01 / march 30, 2009 _ une vie moderne (from Brooklyn: Nikaido, Pascals, Sigur Ros, short start)

After 3 years of intense presence on internet through images, mostly with the Blogotheque’s Take Away Shows, i am starting this blog and will add words to those films. I dont like much to write but i like to talk and i’m enough confident/pretentious to try it. Welcome all.

Each week, i will post one (more or less) new film, mostly exploring one long shot, without cuts. Back to the basics, dealing with time against show. With this film, some thoughts on cinema in the 21st century, and the new kind of relationship we are developing with images in an era of makers, in a time of over-information, and with access to those new digital tools. Too many things to explore, but it’s to me very important to rebuild thoughts on images now, when the internet, this amazing new medium, is quickly invaded by terrible ‘web tv’ formats reproducing sterile relationships when it should be all about re-inventing forms for new generation of viewers.
Plus links to things which recently inspired me, using this platform to share - and yeah, there will be a lot of music, as usual.

Today, it seems obvious to open this blog with this film of Nikaido Kazumi shot in Osaka last month, while i was in Japan to create a long document on the amazing folk poet Kazuki Tomokawa (much more on him soon). This little walk happened after her show, late at night, tired and drunk, and it think it reflects perfectly what i’ve been trying to capture for so long. Far from any gimmicky thing that people have been tempted to resume our take away shows project (’wow, a band playing in an elevator!’, mmm…), but going back towards, maybe, the idea of a filmmaker as evoked by Dziga Vertov, long long time ago. Think about it more than 5 minutes and maybe you won’t feel the previous sentence as pretentious as it seems.
For the past 3 months now i’ve been on the road, travelling and filming people i meet sometimes only for 10 minutes, exchanging some energies, portraying them, and trying to develop a certain idea of everyday creation through the cinema medium. I hope to continue like that for a long time, and this blog will be the receptacle of such images.
This film of Nikaido is my work at his simplest and, i hope, best. This is who i am now, I hope you’ll enjoy.

To add to this first short post:

Pascals


plus two more extracts here:
http://www.vimeo.com/3844984
http://www.vimeo.com/3836654

The Pascals are this fabulous 15-piece band leaded by Nagahata “Rocket Matsu” san, they are looking for a label right now to release their new record in the US and in Europe. They are not yet famous all over the planet, but it’s coming. 3 live moments captured a few weeks ago in Tokyo, trying to render a little bit of the magnificence of their music. My favourite japanese band. Please, contact me to tell you wanna have them touring America!

Sigur Ros
http://vimeo.com/3814849
I’ve been doing films more and more for the pleasure of doing them, not for the result of it - the filming process, not so much the recording process, will come back on those ideas another day. I forgot about this video with Sigur Ros done in december, i didn’t have a good moment - but watching it 3 months later, liked it and it made me think that, amongst other things, i was plainly assuming some kind of strong subjectivity that i now revendicate. Also, it’s always nice to get 20 000 people over two days watching one of your work - internet is by far the best screen to communicate in that way.

This is all for this first post. Still trying to find the good way to express my thoughts. Next week with Yeasayer in their studio, before going to Montreal for another beloved musician. Yalla.

There are 20 comments in this article:

  1. 25/03/2009Justin Evidon say:

    Absolutely amazing - the way you shoot these films helps to realize that the best musicians are those that need nothing but their instrument to make great music.

  2. 31/03/2009Stuart Rogers say:

    definitely your best work i’ve seen of yours to date. and i’ve seen quite a bit. hauntingly beautiful. perfect actually. all the best in this exciting new venture.
    stu

  3. 31/03/2009Genevieve say:

    Inspiring and beautiful. Thank you

  4. 31/03/2009Tim say:

    Man, I am really really excited about this. I nearly worship anything you touch. But really thanks for doing what you do, and doing it so well. Can’t wait to see all that takes place here.

    The video was brilliant. It’s simplicity is what makes it transcend into another realm of human understanding. Love it.

