RIP Tim Hetherington

Photojournalist and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tim Hetherington was killed today covering the conflict in Libya. He was just 41 years old. I think the best way to memorialize an artist is to share his art. Enjoy.

Inspiration - The Title Sequence

As the photo industry heads toward moving images, I've started keeping an 'inspiration' folder of videos. Lately, I've noticed some amazing work in the title sequences of movies and tv shows. The artists who put these sequences together are brilliant, communicating so much in so little time. The truly inspiring part (to me) is how much storytelling these short sequences do without the benefit of dialogue or exposition.

I wanted to share a few of my favorites with you, beginning with the one that caught my attention first:

Local Natives 'Who Knows Who Cares"

LA's Local Natives released one of my favorite albums of the year, and now have a really cool video for one of the best songs on it. Directed by Eli Gunn-Jones.  Enjoy!

Behind The Scenes: Stacy Sawyer for The Hot List

Behind The Scenes: Hot List from Nick Prendergast on Vimeo.

Here's a quick behind-the-scenes video of a shoot I did for Modern Luxury. The issue is out now.

Music: "Pump Yr Brakes" by Amazing Baby. Buy the mp3 here.

Online Magazines: Type and the Moving Image

As with most great things you see for the first time, the idea of an online magazine article integrating video and type is so obvious it hurts my feelings. I'm hardly the first in my field to blog about this, but I just loved the idea (and the beautiful execution) so much I thought I'd be nice and share.

Cooking Dinner Vol. I from William Hereford on Vimeo.

Absolut + Spike Jonze: "I'm Here"

Absolut continues its excellent tradition of sponsoring amazing work by incredible visual artists. "I'm Here" is a short by the consistently innovative Spike Jonze, the plot of which is better viewed than described. What I love about these Absolut-comissioned projects is that the company doesn't insist on product placement, or even direct correlation to their vodka. It also appears that no expense was spared. This was undoubtedly a fairly expensive film to make, and wouldn't have been the same without the visual effects.

Check out the trailer:

I'm Here Trailer from We Love You So on Vimeo.

You can view the entire film at the official website.

Danny Clinch 'NY Z'

Talk about dream assignments: One of my favorite photographers directs a very cool mini documentary of Jay Z's 9/11/09 concert at Madison Square Garden. Clinch and his crew were given an all-access pass to shoot private interviews, aerial shots documenting the construction of the stage, as well as proper concert footage - all paid for by the creative folks over at Absolut Vodka.

Ambling Alp

As the photography and video industries seem inevitably headed toward codependence, I have been viewing a ton of video content.

There is a lot of really interesting and creative work in music videos right now. I wanted to share this excellent (but NSFW) video by directing team Radical Friend for the band Yeasayer.