Balancing Point
July 28, 2005 4:46 PM Subscribe
That was neat!
posted by VulcanMike at 5:01 PM on July 28, 2005
posted by VulcanMike at 5:01 PM on July 28, 2005
Ok, first of all, this is why I love the internet. How else would strangers ever watch stuff like that? Second of all, maybe I'm the only one, and maybe it makes me an ass, but I thought this video was pretty hilarious. Some of the shots at the beginning were great but then he started doing all those stoner/karate/interpretive dance moves. It was as if the stoner karate guy in college watched the Andy Goldsworthy documentary and thought, "hey, I could do that!" but decided to make it better by doing all reverse motion shots.
Anyway, I ain't hating, I'm just saying. Thanks for posting.
posted by billysumday at 5:08 PM on July 28, 2005
Anyway, I ain't hating, I'm just saying. Thanks for posting.
posted by billysumday at 5:08 PM on July 28, 2005
This is pretty cool, what I could watch at work. I will check it out again tonight. Thanks!
posted by fenriq at 5:10 PM on July 28, 2005
posted by fenriq at 5:10 PM on July 28, 2005
Some neat stuff here. Plus I like that whole rock balancing thing.
posted by Toecutter at 5:13 PM on July 28, 2005
posted by Toecutter at 5:13 PM on July 28, 2005
[This is good]
[This is a direct link]
[Anyone know the song?]
posted by dilettanti at 6:10 PM on July 28, 2005
[This is a direct link]
[Anyone know the song?]
posted by dilettanti at 6:10 PM on July 28, 2005
First off, this was cool, thanks. But am I the only Half-Life 2 player here? That reverse footage of stuff flying towards the camera looked SO MUCH like the work of the gravity gun. Also, I'm a huge nerd.
posted by jonson at 6:12 PM on July 28, 2005
posted by jonson at 6:12 PM on July 28, 2005
Fantastic. I love this kind of goddamn hippy.
"but then he started doing all those stoner/karate/interpretive dance moves"
Yeah, but keep in mind he's doing that shit backwards, and it still looks fluid. That's pretty damn zen. You can't move smoothly like that and not know what you're doing, forwards or backwards.
posted by loquacious at 6:25 PM on July 28, 2005
"but then he started doing all those stoner/karate/interpretive dance moves"
Yeah, but keep in mind he's doing that shit backwards, and it still looks fluid. That's pretty damn zen. You can't move smoothly like that and not know what you're doing, forwards or backwards.
posted by loquacious at 6:25 PM on July 28, 2005
My six year old daughter wanted to know if he had "power", like the earth benders in Avatar.
posted by hockeyman at 6:33 PM on July 28, 2005
posted by hockeyman at 6:33 PM on July 28, 2005
This was a lot of fun to watch - I agree, watching him make his own backwards motions seem so fluid was a lot of fun to watch, especially the 'catching little rocks on his feet' scene.
posted by wanderingmind at 6:48 PM on July 28, 2005
posted by wanderingmind at 6:48 PM on July 28, 2005
Wow. That was incredibly artfully done. I have no idea how on earth he made his reverse motions look so fluid, but DAMN. David Lynch could certainly take a page from this book...
posted by vernondalhart at 6:51 PM on July 28, 2005
posted by vernondalhart at 6:51 PM on July 28, 2005
That was great. Good post.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 7:13 PM on July 28, 2005
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 7:13 PM on July 28, 2005
Man, it would be awesome if you could somehow watch this backwards!
(Seriously, thanks for the post.)
posted by trip and a half at 8:30 PM on July 28, 2005
(Seriously, thanks for the post.)
posted by trip and a half at 8:30 PM on July 28, 2005
O brave new world, that has such technology in't, for cheap!
Don't think I'm knocking this lovely thing. (I particularly like the silhoutted shot with the moon in the foggy background, about 3/4 of the way through.) It just makes me reflect on how much more egalitarian film/video is today, as an art form, than 50 years ago. What did this cost? Several hours' time, a few rocks, and equipment that in this day and age many of us have lying around but wouldn't have thought to use in this way. Good on them.
Those smooth moves say martial arts training to me, but I'm not good enough to guess which one.
