Faust (German title: Faust – Eine deutsche Volkssage) is a silent film produced in 1926 by UFA, directed by F.W. Murnau, starring Gösta Ekman as Faust, Emil Jannings as Mephisto, Camilla Horn as Gretchen/Marguerite, Frida Richard as her mother, Wilhelm Dieterle as her brother and Yvette Guilbert as Marthe Schwerdtlein, her aunt. Murnau’s film draws on older traditions of the legendary tale of Faust as well as on Goethe’s classic version. UFA wanted Ludwig Berger to direct Faust, as Murnau was engaged with Variety; Murnau pressured the producer and, backed by Jannings, eventually persuaded Erich Pommer to let him direct the movie (wikipedia).

The movie contains many memorable images and special effects, with careful attention paid to contrasts of light and dark. Particularly striking is the sequence in which the giant, horned and black-winged figure of Mephisto (Jannings) hovers over a town sowing the seeds of plague. Faust was Murnau’s last German movie, and directly afterward he moved to the US under contract to William Fox to direct Sunrise (1927.) when the film premiered in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo of Berlin, Murnau was already shooting in Hollywood.

Faust was the most complex and expensive production undertaken by UFA. Filming took six months and a cost of 2 million marks (only half was recovered at the box office), until it was surpassed by Metropolis the following year. According to film historians Faust seriously impacted studio shooting and special effects techniques. Murnau used two cameras, both filming multiple shots. Many scenes were filmed time and again, the short sequence of the contract being written on parchment in fire took an entire day to film. (wikipedia)

The story involves Mephisto having a bet with an Archangel that he can corrupt a righteous man’s soul and destroy in him what is divine. If he succeeds, the Devil will win dominion over earth.

Faust is one of the many classic movies distributed on the iPhone by B.I.A Films. Every month the team releases a film building a comprehensive and substiantial catalogue over time. For more information on B.I.A Films, see biafilms.com.

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.0
Cost: $0.99
Developer: B.I.A. Films

Action Painting, also refereed to as Masculine Expressionism is the latest project by Jeremy Rotsztain that using data from action movies as material generates a series of “action paintings” in the style of Jackson Pollock.

In Action Painting, gestures are extracted from action film sequences (car chase movies, fight scenes, explosions, etc.) and used as material to compose digital paintings. Pun intended. For example when Jason Bourne drives backwards through the streets of Paris in a nail-biting police chase, when the underdog Rocky Balboa battles Apollo Creed, when a helicopter chases a high speed train through a tunnel in Mission Impossible, the app takes these sequences and playfully converts them into abstract expressionist images.

Action Painting was created using openFrameworks. For each frame of video, the software samples the changed pixels, saving them to the computer’s memory. It then rearranges all the sampled pixels on screen to compose a series of abstract expressionist images, which are presented as large format prints and video installations.

For more information see mantissa.ca/projects/actionpainting + this flickr album.

(via @mat3i)

Finally after 4 weeks in review, Memo Akten‘s latest iPhone app ‘Zoetrope’ is now available in the AppStore. Inspired and named after one of the earliest devices that created the illusion of animation via cycling through a series of still images, Memo’s latest creation allows you to experience this historic device on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. Beneath the slits on the inner surface of the cylinder is a band which has either individual frames from a video/film or images from a set of sequenced drawings or photographs. As the cylinder spins the user looks through the slits at the pictures on the opposite side of the cylinder’s interior. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together so that the user sees a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion, the equivalent of a motion picture. wikipedia

Particularly special is the physical and analogue nature of the original device now turned digital on the iPhone. Where you may not expect the same effect to take place (I was suspicious) it is actually very impressive. Zoetrope.app also reacts to the accelerometer data, ie the way you tilt your iphone to show you the top side of the historical device. Supplied with the app are three classic image sequences from the master of motion himself, Eadward Muybridge. You can create your own animations with your own images or browse and download other peoples animations. You spin the cylinder by swiping a finger across the screen, the faster you swipe the faster the cylinder spins creating an illusion of animation.

Whilst this may not be the most useful app on you iPhone (CAN don’t do useful often =]), it is definitely a tribute to individuals who inspired the moving image we know today. Just for that alone, you should definitely have it on your iPhone.

made with openFrameworks

See also at the bottom the 12-foot-tall zoetrope installed during this years London Fashion week to showcase Temperley London’s Spring 2010 collection. More info here.

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.0
Cost: $0.99
Developer: Memo Akten

ps: no naked flash on memo’s app, but you can make it using the wonderful Eadward Muybridge image below =]