Cranks

Settings for/from my phone.
My two homes

drinking in LA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ9KfKx8PmM

radio wouldnt let me sleep

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Foods

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3D Lace at Edge Of Urge

3D Lace at Edge of Urge from oliver mellan on Vimeo.

Easter, MeshWarp

Digieffects FreeForm 3D MeshWarp

with the exciting announcement that Digieffect's plugin Freeform will be bundled with Adobe After Effects CS5, we split the two main functions into two, and are selling them for cheaper.

They are exciting pieces that allow you to manipulate a lot of things in 3D, in after effects.

Here is the Marketing video I made for one of the products,

Freeform 3D Meshwarp secretfile from digieffects on Vimeo.

and a tutorial. using some pretty simple animation, we are able to create a cool real 3D animation.

FreeForm 3DMeshWarp - Open Heart Surgery Tutorial from digieffects on Vimeo.

Early

Annie and I made a trip up to durham to see a band we saw 2 years ago at the Primavera music festival in Barcelona. they are called A Place To Bury Strangers. it was an excellent show, they were loud and destructive. A very good show. The visuals gave me lots of ideas for live performance stuff.

]here is their myspace.

http://www.myspace.com/aplacetoburystrangers

check them out. if you like that shoegaze noise and dark beats. you'd like the noise these guys make.

They were followed by Big Pink, which were good as well. from London.

The rest of our stay envolved meeting up with our mothers. walking dogs, sunset dinners, and lounging with grandmother lizz. and a quick hospital visit.

Chocolate & Strawberry

here is a music video I just completed for a band from Singapore. they are called Stellarium, the track is called Chocolate & Strawberry.

If you go to the vimeo page, you can watch it fullscreen http://vimeo.com/10554464

Stellarium - Chocolate & Strawberry from oliver mellan on Vimeo.

The video is made using several different films from the Perlinger Archive at archive.org . (could have been a 6x1 project)

The digital distortion was created using digieffects awesome plugin Damage.

http://digieffects.com/

I really like this combination of old film-stock grain mixed with digital and analog distortion and how they seem to fit the sound of the song.

It was a fun experience working on this. getting a tight cut of images then going in and adding distortion and trying to make that a vital character in the visuals, because its such a vital part of the song.

The monkeys are from a bicycle safety video. it too is very, strange and creepy.

http://www.archive.org/details/OneGotFa1963

Im excited with the end product, and Im excited about working more with this band. the singer/guitarist and I have been gmail chatting about some video to play at their shows among other things that he has given the name "visual assault".

a new physical year

celebrations were great.

they involved

- rock & roll

- beer

- beach and frozen water

- presents from a sweet little elf and mysterious packages

- old friend arrivals

- whiskey from George Dickle

- surprise parades of rowdy boys with webcams

- slippery floor dancing

- kicking ass at the billiards table

- piggyback taxi rides

- great food

- great friends

- fun memories...

Birthday Plunge 2010 from oliver mellan on Vimeo.

MIX GROTTO

JAN 2010 MIX TAPE GROTTO from oliver mellan on Vimeo.

From January's Mix Tape release party.
February is cover month. Check out www.mixgrotto.com

The Warlocks

yeah.

better than any Radio Head I've ever heard.
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Warlocks/_/Static+Eyes

Mid-November

November has always been an exciting and busy month filled with birthdays, film festivals, family, thanksgiving, and in the past, school work. Annie turned 28 or 23 or something and unfortunately she felt under the weather on her birthday. I had a cold and I do believe that I passed onto her whatever I had. not such a great birthday present. We had a fun morning of gifts and lounging around the house.

Annie-cat on the Road from oliver mellan on Vimeo.

One of my gifts was http://www.anniesegrest.com/
soon we'll get some more of her artwork and writtings up there. Adam, Annie and I then ventured over to the NC Aquarium in Fort fischer as it was free admission to celebrate the birth of Annie Segrest. I really enjoyed the aquarium as it surpassed my expectations in many ways. There are some very awesome exhibits there. I had never seen an alligator so up close before.

Happy Birthday Annie. From Space from oliver mellan on Vimeo.

Dance-a-lorus (dance and video section of Cucalorus film festival) was the start of our cucalorus experience. Adam and Lexi had an exciting painted film and found footage video paired with a dance. They're were some very cool dances too.

After watching around 11 feature films and over 42 shorts, I am feeling very inspired and very excited about future projects. The festival was great. Annie and I volunteered to pass out surveys to people at the screenings. although there was a lot of rain and our noses were running, we still had a very fun time watching films and conversing with other film makers.

Some films that really stood out for me were, The Square, Dogtooth, Pets in Pots, El Ataque de los Robots de Nebulosa-5, Bitch Slap, Mississippi damned, and Immersion.

Some potatoe chips that really stood out were GLORIES Sweet Potato chips. bags of these crispy sweet potato chips were everywhere at the festival. there must have been some sort of sponsorship. never the less, I was glad there was some healthy snack available to suppliment the endless amounts of booze that was provided. The company that makes these chips also make some other really tasty and healthy snacks such as Humbles and Veggie Sticks
http://www.goodhealthnaturalproducts.com/naturalsnackproducts.html

Last friday at the Student showcase, Visions, Annie and My film Wednesday Night Wednesday Dirt played. you can watch it here.
shot on 16mm film in reverse. double exposed forward. Words are by annie segrest. music is by gabriel mellan.

Wednesday Night Wednesday Dirt from oliver mellan on Vimeo.

Anyway, I am now currently working on several music video. (nine music videos to be exact)
I am created videos for all the songs on an artist's album. I have completed one and have begun work on two more. It is an exciting project and when completed will hopefully be a very nice compliment to the awesome album.