I'll include the obligatory mention of the scene at the bookseller's.
posted by Aknaton at 8:33 PM on July 28, 2005
Don't think I'm knocking this lovely thing. (I particularly like the silhoutted shot with the moon in the foggy background, about 3/4 of the way through.) It just makes me reflect on how much more egalitarian film/video is today, as an art form, than 50 years ago. What did this cost? Several hours' time, a few rocks, and equipment that in this day and age many of us have lying around but wouldn't have thought to use in this way. Good on them.
Those smooth moves say martial arts training to me, but I'm not good enough to guess which one.
I'll include the obligatory mention of the scene at the bookseller's.
posted by Aknaton at 8:33 PM on July 28, 2005
I'm basically in awe of this guy. We all wanted to have superpowers as kids, right? Or maybe we still do. And here he goes and finds one of the cheapest, most believable ways of doing it. He can watch that video and be like, "yeah, that's me summoning those rocks. sweet"
cool cool cool
posted by mikeweeney at 8:48 PM on July 28, 2005
cool cool cool
posted by mikeweeney at 8:48 PM on July 28, 2005
That was immensely cool, very believable too. As others have said, the fluidity of the "backwards" movements is what really seals the deal. I wacthed it a couple of times over, and you can see how it's being done if you look closely, but that doesn't mean I could look as confident sauntering backwards.
The whole ninja-wizard aspect really fit, although I'll admit it cracked me up that this was all done in street clothes, not even a hint of costuming. Still, one of the neatest things I've ever seen!
hockeyman - she's not the only one! That is a great show.
posted by nelleish at 8:56 PM on July 28, 2005
The whole ninja-wizard aspect really fit, although I'll admit it cracked me up that this was all done in street clothes, not even a hint of costuming. Still, one of the neatest things I've ever seen!
hockeyman - she's not the only one! That is a great show.
posted by nelleish at 8:56 PM on July 28, 2005
Chant over sped-up footage of clouds billowing past mountain ranges! Quick, someone call Philip Glass!
posted by ori at 11:46 PM on July 28, 2005
posted by ori at 11:46 PM on July 28, 2005
The water scenes are particularly cool.
posted by brain_drain at 12:04 AM on July 29, 2005
posted by brain_drain at 12:04 AM on July 29, 2005
Be sure not to miss the others.
and enjoy these crazy cliffjumps
posted by spacediver at 1:00 AM on July 29, 2005
and enjoy these crazy cliffjumps
posted by spacediver at 1:00 AM on July 29, 2005
anyone else notice the donnie darko inspirations? :)
posted by spacediver at 1:04 AM on July 29, 2005
posted by spacediver at 1:04 AM on July 29, 2005
Excellent! Thanks icosahedral!!
I was reminded of Top Secret actually.
I wonder if they had to practice sauntering backwards much? It certainly looked pretty natural.
Besto'theweb.
posted by peacay at 1:54 AM on July 29, 2005
I was reminded of Top Secret actually.
I wonder if they had to practice sauntering backwards much? It certainly looked pretty natural.
Besto'theweb.
posted by peacay at 1:54 AM on July 29, 2005
I was actually afraid to click the link thinking it was the backward filmed walking of the ghoul in The Ring! Imagine my delight when it turned out to be fun hippie film buffs!
posted by themadjuggler at 7:02 AM on July 29, 2005
posted by themadjuggler at 7:02 AM on July 29, 2005
I liked the film, but a lot of people are going on and on about the "smooth moves". Really, the only thing he did backwards was the running or walking, which after a little practice isn't that hard to do (and notice he's looking back in most of his shots). Everything else is smooth because he's not doing it backwards -- he's doing it forwards, and our brains turn it into something else. If you watch the movie backwards (easy to do; on a Mac you go to the end of the movie, then press command-left-arrow), you'll see that most of the movements are pretty straightforward and easy. It does take a lot of the magic out of it, though.
posted by Deathalicious at 8:05 AM on July 29, 2005
posted by Deathalicious at 8:05 AM on July 29, 2005
Oh, and for those of you who say that David Lynch should take lessons from this guy:
Lynch wanted it to look strange, non-fluid, and choppy. That's why he filmed it the way he did.
Notice the guy rarely really walks during the film, He sort of hops. It's much easier to hop backwards than walk backwards.
