You can read more about the festival program, including full lists of speakers and awards judges HERE.

I am totally excited to be attending, I totally was not expecting to until a free pass magically appeared in my inbox last Thursday. And to top it off, I get to spend more time with the very charming Philip Bloom, who I met just last week along with other talented Vimeans Karen Abad and Rob Imbs. Check em out – these three are folks worth following. Anyway, I hope to see lots of great and innovative work, as well as meet other fellow mover-shakers behind the digital media revolution. I definitely plan on shooting a little bit while I’m there, or at the very least Tweeting about all the coolness as it happens.

That said, I wanted to highlight a few of my favorite videos up for awards by sharing them here. If you’re a Vimeo user, you can vote for your favorites in each category – the winners of the Community Choice Awards (the actual winners are chosen by the official Vimeo Judges). If you’re interested in voting, you should go to the Vimeo Awards site and watch all the videos in a particular category before casting your vote.

That’s all for now. Enjoy the vidz and more soon!

Read more HERE.

We’re going to let you guys in on our secret next project that’s been in the works for a few years now. It’s MAN V. CANDY MACHINE, something we are calling an “Internet Tele-Play,” currently in development to be released later this spring. OK, so we may not have James Cameron’s Stereoscopic 3-D cameras or millions of dollars to throw into this production, but what we do have is a highly original and well-written screenplay, a top-notch production staff, and we damn well know how to use a green screen.

Now you might be wondering, what is MAN V. CANDY MACHINE?

And what is, for that matter, an “Internet Tele-Play?”

It’s something I’ve wanted to produce and direct from the moment the writer first shared it with me over two years ago. It’s the story of the conflict between an archetypical (Middle) man and (Omni) machine who he consults for his everyday / everyneeds. We are employing new technologies, as well as developing new applications for those technologies to provoke the audience to consider the question, “Is man destined to be controlled by machines?” The footage was shot from 3 perspectives – Man’s, Candy Machine’s, and the third person. We are working with a Flash developer–the great and powerful Alec Oliver–to present the video in a way that allows the viewer to toggle between these different perspectives, sort of like a choose-your-own-adventure video. We’re also hoping to further customize the experience for users by integrating GPS and IP address metadata into the action of the narrative, sort of like how ads are targeted and therefore remarkably relevant (or not) on Google or Facebook. The idea is that the user has an unique, interactive experience with his or her computer vis-a-vis an original online interface that allows the user to participate in the storytelling in a way that is not possible on popular Internet video sites such as YouTube or Vimeo.

Character design for MAN by Gretta Johnson, © NHQ 2010

Gretta Johnson illustrating storyboards for MAN V. CANDY MACHINE

Storyboards for MAN V. CANDY MACHINE by Gretta Johnson, © NHQ 2010

The aesthetic is a robust mix of equal parts vintage and contemporary Sci-Fi and Western styles. This includes all aspects of production, from cinematography to sound design to acting to editing. The author has often likened the character of MAN to a “Futuristic Frontiersman.” This image has all sorts of salient references in popular culture, from the Revisionist westerns of Sergio Leone (Spaghetti) and Alejandro Jodorowsky (Acid), to dystopian Sci-Fi films like Blade Runner (action thriller) and Brazil (satire)

The production will bear many similarities to a video game. We are proposing a new way of participating with and thinking about media. We are activating the user by giving him or her the ability to control certain elements of the production, certain parts of the story that make up the whole. We are inviting the user to reconstruct the experience of watching a video based on their own personal value system (choose-your-own-adventure) instead of what we, the producer/distributor, decide is important. The user is invited to interpret their experience as they are having it. The action of interpreting media, of analyzing it in realtime and making choices and performing actions that cause that media to change—this type of user behavior is commonly found in the realm of the gamer, but it is also most often associated with the behavior and practice of the game designer.

