Two documentaries

I recently came across a great post on the new blog from Xander Bennett.

(Xander is in a transitional period at the moment, one which I expect will lead to a lot more interesting posts from him. Note this address for future reference: http://xanderbennett.com)

In part, he had this to stay:

I recently watched two excellent documentaries, Free to Play and Los Angeles Plays Itself. Both are unapologetically subjective, designed to serve specific agendas, yet they also deal with universal issues. Both have unusual production histories: Free to Play is the first film by Valve, the legendary video game studio, and is available free on YouTube and Steam; Los Angeles Plays Itself was put together by film teacher Thom Andersen as an extension of his lectures, and has never been widely distributed.

Free to Play is a film about an esports game called DOTA 2. It follows three competitors in the 2011 DOTA 2 tournament which was, at that point, the largest and most lucrative esports tournament ever hold. The game just so happens to be made by Valve, who also sponsored the tournament, who also made this documentary. Ostensibly born out of Valve’s postmodern, laissez-faire, make-your-own-project workplace policy, it’s pretty clear this film has an agenda: bring validation to esports in general and DOTA 2 in particular, thereby enlarging the profile and player base of Valve’s multi-million dollar baby.

Agenda or not, it’s a great film. The editing is breathless, airtight, playing the audience’s emotions like a harp. It brings up every objection a non-gaming civilian might make to esports (it’s for nerds, it’s not a real sport, why don’t you get a real job, you’re missing out on life), quite deliberately, and throws them in the faces of its three characters, forcing them to confront their true fears and desires. It goes deep into the backstory of its characters, imbuing each match with emotional significance.

Film teacher and documentarian Thom Andersen’s masterpiece, Los Angeles Plays Itself is the story of the city of Los Angeles on film, as told through hundreds of clips from Hollywood movies stretching all the way back to the 1920s. At nearly three hours long, it’s a monumental, almost overwhelming study of cinematic history, but I guarantee you won’t be bored at any point during those three hours. I want to tell every person making a film in Los Angeles to watch this. Hell, everyone thinking of moving to Los Angeles should watch this.

I recommend you read all of Xander's post.

Meanwhile, here is the trailer for Free To Play. If you don't like the way teenagers bury themselves in their computer games, you really really should spend two minutes watching this:

And here is the actual movie, if you have some spare time.

Here's the trailer for Los Angeles Plays Itself. Go on, you can afford to take a 90 second taste.

Here is the actual movie, if you have some spare time.

"Dance With Your City"

Remember the music video with the four guys dancing on a set of treadmills?

The song is called Here It Goes Again, and the name of the band is OK Go. (The name came from an art teacher always saying "Okay... go!" when a couple of them were kids at school, drawing).



What's interesting about OK Go is that they understand the way the world has changed, better than many filmmakers. In 2005, they placed a "stupid home video" of the band, dancing, on a website. This was before YouTube. The clip was downloaded 300,000 times, compared with 285,000 sales of their first album. The band's famous treadmill video attracted a million YouTube views within days. The record label failed to see the opportunity and they parted company with the band.

OK Go have sold more than 700,000 albums. Their videos have been viewed more than 150 million times online, and many more times in museums, galleries, classrooms, and at film, theater, and arts festivals. Recent projects include an interactive video made with the Pilobolus dance company; a live album chronicling 180 concerts played in a single year; performances at the Kennedy Center, the Glastonbury Festival, and Lollapalooza; and collaborations with the Muppets and Sesame Street.

Here is the lead singer, Damian Kulash, talking about their approach to the business.



The thing I really wanted to show you, though, is the following video. It documents the 8.5-mile parade OK Go and 100 friends took through Los Angeles. The point? To create a psycho-spatial-geo-musical-techno-sonic parade-party. They used Range Rover's Pulse of the City app to check in and spell out the words "OK GO" with the route.



Which reminded me of The Beatles' impromptu final gig in January 1969, played out on the rooftop of the headquarters of Apple Records, at 3 Savile Row, London. At the time, The Beatles were recording their album, Let It Be. They played various tracks from that, including “Get Back,” “Don’t Let Me Down,” “I’ve Got A Feeling,” “One After 909,” “Danny Boy,” “Dig A Pony” and another version of “Get Back.”

The session ended with the police shutting down the show (for noise violation). John Lennon closed with the famous sentence, “I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition.”

Can't help wondering what The Beatles would have done with the internet.

Seeing we've come this far, here's the available footage of The Beatles' rooftop concert.