Incidentally, slightly different techniques were used in Stir of Echoes to make the ghost move strangely: she moved at 1/4 of the normal speed, but was shot at high speed, so it came out at a normal speed but with only a quarter of the motions kept. The girl playing the ghost was actually a trained dancer. If you want to talk about smooth and controlled motions, she had 'em.
posted by Deathalicious at 8:13 AM on July 29, 2005
Lynch wanted it to look strange, non-fluid, and choppy. That's why he filmed it the way he did.
Notice the guy rarely really walks during the film, He sort of hops. It's much easier to hop backwards than walk backwards.
Incidentally, slightly different techniques were used in Stir of Echoes to make the ghost move strangely: she moved at 1/4 of the normal speed, but was shot at high speed, so it came out at a normal speed but with only a quarter of the motions kept. The girl playing the ghost was actually a trained dancer. If you want to talk about smooth and controlled motions, she had 'em.
posted by Deathalicious at 8:13 AM on July 29, 2005
Oh, and for those of you who say that David Lynch should take lessons from this guy:
Lynch wanted it to look strange, non-fluid, and choppy. That's why he filmed it the way he did.
Notice the guy rarely really walks during the film, He sort of hops. It's much easier to hop backwards than walk backwards.
Incidentally, slightly different techniques were used in Stir of Echoes to make the ghost move strangely: she moved at 1/4 of the normal speed, but was shot at high speed, so it came out at a normal speed but with only a quarter of the motions kept. The girl playing the ghost was actually a trained dancer. If you want to talk about smooth and controlled motions, she had 'em.
posted by Deathalicious at 8:13 AM on July 29, 2005
Lynch wanted it to look strange, non-fluid, and choppy. That's why he filmed it the way he did.
Notice the guy rarely really walks during the film, He sort of hops. It's much easier to hop backwards than walk backwards.
Incidentally, slightly different techniques were used in Stir of Echoes to make the ghost move strangely: she moved at 1/4 of the normal speed, but was shot at high speed, so it came out at a normal speed but with only a quarter of the motions kept. The girl playing the ghost was actually a trained dancer. If you want to talk about smooth and controlled motions, she had 'em.
posted by Deathalicious at 8:13 AM on July 29, 2005
If you save and open the video in the Quicktime player, you can watch the video backwards. You'd be surprised at how little effort the, uh, rock-toppler had to put into making sure the reverse video looked interesting.
posted by rmannion at 1:40 PM on July 29, 2005
posted by rmannion at 1:40 PM on July 29, 2005
Numlok takes the fun out of everything: BalancingPointREVERSED.mov
posted by numlok at 7:07 PM on July 29, 2005
posted by numlok at 7:07 PM on July 29, 2005
Fine, but he did have to put a tremendous amount of effort into hauling rocks around and stacking them into insteresting sculptural shapes, over at least a six-month period.
Jeez. Some of you people, it's like even if curvaceous elves jumped out of your web browsers and showered you in cash gifts and blow jobs, you'd still be spending all your time criticizing their technique and complaining about the currency exchange rate.
posted by ook at 8:24 AM on July 30, 2005
Jeez. Some of you people, it's like even if curvaceous elves jumped out of your web browsers and showered you in cash gifts and blow jobs, you'd still be spending all your time criticizing their technique and complaining about the currency exchange rate.
posted by ook at 8:24 AM on July 30, 2005
BTW, and just to clarify... I really dig "Balancing Point".
That said, I don't see any reason why it should be beyond criticism or investigation (esp. regarding technique).
If I wasn't impressed by the piece, I wouldn't have wasted time trying to figure out the "magic" behind it.
I like disassembling stuff to see how it works. If you don't, please don't click on my "spoiler" link.
posted by numlok at 11:54 AM on July 30, 2005
That said, I don't see any reason why it should be beyond criticism or investigation (esp. regarding technique).
If I wasn't impressed by the piece, I wouldn't have wasted time trying to figure out the "magic" behind it.
I like disassembling stuff to see how it works. If you don't, please don't click on my "spoiler" link.
posted by numlok at 11:54 AM on July 30, 2005
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posted by knave at 4:55 PM on July 28, 2005