?

Best Supporting Actor
Who will win: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Who should win: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Who should’ve been nominated: David Kross (The Reader), Eddie Marsan (Happy-Go-Lucky)

Okay, it’s hard to fight with Heath Ledger. In my head, I keep on saying that Kross should’ve been nominated and won this one, but I know the whole thing with Heath. He was incredible, and while maybe it’s a close one in my head, I’m totally okay with him getting it. David Kross, though, was absolutely incredible in The Reader, and he wasn’t even nominated. That’s a shame. As was Eddie Marsan in Happy-Go-Lucky, which was an incredible performance as well.

Best Supporting Actress
Who will win: Viola Davis (Doubt)
Who should win: Viola Davis (Doubt)
Who should’ve been nominated: Okay with this one.

This one’s kinda close to. Most people think Penelope Cruz is going to win, and I have to admit that I haven’t seen Doubt in theatres (saw that one on Broadway, suckers!). However, I really didn’t like VCB, and although I liked Cruz a good amount, I think that Davis was probably better (this is sacriligious, isn’t it?).

Best Original Screenplay
Who will win: Wall-E
Who should win: Wall-E
Who should’ve been nominated: Fine with this.

Wall-E was great. Milk was good, but it’s based so much in reality! Come on, lil’ robot!

Best Adapted Screenplay
Who will win: Slumdog Millionaire
Who should win: Eh.
Who should’ve been nominated: Eh.

Not super interested in this one. Don’t read enough.

Best Short Film, Animated
Who will win: La Maison en Petits Cubes
Who should win: La Maison en Petits Cubes
Who should’ve been nominated: Skhizein

I was lucky enough to go with my friend Sam to a screening of all of the Oscar-nominated short animated films. I had already seen Pixar’s Presto, and was sure that was going to win. Until I saw La Maison en Petits Cubes. Beautiful, touching, and has everything, really. Skhizein was a compelling animated short and was better than a couple of the ones nominated.

Best Visual Effects
Who will win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Who should win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Need I say more?

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Well, those are my predictions. Once the Oscars are over, maybe I’ll revisit this. We’ll see!

What’re your predictions, eh?

Darkened Corridors from Brian Moore on Vimeo.

I did this little short thang for my digital filmmaking class. Let’s just say it took a lot of singing the song two times faster in reverse in the mirror to be able to do this.

A short film I made for my Intro to Film class. I apologize for the white streak throughout most of it– the Bolex I was using I guess had an issue with some sort of screw.

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This past week I’ve had two large assignments surrounding the idea of lighting in photography and film. The first assignment was my photography one, in which I designed and constructed a Ringlight for my photos. A ringlight is a piece of equipment (in this case, a colander, a small plastic bowl, some cardboard, a bit of foil, and a ton of duct tape) that throws light onto your subject in a ring form. This is done to minimize any sort of shadows on the subject’s face.

I followed these instructions, but had to compensate for the fact that I had almost no tools. Instead of drilling holes of any sort, I had to heat my colander and plastic bowl over the stove first, then thwack at it with the sharp end of a hammer. I did this during one of the World Series game (Woo! Go Sox!) and definitely looked like an idiot. I must say though, I was a bit surprised when my downstairs neighbor came and knocked on my door complaining about the banging and asked if I could do it “during the commercials.” I understood.

So, I took some photos with it on both film and digital. The film ones came out beautifully, but sadly they are drying right now. Here are some of the digital ones:

And here’s the ringlight in a reflection of my mirror (with me as a dork):

To see more, check out the Flickr set I made for it.

Meanwhile, for my FILM 1 class, we were assigned to do a lighting test project using a Bolex camera with 16mm TRI-X Reversal film. If you don’t know what any of that means, it doesn’t really matter. Basically we (my group and I) shot this on a film camera– one of those dealies with the cranking and the filming!

We had to light the scene (duh. it’s a lighting test), and do it at different contrast ratios. It’s pretty evident in the (relatively successful) outcome:

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Lighting is fun, huh?