Author Archives: Cimaxion

Dad, Can I Borrow the Car? 1970 Disney Driver Education Film

by Cimaxion

 
 
Disney produced this amazingly good drivers education film in 1970. It is one of those cheerfully playful experiments with common avant-garde techniques that were so much a part of seventies culture because of shows like Sesame Street. The filmmaking is generally quite good and sometimes even approaches brilliance. I've been working vaguely and lazily on a new film about cars and Los Angeles and I'm quite prepared to lift some things right out of this film or at least use it as a template for commenting on car culture in this great throbbing fast lane metropolis.
 
Kurt Russell of ham acting fame gives the narration and he's actually good, playing the young man in school who is about to go for his driving test and qualify for the license to kill that will get him lots of action as long as he looks out for little girls chasing big red balls into the street.
 
Enjoy a trip through Los Angeles of yesteryear and remember that cars just work better out here.
 
 

Death in Syria – How Global Post’s Tracey Shelton Captured Her Iconic War Images

by Cimaxion

Tracey Shelton, a photojournalist working for Global Post was on the Syrian civil war front lines in the city of Aleppo, covering a group of rebel fighters who were manning a barricade position. She was using a Canon 7D DSLR camera to take video as the fighters prepared for the possible approach of some tanks. They were caught unprepared and her camera captured the moment when they were killed by a tank shell. The resulting images have become some of the most direct examples of just how suddenly death can come in war. They are a shocking reminder of war’s brutality. The bravery she must have to sneak around those streets with only a camera to defend herself from snipers, tanks and rocket propelled grenades is astounding. I think I would simply put my camera away and run.

DSLR News Shooter has an in-depth article about the photographer.

The photo of Tracey Shelton is by Niklas Meltio.

The original video of the terrible moment in a short documentary is shown here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsJh67GjjPI

Here is an interview with the photojournalist about how she got her images:

http://vimeo.com/49395813

Toc Toc… Toc: 1965 Animation by Luis Bras

by Cimaxion

Here is an interesting character from Argentina who was a graphic arts professor and advertising agency designer. After getting hold of a 16mm film camera, he began teaching himself to animate by watching Disney movies. In the early sixties he met pioneering experimental animator Norman McLaren and upon seeing his work began his serious experimental career with direct painting and scratching on film emulsion.
 
Toc Toc… Toc features scratching and painting on film timed to a soundtrack consisting of a pencil hitting a tabletop.
 
Here are some of the Argentine television commercials that Bras worked on.