MAN through the viewfinder of the 5D, photo by Daniel Postilnik © NHQ 2010

Extreme Close-Up on MAN’s mustache, photo by Caleb Condit © NHQ 2010

“I’m a settler, ain’t you never heard of it? I’m living on a quicksand nature urban development.” -MAN

Stills from security camera footage, © NHQ 2010

There is some thrill in manipulating media that we consume, that we did not create. That is the thrill of the artist-interpreter. By giving the user the ability to edit his or her experience (the chance to determine the outcome) not once, but multiple times, we are inviting our audience to experience a limited but not insignificant degree of that thrill. An important goal to identify, then, is the desire to “thrill” the audience, or for the experience to be “thrilling.” Perhaps a more precise name, instead of Internet Tele-Play, is Internet Thriller? Are we reinventing a genre, or simply contributing to the one first discovered upon clicking an unassuming link to the screaming monster, the Rickroll, the Leekspin, the meme du jour?

“Settle down there Organ Machine. Tuesday morning is too early in the work week to see your short– To see your short– To see your short and curly circuitry!” -CANDY MACHINE

We wrapped just last week on principal photography, and you can see more photos on our Flickr page. The work was long and hard but tons of fun and totally worth it. We have our very talented and professional production team to thank for this. They include Production Manager Daniel Postilnik, actors Eddie Jordan and Rico M. Benzito, Production Designer Gretta Johnson, Wigmaster Mark Botelho, Sound Op Brian Sulpizio, Assistant Camera Robert Cauble, Director of Photography Caleb Condit, and Writer Jonathon Anthony. We’d also like to thank Joe and Leo at Zacuto and Ben at Kolakvideo for hooking us up with lots of high-quality professional gear for very reasonable prices. Now all that’s left is several weeks of postproduction–editing, sound, motion graphics, software development: the works. Stay tuned here for updates on production and release–we’re currently planning a series of related events featuring this and other works for Spring/Summer 2010. Let us know if you’d like to learn more or are interested in getting involved, we’re having a blast! Till then…

She only exists for me in a few low-fi videos on YouTube, but her dance stylings are so ferocious that she has propelled herself out of the two dimensional video world and landed among the mythic dance legends that are orbiting around us, constantly bringing the heat. Think Rosie Perez in the intro of Do The Right Thing mixed with Elizabeth Berkely in Showgirls. When people watch her videos, I think they react to the absurdity of the choreography combined with her unabashed full throttle execution of it. There is nothing timid about her hip action, nearly exploding out of her American Gladiator dance panties.

I’ve done some light research on Sara and there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot on the Internet concerning her place of origin or why she was on so many Italian variety shows. It also makes me wonder why we don’t have more ridiculous and high production value variety shows on television. Nevermind American Idol, I’m talking Telemundo-style crazy-show stuff to match the media circus that we already think is normal. We could handle it. Sara Carlson should come back and infuse American television audiences with the same sense of wonderment as she did while performing amongst talented crab-scuttling contortionists and virtuoso violinists for Europe in the 80′s.

All we need to know about Sara Carlson is what she has bestowed upon us: her Dance Legacy. Which will supply me with moves to bust out at parties, or alone in my apartment–which seems to be her new direction. It seems she’s recently taken a note from the Whirling Dervishes (mystical dancers who stand between the material and cosmic world, representing the earth’s revolution around the sun).

That’s a perfect way to describe her.

Rand Sevilla is a graphic artist and also a graphic musician. I don’t know how many bands he has (a dozen, perhaps) but one of them is this outfit called Club Sashay. Recently Rand was pimping a web snatch of his own design to Vicemag via Twitter. It’s called YYAAHHOOOO.COM. It won a prize. It’s an Internet nasty website mashup. Go there to see what it’s all about and then come back and read an interview I had with Rand about the Internet.

Johnny: What are you up to with yyaahhoooo?
Rand: YYAAHHOOOO.COM is an extention of a earlier efforts in experimental HTML called “Maury Povich” available here: randsevilla.com/povich [Whoa!]. I like manipulating language to create irrational experiences. We took a bunch of mushrooms in the desert at this music festival (Manimal) and got on this dialogue about bands like Wavves and Lovvers and Miike Snow. So Peter from Beast Cop and I decided we should start a band called Tom Pettery Presents YYaahhoooo.com. I don’t know if the band will ever happen but the opportunity to take YYAAHHOOOO.com as a domain named seemed great so I grabbed it.

