Time-Lapse Videos Are Having a Moment; Kubrick and the Zoom
We realize there's only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today: Norway is the center of the time-lapse movie universe, Stanley Kubrick made ample use of zoom shots in The Shining, and there's one basketball dunk worth waiting for this March
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Is it possible we're living in the golden age of the time-lapse video? Consider: In our experience, video playback on cell phones today is superior to that of any pre-2002 computer. We have weird, unsettling cosmic events like solar storms. Plus there's that climate change business, which is bad for the ice caps, but good for people who like vivid pink sunsets. Once again, Norway demonstrates it has no equal when it comes to the art of taking lots of photos and setting them to appropriate music. It's a sign of just how accesible the form has become that we find ourselves saying we could have made this movie, if only we had a hundred hours of free time and the ability to see the Northern Lights. We couldn't, we know that, but these are the things people wonder in a time-lapse democracy. [National Geographic]
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Here's a supercut of all the stifling, oppressive zoom shots from The Shining. We enjoy these good-natured montages that single out the pet visual motifs of respected directors, but we have a nagging fear that somebody's feelings are going to get hurt, and one day we'll all wake up to hear that Wes Anderson is never going to make another movie because people on the Internet were chuckling about his fondness for overhead camera angles. It could happen. David Lean claimed he didn't direct for 14 years because Pauline Kael hurt his feelings when she panned Ryan's Daughter. These director types can be easily discouraged. Also, easily encouraged, which is a different problem entirely. [via Vulture]
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The Shining - Zooms from Ian Kammer on Vimeo.
This video of President Obama signing "Thank you" to a deaf college student who told him he was proud of him is the closest you'll come to bursting out in tears -- good tears, happy tears, tears because it's such a nice moment -- on this Wednesday in mid-March. We haven't seen every scrap of video that went online today, obviously, but we're ready to call it for POTUS. [ABC]
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Last night, Baylor University center Brittney Griner became the second woman to dunk a basketball during an NCAA tournament game. Because we like to watch women's basketball -- any basketball, really -- we've always cringed when people get excited every few years when a player comes along with the ability to dunk, as if the ability to mimic one of the least interesting parts of the men's game is needed if lady hoopers want to be taken seriously. But we're not going to lie: this is a rim-rattling good dunk. [ESPN]
