I've been watching and loving Game of Thrones since the moment it was introduced to me. Completely absorbed in the HBO action, it almost got to the point where if I needed to blaspheme, I would most likely yell out "JON SNOW" instead of the more traditional term.*

Today I discovered a VFX themed collaboration which includes one of my favourite YouTube faces, Harley Morenstein of  ‘Epic Meal Time’. He joins competitive gamer, filmmaker and part time VFX technician ‘Freddie Wong’, making for an outright ridiculous, (yet entertaining) couple of minutes of VFX action.

Escapee Hasraf Dulull's fifteen-minute film is a true work of art! Set in an alternate reality with cats and dogs, it mixes some intense action with some serious drama, all emphatically enhanced by a unique animation visual style.

Even if you only managed to catch a glimpse of yesterday’s Olympic closing ceremony – there’s no way you couldn’t have been impressed. What a party! From the rollerblading nuns (Surely genius in their own right?), to a bus ride with our very own modern day Willy Wonka, Russell Brand – it was certainly memorable to say the least. Damien Hirst brought the stage together with one of his signature Spin paintings – signalling the importance and influence of British art across the globe. Like religion, it divides and conquers and in this case, it achieved the latter.

Saturday 18th August sees the launch of a new Kinetica exhibition space at Emigre Studios. For those of you who don't know, Kinetica is an awesome art organisation, which exhibits kinetic/moving interactive art installations that often involve video and digital art.

Enthralled about the latest instalment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy? Fancy yourself as a bit of a Bat-fan? Well prepare to eat your words, as this mega (rich) fan eclipses all others, and prepares to embark on a $2 million renovation of his basement, transforming it into a ‘Bat-cave’ themed, home theatre. 

I had the opportunity to watch a VES (Visual Effects Society) preview screening of Pixar’s Brave, a few weeks back. And this screening, like many VES screenings, was a very special one. We were greeted by two guest speakers who had come all the way from the US to answer questions from the London professional visual effects community, and well as some kids along for the ride to see the amazing red locks of the heroine, Princess Merida. Director Mark Andrews and Producer Katherine Serafian provided fascinating trivia about the whole process of making this film.

The art of filmmaking has come a long way over the last 100 years. The technology we use today to create breath-taking scenes continues to push the boundaries of high-definition and realism, but we should never forget the genius of film crews who didn’t have the opportunity to ‘fix it in post’ or rely on computer graphics to set the scene. As lots of you know, some of the best moments in film history were created by filmmakers having to think on their feet, making the best of an impossible situation. And of course there are certain skills that were essential to the filmmaking process back then that will start to be forgotten due to the rise in post-production capabilities and accessibility.

Now, I have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of stop motion videos, but quite a few people around here really like them and I certainly appreciate the work that goes into creating them. Therefore I felt the need to share this one I spotted at TheVerge.com. It was made by a guy called Zach King and contains everyones favourite Mario and a couple of other guest appearances which you'll no doubt spot.

Following on from my previous blog about The Dark Knight Rises, I thought you would all be interested to see what IGN claim are Batman’s Greatest Movie Moments. They span across all Batman films and, although there will be some obvious choices thrown in there, a couple will probably shock you.