The act of typing in a URL is coordinated by the sequence of the letters: your fingers touching the buttons is the space where your meat makes zeros and ones. Typing in YYAAHHOOOO.COM has this interesting double rhythm that is appealing, too. Its like datdat datdat datdat datdatdatdat dat dat dat.(sic)

J: Is everything in there shit you found, or is some of it your own, like the faces?
R: The gestures are mine but the content cannot really be claimed. The faces are from a blog that lasted for about 2 days called LOLBROS. The profile photo of the authority figure is already funny, but when you make the faces completely and shoddily shitty I crack up. The other stuff is all copy paste copy paste code collages and media arrangement, not dissimilar to the sculptural stuff I used to do when I had room to do it. I really believe that proximity creates identity and that you can create a lot of questions just by putting two signifiers next to each other. I like Haim Steinbach’s work a lot; and what he was trying to do with the banal in a hyper consumer environment, I’m trying to do with the banal in infornographic environment.

J: I know you have a penchant for the grotesque Internet. What do you think about the insane shit one can find in/out there?
R: As having been a person diagnosed with mental illness I don’t know if Insane is an appropriate characterization. I know that will seem a contradiction when you see my next post that says “THIS IS INSANE!!!!!!!”, but that’s just Internet hype. The Internet is the human brain melting into one giant pulsating mass, an überhuman blob. I sometimes feel like the Internet is the pink slime from Ghostbusters II that boils under NYC, and other times I think the internet is the logical extension of the collective unconsciousness and will move us from being messy piles of DNA. The Internet as a whole is grotesque. Its the pinnacle of technology that can be used to appeal to the basest level of human experience.

J: What about the creators of extreme, grotesque content. What kind of people are they? Why do you think they do it?
R: Its always been about sharing. Content creators want an audience. I know I do. We extend our interests and desires in the internet in the hope we will make contact with someone who understands, or at least “gets” what you are about. Would furries, pedophiles or Christians access the Internet if there wasn’t a relevant and related body of content and community available? Unlikely. Internet is augmented consciousness where we aren’t limited to sharing by conventional media. I don’t have to describe a picture or movie I made, I can show you. We all want to have a legacy and the easiest way to do that is insert our code in the pile. The dark and sticky pile.

J: Do you consider yourself apart from the grotesque, or a part of it? Just visiting?
R: Totally part of it, you can’t just visit. I think a lot of people don’t realize is when you are on the Internet your computer is spewing information on other computers and other computers are doing the same. Its a good thing human STDs haven’t figure out a way to travel through the network.

J: Do you have some ideas about what it all means, culturally speaking? To me it’s a scream. I think Internet has been a big long healthy scream so far. Or a “movement” (“shit”)(with a scream). Like culture is exorcising decades of not being able to govern its own entertainment, information and interactivity. Internet as steam chamber.
R: I know I just gave you a bunch of rhetoric about what it means but, when I take a step back, the Internet is still in its infancy. No broadcast medium has really hit the hundred year mark. That’s only two generations in people time. I’ll consider the Internet grown-up when it effectively merges the Newtonian world with the quantum world, that is to say [when] all information, including time and spatial perception (memory, emotion) exists everywhere and nowhere simultaneously. The analogy you gave of the Internet being a shit scream already points to how language, our organic lexicon, is merging with the technical lexicon. The ideas precede the reality–be it flight, 9/11, or Singularity. The ramification of this is that we will not be human anymore and so shit like google, Huffington, and even YYAAHHOOOO.COM will be a remnant of an ancient civilization primitively carved from binary processes, rendered in 2 dimensions.

The Internet is a Monolith.

J: Are you now or have you ever been a member of the somethingawful.com forums? 4chan?
R: I lurk 4chan and Encyclopedia dramatica because it feels like hanging out in the back of the bus with all the bad kids.

I can’t really say to much else otherwise I’ll be breaking the rules of the Internet**.

