This 1968 Oscar-winning film on the creative process comes from legendary graphic designer Saul Bass. I saw this as a kid and it inspired me deeply. This is the kind of work that sticks with you for generations. It doesn’t have the slickness of today’s design, but instead has a core simplicity that transcends style and trends, making it universally good in the same way that modernist architecture stands the test of time.

Unfortunately, this is only a 5-minute preview and you can’t queue it up in Netflix. The only version to buy is apparently available for $125 as a DVD series set.

Maxim Zhestkov is a 22 year-old motion designer based in Russia, Ulyanovsk. His work has a detached, cosmic quality to it. The use of black and white gives it an ethereal art appeal that might not be present in a color version. Apparently, he also does toy design and packaging work as well.

Top form motion design work making the net design site rounds from National Television.

Growing up the son of a former Disney animator had its drawbacks, including having your cartoons critiqued as you watched them. Does a six year-old care about keyframing and line quality or whether or not his favorite character is about to wallop the other guy with a trash can? Nonetheless, there is a good side to the story. I was well-versed in the classics, growing up. “The classics” meaning the days when animation was created by human hands. From timing sheets to rough storyboards to masterwork keyframing to ink and paint to museum-quality background art, I learned to appreciate the artistry that goes into the process from a young age.

When that era came to an end, works became prized pieces of art selling for thousands of dollars, being transformed from forgotten stills of commerce to framed gems. Ollie Johnston, one of Disney’s legendary “nine old men” (a popular political term of the day that they picked up while still in their twenties), was the last surviving member until a week ago Monday. Sad to say that animation as an art form has died with him, because in today’s commodified, bottom-lined machine, art doesn’t stand a chance.

With the rise of the computing machine in the 80’s and 90’s, the organic process started its death march into the Museum of Eras Past. While murmurs of resuscitating the hand-drawn approach have been tossed around, including Disney’s return to form with the 2009 release of “The Princess and the Frog,” there has been no sincere industry-wide return to form. Johnston was a pioneer in the hand-drawn area, having helped charter a course for Disney’s legendary high quality output and dominating status in the industry. His work lives on in the characters and visuals he helped create for films like Bambi, Pinocchio, Fantasia (my personal favorite), and Snow White. He will be missed, but his work will remain a legacy to a craft that draws a clear line of distinction from its modern predecessors.

Once in awhile you see something that truly stops you in your tracks and forces you to watch — closely. Moresoon achieves this in spades.

Brilliant visual work abound on this site from someone named “Carl,” judging from the mysterious email addy.

Check out the strangely organic and stunning ‘Tales of the Unexpected,’ the woozy and colorful ‘NTT Data,’ and all the other sublimely maddening images.

A cohort of mine has patience far beyond the realm of the average human being. He is keen on focusing his video camera lens on the an object and tracking it for days, weeks, months even. Yes, we’re talking about time lapse here, folks. And Dan does it well, albeit on a shoestring budget.

He opts for a low-end camera (Canon Powershot A510) to achieve his stunning results, which vary from the opening of an Lily to a street scene in Boston. Can you dig it?

Or so is the title of Upton Sinclair’s legendary book that inspired the movie “There Will Be Blood,” directed by critic favorite, P.T. Anderson, who also helmed “Boogie Nights” and “Magnolia.” Anderson, it seems, channels the ghost of Stanley Kubrick by incorporating the luxurious use of silence and long, drawn-out takes. Accompanying it is the equally moody and striking score by Jonny Greenwood (aka Radiohead’s guitarist). The score, at times overshadows the movie itself, taking center stage, grating against the landscape and becoming another character in the cineplay. I used the outdated term “cineplay,” because the film has that feel. As if the curtains were lifted on the opening scene and we were sitting attentively in the plush upholstery of box seats in the confines of an ornate Victorian theater palace.

Daniel Day Lewis is virtually a one-man show here as Daniel Plainview, a greed-filled turn-of-the-century oilman hell bent on doing it “his way.” This very dark piece shows a side of humanity many would rather not confront and dares not lift the veil to uncover any lighter side. This will, no doubt, scare off throngs of popcorn-hungry hordes looking for something to follow up “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” but no matter, those looking for a movie that will move them in a profound way and that examines the malnourished spirit as it relates to its offspring will be in for a ride.

In the acting category, it would be tough for anyone to share working space with Day-Lewis, but fine performances are put in by Paul Dano as the preacher Eli Sunday and by Dillon Freasier as Plainview’s son H.W. I’m just hoping it and its spiritual cousin, “No Country for Old Men,” clean up at the Oscars. It’ll be a tough race for the two, especially with Bardem and Daniel Day-Lewis going head-to-head, but ultimately, DDL with walk home with the statuette in hand. A film with one of Hollywood’s most celebrated directors and musicians? I’m there. Indeed I was there, 100 percent.

This set was posted awhile back on various blogs and so forth, but now I have my own, so I’m re-posting for the masses that missed it. I’ve also included a couple of hi-res versions this time.

These are personal pics taken on the set of Back of the Future taken while I was a security guard at Universal Studios.

I heard Steven Spielberg snuck onto the lot in a security uniform when he was young, so I took it to the next level and got a job there. I wanted the inside track and got it, even later meeting Spielberg on the Goonies dubbing stage, but that’s another story.

They built the 1955 set first, then when I came back just two weeks later, they had rebuilt the same set for 1985, paving over the Courthouse Square park and completely remodeling all the storefronts and signage. Amazing! And they did this TWICE, since they originally shot part of the movie with Eric Stoltz, who was later replaced by Fox.

Oh, and one day Fox skateboarded over to me and actually gave me the time of day. I thought he was a pretty cool, down-to-earth guy.

No, not the housing fiasco, but the production company founded by George Clooney and Stephen Soderberg. Mr. Soderberg brought us the provocative Sex, Lies and Videotape and riveting Syriana, but is better known for Erin Brockovich and Ocean’s Eleven.

More recently, the acting/directing/producing duo have brought us the compelling legal drama, Michael Clayton (nice site - love the rollovers), which centers on a transformative unethical business and it’s shady dealings.

Brilliantly directed by Soderberg, the tale follows Clooney as he lurks in the shadows, doing the “janitorial” duties for the company, all the while engrossed in his own faltering side occupations. Since I loathe movie reviews that divulge plot points, I’ll just say that the story unfolds in a somewhat predictable manner, though done with an expertise reserved for only a small community of Hollywood elite.

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Choice group of mid-century posters from Polish, Czech and Cuban designers, in addition to the U.S.’s own master and my personal hero, Saul Bass.

The whole collection runs some 200 posters, but this is only scratching the surface of the great work produced worldwide during this era, the last great era of commercial design.

Some of my favorites in this collection include A Coure Jole, And the Ship Sails On, Count Basie, Czarna Komedia and Medea. And of course, the legendary Bass works.