For a project on culture I had to do in French class, I made this booklet, or zine, if you will, on the music genre called "Yé-yé," and I thought it turned out pretty cute. Above is the cover (illustration is of Sylvie Vartan), and below is the introduction.
Here is one of my favorite songs from my research: "Tous Les Garçons et Les Filles" by Françoise Hardy. It translates to "All the Boys and Girls," and is about her finding herself surrounded by couples and feeling lonseome. This song was the one that essentially made her famous, but she reportedly hated it. I love the song for it's soft, sweet, bubblegum-y sound. Also, the video is awesome! (but a little dizzying so take caution)
Stop motion animation is a cinematography technique most commonly used to make inanimate objects appear to be animate, by using a camera to take individual pictures of each frame. Lately, I have been really interested in it! I've been perusing the interwebs for different types (admittedly not a very difficult task) and found some pretty neat videos.
Stop motion films can be as simple as moving objects, or in this case, dancing rocks:
I wasn't able to find much information on this except for the fact that it was on sesame street because apparently, this was the type of thing sesame street used to air (searching "dancing rock sesame street" didn't bring up much. however, I did find this video of Paul Rudd singing about earth).
Stop Motion films can also be very complex:
Carine Khalifé created this music video to "Blown Minded" for the band Young Galaxy with oil and paint on glass. She made 3-8 seconds a day, starting from scratch for each frame. This one is so neat. I get so absorbed in watching it, I forget that it's a stop motion, as it truly seems to be made from magic.
Although not my preferable bowl of noodles, I'm still intrigued by "No Noodles" by Tyler Nicolson. It is so perfectly whimsy and weird. And also, may I say, the sound effects are spot on!
"Sweet Dreams" by Kirstin Lepore follows the story of a cupcake who sails to a new community. It's very detailed and creative. All of her work is so amazingly seamless.
"Her Ghost Friend," directed by Saigo No Shudan is about a girl who dies and becomes a ghost, traveling through outer space and parallel universes (I think?). I wish I could understand the lyrics! Anyways, I do know that it is beautiful, dreamy, and a little eerie.
And lastly, Ben Wyatt's "Requiem for a Tuesday:"
Stop motion animation seems to take a lot of devotion, not unlike most forms of art. I think it is so alluring to me because of how obvious the devotion is. I find myself struck by awe after watching each of these videos, thinking of how painstakingly the artist must have worked to create moving image frame by frame.