  5. 31/03/2009steve say:

    m;
    nice work as always! the way in which you shot this reminds me of the malkmus tas.

    —sv

  6. 31/03/2009nancy say:

    wow…really quite lovely…just so wonderful because it si simple..

    and when you come to montréal, you are contactig me!

  7. 31/03/2009Mir say:

    Wooooo ! La voix fébrile, la ligne bleue derrière une silhouette noire, la lumière sur l’épaule gauche, alors qu’elle tourne dos à nous… et le son ! Les rires et le bruit des freins du métro qui font parti de la musique… Sensibilité, quand tu nous prends, tu nous fait faire des choses hors du commun ! Bravo !

  8. 31/03/2009Keng-Sam say:

    Salut Mr Vincent Moon!

    Comme d’hab du beau, du très très beau même, quand est-ce que je peux prendre des cours???????

    Merci de nous faire partager ton beau travail!

  9. 31/03/2009antoine say:

    Wow, super belles lumières, super cadre, j’aime beaucoup le passage dans le métro, très doux (et l’étalonnage aussi!), chapo mec

  10. 31/03/2009christophe say:

    Que dire? Une seule chose,comme toujours beau travail, bravoooo! Longue vie !!!

  11. 31/03/2009Céline say:

    Damn great, lovely beard. Damn Great.

  12. 31/03/2009ed say:

    Hello Mathieu - la belle surprise du matin. Ce ‘above the railway’ de Nikaido Kazumi, j’en suis encore tout retourné, il faudrait le regarder plusieurs fois pour en saisir la véritable teneur. Mais il y ces petites choses douces et amères qui font que ces instants tiennent de manières bancales, ou presque équilibrés. Il y aurait mille choses à dire sur ces images. Le chant et la mélodie est tout aussi somptueux, fébrile mais ravageur (paralysie). Après petite vérification (car je n’avais jamais entendu parler de Nikaido K.) elle à travaillé avec TENNICOATS qui est à mes yeux un des groupes les plus magnifiques (—>here http://www.hapna.com/H39.html ), avec YUMBO.
    Hâte de voir la suite.
    Ed

  13. 31/03/2009YOSHI say:

    Hello. Please forgive me though the grammar might be wrong because English is unskilled.
    I say YOSHI that does the band named YOSHIMBA(http://www.yoshimba.com) in Japan. I lives in Kichijoji in which it took a picture of PASCALS. I am a big fan of your image. I am always exciting because it is beautifully refined pungently. And, it that returns the starting point music in above all is the most wonderful. Courage that I also expand the world of the creation goes out. Thank you. from,kichijoji,Tokyo,Japan.

  14. 31/03/2009nate say:

    I agree with you about the elevator example, but even before that idea. How do we get past the camera? If there is a musician playing live and there is a camera capturing, it will always feel like a little bit of a gimmick, right (ex: at the end Nikaido’s video, a pedestrian looks at the camera)? I struggle with this notion as I continue to film ;)

    -nate

  15. 31/03/2009Moy Hernandez say:

    Vincent: Felicitations pour cet site! je suis un tres grand fan et il faut que tu sache que au Mexique, nous sommes beaucoup des personnes qui suivons ton travail… je suis desolé que ma grammaire soit presque incomprensibble en francais mais… MERCI…

  16. 1/04/2009Sokoala say:

    i love you

  17. 2/04/2009joanne say:

    congratulations on the blog, vincent! you’ll be in montreal you say? i hope to see your work in action!

  18. 7/04/2009progosk say:

    “beautifully refined pungently” - précisément.

  19. 9/07/2009Rodrigo say:

    This is truly beautiful. Thanks.

  20. 1/05/2010Tweets that mention 01 / march 30, 2009 _ une vie moderne (from Brooklyn: Nikaido, Pascals, Sigur Ros, short start) - FiumeNights -- Topsy.com say:

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by kashi. kashi said: @maslacker @ishicca Take Away Showsって、以前maslackerにYoLaTengoのを教えていただいたシリーズですよね？ニカさんのもあるよ。http://bit.ly/a59fXG [...]

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