Randsevilla.com

Deacon’s project has only been online for 48 hours, but has already managed to spark some serious controversy, both at Kickstarter and on other blogs and forums, such as Electrical Audio. Check out these excerpts from Deacon’s comments section on Kickstarter–ours included–and then head on over and see for yourself what the hubub’s all about:

P.J. CRAVEN: This is not even some starving artist using this site trying to make a record. This is a well-established act using its fame to, in essence, get anonymous people to finance a fun trip.

ANDRE WILLIAMS: Josh, don’t you think that $25,000 could be better spent helping the numerous problem situations in Africa than on entertainment? Also the other native acts probably can not even imagine $25k as overhead for travel and *experience* costs. While I support your wanting to participate in this festival from both a cultural and learning standpoint, this project seems excessive…especially when considering the other lesser known native acts who will be making nowhere near this amount. Seems a bit exploitative.

HUNTER KEIL ROBINSON: Most of the criticism of Josh’s project seems to rest on a knee-jerk reaction to the very fact that a member of a popular group is asking for financial assistance, rather than on well thought out arguments…The argument that the project is somehow immoral because this money would be better spent on charity is interesting, but not very compelling. This is an art project, not a humanitarian one…This project isn’t meant to better the world in any but an artistic and cultural sense. It is certainly not hurting anyone; the only people who give to the project will be people like myself: relatively wealthy individuals who love Animal Collective’s music enough to support this project and will treasure the unique art objects that will result from Josh’s trip.

NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS: We love Deacon and Animal Collective. (We do!) But what makes Kickstarter admirable is its ability to empower the underdog–the emerging and/or independent artist who needs help harnessing the collective power of the online community to popularize and produce projects of even the smallest scale. We think many artists will find this project audacious because it is an internationally celebrated act asking the public to fund the production of a VERY large-scale project that would nonetheless be produced regardless of whether or not it is successfully funded on Kickstarter… The show WILL go on even without our support. Meanwhile, AC will have effectively upstaged the rest of the community. And by featuring this project on its front page, Kickstarter is, in a way, jeopardizing the successful fundraising of those projects whose appeal might have otherwise grown in AC’s absence… This brings in to question why Kickstarter was founded in the first place, and for whom…?

Read more at Kickstarter…

The medium-term goals for NHQ include: creating a content network in collaboration with independent producers and artists; producing short, medium and feature length videos; building social web applications; building mobile applications; designing games and other interactive media; and focusing on successful new models of distribution for all of the above.

If that didn’t sound like gibberish to you, then we oughta talk!

WEB DEVELOPER (PAID) HIRED!
NHQ seeks a web developer for various web related projects to help us design and build applications for social platforms, interactive features, and stellar websites. You know who you are. Specifically, we’re looking for a skillset that includes Ruby, AJAX and PHP + experience or interest in all the social network and Google APIs.

The developer position is project based, but will become full time and full potential very quickly.

CONTACT: jonathon (at) nationalheadquarters.org
SUBMIT: Cover letter, resume, and website(s) or links to work samples online. Submissions without these materials will not be considered.

MOTION GRAPHICS DESIGNER (PAID)
NHQ is throwing much of its talent and energy into video production and distribution. We’re the studio of the future. We aim to produce dozens of high quality short and medium length videos over the coming year, in collaboration with the all the talented people in our network. Additionally, we have commerical projects which require motion graphics and general video production experience. If you have experience in motion graphics, animation, 3D rendering, effects processing, etc, and want to get paid to work on creative video projects, contact us right away!

Additional experience or interest in video production and project management is A+. This position is project-based for now.

CONTACT: angeline (at) nationalheadquarters.org
SUBMIT: Cover letter, resume, and website(s) or links to work samples online. Submissions without these materials will not be considered.

INTERNSHIPS (UNPAID / COLLEGE CREDIT)
NHQ has a lot to offer for students or recent grads who’d like to gain working experience with Internet media, online marketing, social networks, graphic and web design (CSS, Photoshop, HTML), Content Management Systems (WordPress, ZenCart, etc), digital AV production, live event production, entrepreneurship. If you’d like to be considered for a limited term or project based internship, get in touch!

CONTACT: daniel (at) nationalheadquarters.org
SUBMIT: Cover letter, resume, and website(s) or links to work samples online. Submissions without these materials will not be considered.