Fireflies: For Those Who Suffer

For the sixth year in a row, 50 “Fireflies” will soon take to the coast of California to ride their bikes a grueling 550 miles in benefit of cancer research. They will depart San Francisco on September 27, and arrive into Los Angeles on October 2.

Cancer affects us all. Please consider helping the fight by making a donation here. Alternatively, you can view the project on Vimeo and make a “Tip Jar” donation using PayPal, where all funds will be directly transferred to the City of Hope research hospital.

Project credits for “For Those Who Suffer,”

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Trojan Horse was a Unicorn 2013

Trojan Horse was a Unicorn (THU) is a four-day Digital Entertainment Festival set for 18-21 September in sunny Troia, Portugal, promising unique opportunities to learn and network in paradise. If you’re not already planning to attend, consider putting it on your 2014 calendar. A premier event for producers, animators, game developers, concept artists, 3D generalists, VFX and CG professionals and the curious, passionate, restless and fearless, this first edition of THU will unite at least 700 professionals and students from around the world for four days of talks, demo-classes, roundtables, investment pitches, recruitment sessions, recruitment challenges and much more.

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Killer Reels: Waveplant 2013

The personal brand of Chicago-based music producer, composer, musician, sound designer and programmer Joel Corelitz, Waveplant creates extraordinary musical scores for advertising, broadcast, gaming, film and live installations. Since 2006, working on an array of ultra-innovative projects, Waveplant has delivered sensational sound design-driven scores that are fresh, resonant, and award-winning. Today, Waveplant exists in the … Read moreKiller Reels: Waveplant 2013

Future forward with production studio Leviathan

As the principals of design-focused production studio Leviathan begin their fourth year in business together, their impacts are growing in virtually every dimension. While the montage featured here and at www.lvthn.com presents most of their latest large-scale visual experiences crossing all media, many new achievements are currently in the works as well.

At each new turn, projects like these for The North Face and Callaway via Factory Design Labs, for Kelley Blue Book via Doner, for Western Digital via R&R Partners, for Dodge via Union AdWorks, for HP via Designkitchen, and for musical artists Amon Tobin, Skrillex and others are leading in new directions.

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Adapting to the unknown with R/GA

R/GA is a full-service digital agency that transforms the way people interact with brands. The slideshow embedded above was part of a March 2013 talk from R/GA Chicago’s Abraham Velázquez Tello and Joseph Delhommer revealing how designers and technologists are redefining the creative process through close – and frequent – collaboration. Recently at the One … Read moreAdapting to the unknown with R/GA

Brilliant directors: Roman Coppola

Just last August, writers around the world were invited to become part of a very tantalizing short film competition. In short, filmmaker Roman Coppola had teamed-up with Intel and W Hotels to create an original series of four short films to be written by you or me. Here are a few details that appeared with the original announcements in Portable and many other high-profile media outlets across the creative industries.

“Write a screenplay for a short film set in a W Hotel, featuring an Intel-inspired Ultrabook. Roman and a panel of judges, including Chloë Sevigny, Michael Pitt, James Ransone, Jeff Baena, and other notable filmmakers, might just choose your screenplay to be developed into a short film by The Directors Bureau! Your story awaits behind a hotel door. Submit your script by August 30th. Come make a film with us.”

The opportunity absolutely sparked a great deal of interest… but before I knew it, the winners were being announced, and the resulting films, too. Above, I’m embedding Coppola’s own contribution. Below you can also find the project’s official trailer. Enjoy!

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“Kickstarted” documentary feature gives back

From “Kickstarted” – the first documentary film for, by and about crowdfunding – comes “Funded in 60 Seconds.” This is a special series of crowdfunding tips, insights and best practices all delivered in under a minute. Help us keep making more content – and support “Kickstarted,” the first documentary about crowdfunding: http://bit.ly/KickKS

Creative Entrepreneurs: Jose Sebastian Gomez

Over the past year, creative production company Shilo and director Jose Sebastian Gomez took on the challenge of creating a great deal of stunning cinematic content for Qatar TV, as you can see in the montage featured above. After traveling to Qatar to learn more about the culture and people – and make a lot of new friends – Shilo crafted this original HD content and much more for Qatar TV’s on-air identity.

“We were asked to make each promo a metaphor for different aspirational subjects such as education, business, environment and family,” Jose explains. “The main creative challenge was to render these stories in artistic and simple ways that didn’t require further explanation or language. We focused on conveying a feeling and tone for each subject in ways that are abstract and metaphorical but still understandable.”

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Inspiration for life: Toys and stories

How many people out there feel like the blockbuster Pixar series “Toy Story” relates to them, and their own experiences as youths playing with toy cowboys and astronauts? You can certainly count me among them, and of course I know that Woody is meant to be Johnny West, and at least to me, Buzz is … Read moreInspiration for life: Toys and stories

Transcending dimensions with The D4D

Hoping you will enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at how The Department of the 4th Dimension designed the experience, content and technology for the Lucid Dreams exhibit in Sephora & Firmenich’s Sensorium, the world’s first pop-up fragrance museum.

“In the Lucid Dreams interactive installation, visitors can affect floating holographic dream images inspired by Firmenich’s master perfumers. Using a high tech flower sculpture, the images transform based on the power of the individual’s sniff – triggered by the unique sound transmitted by the physical act of smelling. The multidisciplinary team at The D4D designed the complete Lucid Dreams experience including each room’s architecture, short films, floor-to-ceiling motion graphics, glowing sniff-registering flowers and the software that drives the interaction. Every step of the creative process was taken hand-in-hand with the perfumers at Firmenich to ensure a truly integrated and multisensory experience the brings their fragrances to life.”

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