Behold the great Saul Bass

Look before you make. In particular, look closely at the wonderful title sequences of the great Saul Bass. Look here

Creativity

Dolly Zoom - a visual explanation

Evolution of the Dolly Zoom from Vashi Nedomansky on Vimeo.
If you want to disorient your audience you might want to use a dolly zoom.  As you can see from the examples given above, it offers other possible effects.  Read more about how to achieve the effect here.

Has technology improved music production?

http://www.thebeatles.com/photo-album/
early-recording-sessions-abbey-road

Theoretically digital technologies can speed up the production process and make it more accessible.  But what effect do they have in practice.  Paul McCartney (for the Kanye West fans amongst you, he's one the last two remaining Beatles) reminds us that the restrictions of the pre-digital era helped to make musicians more focused:

"We would record four tracks in a day - which is unheard of now - and those four tracks still sell more than most contemporary records. So obviously the system was pretty good. It was very simple, you had to just be very disciplined... we knew we had to play great," he said.
"Whereas now you know you go: 'We'll do another take or we'll get it in the mix, we'll just take that bum note out, we'll stick it on Pro-Tools, we'll fix it.' But it gives you, I think, too many options.
"It's great, it's very luxurious, but I don't think it helps the process."
Read more of what he said on the BBC News site.

Lighting Tips

A quite exhaustive guide to different types of lights.  Towards the end he gives some useful tips on using cheap every day lights to improve your shots.

Great Titles in One Short Video

The Art of the Title has packed some great titles from the history of cinema into a quick 2.5 minute video.  Pay close attention to how well edited this is.


A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.