Monday 24 May 2010

Movie clips – alternative to YouTube

Not in Kansas anymore

Movieclips.com is an interesting new website, providing an alternative to YouTube for watching film clips.  The site is in 'beta' mode and I have experienced some problems viewing clips, but it is still worth a look.

One nice feature is that it is totally legal – they have apparently worked with Hollywood studios to bring the site to fruition. Another feature is that you can browse the content – by movie, actor, genre, occasion, action, mood, character, theme, setting and prop; and you can also browse through a selection of iconic clips.

I also like the way that you can search for a particular phrase (in the dialogue) – the clips below are the two results for the phrase, “not in Kansas anymore.”




Further reading
Studios click with Movieclips [Variety]

Related post
Screen online - video clips and full length films (for British films)

Saturday 15 May 2010

The girl in the picture

There is an article in the most recent TATEetc on the forthcoming exhibition, ‘Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera,’ entitled, ‘What are you looking at?’

In this article there is an un-credited picture of Vietnamese children fleeing the village of Trang Bang, after it had been napalmed by South Vietnamese government planes. Unlike the similar and famous image by Nick Ut, this picture also shows the children being filmed and photographed by journalists. In the context of this upcoming exhibition, the difference between the two pictures is striking.

Kim PhĂșc – one of the children in the pictures - appears on Radio 4 next week in an episode of 'It’s My Story'.  In this programme – according to the radio 4 website - she explains how “Nick Ut's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph has helped and haunted her in equal measure.”

Today, ITN footage of the bombing and of Kim PhĂșc and others fleeing the village can be viewed on YouTube.

Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera opens at Tate Modern on the 28th May

It’s My Story: The girl in the picture will be broadcast on Radio 4 on Tuesday 18th May at 4pm

A version of the article 'What are you looking at' (without the photograph referred to above) is available on the TATEetc website.

Further reading

Hariman, J. and Lucaites, J. L. (2007). No caption needed: iconic photographs, public culture, and liberal democracy [Chapter 6 ‘Trauma and Public Memory: Accidental Napalm’]. University of Chicago Press.

Friday 7 May 2010

Are Taschen serious?

You may be forgiven for thinking that the publisher of such titles as The big book of breasts and The big penis book would not have titles that would be of interest to an academic library. However, you would be wrong.

As a recent profile in The Sunday Times attests, Taschen are a very peculiar publisher indeed - “as happy to publish a book of explicit gay cartoons as a perfect facsimile of the Luther bible of 1534.”

The University of Westminster libraries have over 100 titles from Taschen, only a minority of which are racy in any way: the latest acquisition – the complete published works of Karl Blossfeldt.

Search for ‘Taschen’ in Library Collections Search to see what we have, visit taschen.com to read about their history or visit their shop in Chelsea (which I have now added to my google map) and decide for yourself!