eBooblog

While The Social Network, the movie about the creation and evolution of Facebook, will be released in October, producers Michael London and John Morris are planning to devote a film to another giant of the web: Google!

According to the website Deadline, they are trying to acquire the rights to Googled: The End Of The World As We Know It, the Ken Auletta’s book on Google’s success story.

The film will show how Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded and developed search engines’ star with principles such as “You can make money without doing evil” or “You can be serious without a suit”.

Let’s hope that the project will actually come true!

As I mentioned earlier in this blog, I am a great admirer of the work of Sylvain Chomet, draughtsman and director of Belleville Rendez-Vous and The Illusionist. I have not yet had the chance to see it the latter… :’(

But you must know that Sylvain Chomet has also directed and designed several short films, having a go at both animation and real footage. Here are two short films made by the great Sylvain Chomet.

Eiffel tower

This short movie is full of Chomet’s style: it’s beautiful, it smells Paris, I just love it! The short film was part of the film Paris, je t’aime, released in 2006. There are no dialogues in the movie except quickly at the beginning and at the end, but the only thing you have to know is that the young boy is telling the story of how his parents met.

Paris je t’aime – tour Eiffel

The Old Lady and the Pigeons

This short animation film is a good example to illustrate the talents of Sylvain for those of you who do not know him. The hand of the draughtsman is omnipresent (pigeons, bicycles, music, elderly people, etc.), and apart from a few hilarious dialogues (in English) as an introduction and conclusion, all of the story is silent, which is a particularity of Sylvain Chomet’s style. Enjoy!

La vieille dame et les pigeons

The soundtrack of a movie we loved is usually engraved in our memories and each note of it carries images which have thrilled us. But the particularity of Inception’s soundtrack is that it already sounded great before I had seen the movie!

Hans Zimmer, one of the greatest soundtrack composers of our century, performed a live concert on a premiere of Inception and the latter was recorded. So, here is the machinery behind the melodies of the movie which gave me a big headache!

One of the numerous steps in learning the violin is the mastery of shifting. Technically complex but essential, it involves a combination of muscle, tactile, auditory, and even visual memories.

Here is a list of 10 tips that can help you improve your technique:

1 – Move the whole arm as a single piece: fingers, hand, wrist, forearm and elbow.

2 – Consider the elbow as the initiator of the shift. Indeed, the distance traveled by the fingers on the fingerboard is greater than the one traveled by the elbow. It is therefore easier for the brain to memorize the movement of your arm than your fingers’.

3 – Relax your fingers. The movement of your elbow should naturally lead the movement of your left hand, which is to say of your fingers. But if your fingers are clutched to the fingerboard, they will remain anchored to their initial positions or randomly move with difficulty.

4 - Relax all your fingers. Do not forget your thumb! Avoid as much friction as possible between your thumb and the neck. Some even recommend no contact at all.

5 – Loosen the pressure in the moving finger while shifting. The finger should touch the string without being in contact with the fingerboard. The three steps are: (a) lift, (b) shift to change position, (c) drop to play the note.

6 – Make sure the violin is not supported by your left hand. It should stay in place without using it, allowing the latter to move freely along the neck.

7 – Maintain a fluid motion. Do not go too fast at first. The first step is to reach the desired notes. Speed will then gradually come, along with confidence.

8 – Decrease bow pressure and speed when shifting.

9 – Use your ear. As finger pressure is applied on the string while shifting, it still emits sound. So use your ear to guide your decision and improve your accuracy.

10 – Persevere! Learning shifting is a long, repetitive, frustrating and sometimes painful (my poor fingers…) process. But it is important not to skip steps to acquire a serious and precise technique.

Good luck!