I love learning about the visual language of filmmaking (e.g. 5 Classic Hollywood Aerial Shots), so I dig Steve Wright’s demonstrations of how to achieve cinematic results via a variety of cameras (including one’s phone) and gimbals:

I’m no connoisseur of the Grateful Dead or of NBA & sportscasting great Bill Walton, but having stumbled across this trippy hour-long doc the other night, I have to salute the good-hearted goofiness of both.

Bonus Waltonian goofiness:

As a kid, I spent hours fantasizing about the epic films I could make, if only I could borrow my friend’s giant camcorder & some dry ice. Apple 💯 has their finger on the pulse of such aspirational souls in this new ad:

It’s pretty insane to see what talented filmmakers can do with just a phone (or rather, a high-end camera/computer/monitor that happens to make phone calls) and practical effects:

Apple has posted an illuminating behind-the-scenes video for this piece. PetaPixel writes,

In one clip they show how they dropped the phone directly into rocks that they had fired upwards using a piston, and in another, they use magnets and iron filings with the camera very close to the surface. One step further, they use ferrofluid to create rapidly flowing ripples that flow wildly on camera.

Check it out:

This is lovely—especially from a safe, dry distance:

PetaPixel writes,

A couple of years ago, adventure photographer and Visit Austria creator Peter Maier captured a stunning rainstorm timelapse titled ‘Tsunami from Heaven’… It was captured from the Alpengasthof Bergfried hotel in Carinthia, Austria, and shows a sudden cloudburst (AKA microburst or downburst) soaking an area around Lake Millstatt.