- KNIGHT FDN _ PROGRESS REPORT 07-08
We produced four video stories for the Knight Foundation’s annual report and we’re proud to see the project is finally live on the web. The foundation gives away more than $100 million a year in grants to meet the broadly defined mission of “meeting the information needs of communities in a democracy,” though their reach is even more expansive than that. We produced stories about the $40 million the foundation has invested in the arts in Miami, the funding of a network for entrepreneurs in Duluth, MN. (it was -20 degrees there while we were shooting!), a civic media conference at MIT, and a story about Kwame Scruggs and his amazing work with urban youth in Akron, OH. as an Ashoka affiliate.
Go to Knight’s site to seem them all. Here are two of our favorites:
2007 Progress Report Video: Miami Arts from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.
2007 Annual Report Video: Ashoka from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.
- STAFF UPDATE _ WHAT ELSE WE’RE WORKING ON
When not working on Common Machine prods, our crack staff is busy with side projects and freelance work.
Right now:
Brett O’Bourke is writing a script for Oxygen channel’s true crime series Snapped, produced by Jupiter Entertainment.
Gaspar González is currently working on a documentary about Richard Nixon and the 1960s. His previous film, Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami, premieres nationally on PBS on August 11.
Richard Patterson is working as 2nd assistant camera on the feature film adaptation of Luke Whisnant’s Watching TV With The Red Chinese, being shot in NYC, directed by Shimon Dotan.
Tripp Williams is re-building the web presence for a high-performance racing garage in South Tampa. This involves learning entirely too much about the importance of struts, and the bowel clenching fear involved in filming in front of a deafeningly loud car, strapped to the ground and a set of rollers going 204 miles an hour.
- MUSIC _ 8 MINUTES OF PERFECTION
Bebo Valdés and Javier Colina. Not sure the name of the song (but check out the Salt Peanuts reference around 6:10). We’re assuming this was shot by film director/music producer Fernando Trueba of Calle 54 during the recent recording of what is said to be Bebo’s last album, Live at the Village Vanguard.
- KNIGHT FDN _ MIAMI ARTS
We’ve produced four short documentaries for the Knight Foundation, based around some of their key grant initiatives. It’ll be a few more weeks before the project is wrapped and up on their site, but they’ve posted a sneak peak of a couple of the videos here. It’s all about the Knight Arts Partnership, a $40 million investment in the arts in Miami. Keep an eye on their channel for future projects.
- SPEEDWAYS _ SHAKE AND BAKE
Shooting has begun on our Disappearing Speedways doc. Richard Patterson and I swung up to Orlando last weekend to peel off some footage and stills and talk with the track’s main man Rusty Marcus. While not as old as some of the other short tracks, Orlando Speedworld’s banked-asphalt, 3/8 mile oval provides some of the best technical racing in the state.
Here’s a wee little taste:
Speedways teaser1 from Common Machine Prod. on Vimeo.
- SHORT FILM _ MOTODROM
A few months back, we happened upon Joerg Wagner’s beautifully photographed short film Motodrom on Atom films. It’s nine minutes of old-school, carnival sideshow, gravity-defying motorbike riding in a tiny wood arena. The only sound in the film is cobbled together from what was recorded on location. Unfortunately, Atom’s site is now some kind of worthless comedy nonsense and the only available YouTube clip to be found has been vandalized by some wanker who thought it needed a soundtrack. It’s still worth seeing, but turn off your sound. Then run to itunes and download the real movie - which was an official selection at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival - for $1.99. Worth every penny.
- DESIGN _ GROUNDWAVE ROCKS OUR WORLD
The guys over at NYC’s Groundwave Design Corp. recently completed our logo/identity. We asked them for something that referenced the early computer age (dig the punch card-inspired biz card cut), ’60s American modernism and the monolithic machine. They nailed it. Definitely check out their site. They do incredible web/branding/design/ work. We’re pretty stoked to have been able to work with them.
- ANIMATION _ MUTO
Blu’s long-awaited, large-scale, graffiti animation has hit the net. One of the most amazing things we’ve seen in a long time.
Hold on to your teeth.
MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
- An inauspicious start
This is a test …
A failed test.
This is the message I got when I tried to upload a little video of some of the Speedway footage which I was going to write about
The uploaded file could not be moved to D:\Inetpub\commonmachine\wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/06.
Suck it.
[Edit by tripp:]
A video metaphor for Brett and technology:
Heh, just kidding. You are a tech jeanus.
- THIS THING ON?
We’ve been so busy with client work, the build of the website is slow going. So, we kicked this blog together - which will be integrated in to the main site at some point - so we can keep our friends up to date on what we’re doing.
Stay tuned.