For thanksgiving my mother, gabriel, susanah, Barb, Mab, and Adams dad are convening at the greenhouse for a special dinner and party. I look forward to the festivities.

If you havent been to my website recently, please go check it out. I have some new content. videos. pictures. art. http://www.olivermellan.com/

Yikes! FLUORIDE

After being made aware of the harmful affects of fluoride by my father, I bought some toothpaste without Fluoride to try to reduce the amount of intake. However, as I began to do more research about the topic, I realized how serious and scary it is.

It is also very easy to become skeptical of the government's motives for encouraging citizens to use Flouorinated products and Im sure we'll never know the truth about what kind of faulty research was fabricated to push this agenda.

We do know that Fluoride is found in Rat poisons... and our water. A waste generated during the aluminum manufacturing process, deemed to harmful to nature to dump into streams or oceans, it is carefully added to our water... and lots more.

It has been linked to cause Cancer (of many kinds), hyper activity and ADD in kids, Autism, brittle teeth (over fluoridation).

I want out. at least from having it forced upon me through my drinking water. but there are only a few ways to get rid of it. Some tips of how to remove fluoride from Anne Marie's Chemistry Blog http://chemistry.about.com/b/2009/01/22/how-to-get-fluoride-out-of-water.htm

Ways to Remove Fluoride from Water

• Reverse Osmosis Filtration
  This is used to purify several types of bottled water (not all), so some bottled waters are unfluoridated. Reverse osmosis systems are generally unaffordable for personal use.

• Activated Alumina Defluoridation Filter
  These filters are used in locales where fluorosis is prevalent. They are relatively expensive (lowest price I saw was $30/filter) and require frequent replacement, but do offer an option for home water filtration.

• Distillation Filtration
  There are commercially available distillation filters that can be purchased to remove fluoride from water. On a related note: When looking at bottled water, keep in mind that 'distilled water' does not imply that a product is suitable for drinking water and other undesirable impurities may be present.

These Do NOT Remove Fluoride

• Brita, Pur, and most other filters.
  Some websites about fluoride removal state otherwise, but I checked the product descriptions on the companies' websites to confirm that fluoride is left in the water.

• Boiling Water
  This will concentrate the fluoride rather than reduce it.

• Freezing Water
  Freezing water does not affect the concentration of fluoride.

Also, if you do any sort of google search related to Fluoride and drinking water, you'll get some very diverse and serious results. Quite possibly enough to get you to the place I am at.
Here is a good video of an audio recording about Fluoride in drinking water.




and now, I am on a hunt to find out how many parts per million is getting dumped into the Wilmington water. And debating which way I'll filter it out.

goodluck to you.

Loveless

Let me just take a minute to reflect on how excellent this album is... My Bloody Valentine's Loveless.

the two sided guitar riffs that speak to eachother in some distant language of the first track carry on to infinite as we are pushed back up with pulsating panning of air, distortion and carbonated guitar. the words aredefinately nessacry but not astrong focus point. The vocal sound is dream-like and soothing.

to clear your palate Touched drifts in slowly and disapears as the rthym becomes aparant. Vocals, vocals, vocals on this next track. girl...and guy. doves on a circus tent. it becomes a fucking playground. touch and go. up and down. what instruments can these be.

water lily, ink blotting on sunday. texas hold'em in the park.

Come in Alone, my favorite. not too soon before the vocals chime in there sounds a repetative drum beat that rattles throughout the ballad. no joke, its real. people speaking through things that speak through amplifiers. 5 stars of the moon for that 1991 track.

driving. now through the mind's throughts just before sleep. delicate symphononic guitars and synth.

the most i can understand.
Hello, this is the end. What you Want. I heard a lot of things about this. have not researched them as the fading dibles on the guitar blink like a lighthouse disappearing into the fog.

Well, I highly recomend this album no matter where your into in life.

Aloha-Graduation-Inhabitation

May 1st Annie and I moved into an old house on 0th st. Adam will move in at the end of the month.


The final few weeks of school were very fun, excited and very busy. I spent much of the time in the edit lab working on Momotaro animation and dealing with faulty electronics.

Momotaro, a 6 minute animation of an old Japanese folklore was one of my final projects in school tying my Asian studies minor together with my Film studies Major.

Graduation weekend was exciting. My Mother, brother, grandpa and grandma drove down to Wilmington and stayed in our house. The weekend included a movie on the battleship deck, Graduation ceremony, beach, excellent food, party at Jengos and fun time with family and Annie East.



Aloha. I went to Maui for two weeks after graduation to visit my dad, and see some old friends. After a full day of flying i was greeted by a tanned, energetic father who immediately took me to get cleansed in the ocean.


We traveled to the less populated side of the Island, where we took a tour of a bamboo farm, and visited a friend living on the old Charles Lindbergh estate. She runs a cafe called "Cafe Attitude" out of the old Lindbergh writers cabin. Dad and I installed a stone take-out window from the kitchen area to the eating area and enjoyed the cafe that night with a big campfire and enough characters to fill 200 books.




My sister came a few days later on her highschool senior project "Rejuvination" trip. In the mornings I worked with Aaron building a roof over a patio area and my sis did yoga and facial masks. We went on some amazing hikes, swam at awesome beaches and played smash ball and double pong. Hot tub and sauna at the Petties was nice as well.

I went scuba diving for the first time. It was bind blowing experience to breathe underwater. Lots of things to think about while trying to remain calm underwater and breath slowly. by the end of our dive, i felt very comfortable and would like to go again. We did more snorkeling, surfing and danced at Sweat Your Prayers.

It was definitely a nice relaxing trip spent with fun people.


Back in wilmington, Adam Schiffer moved into the house and we have been enjoying riding bikes around and exploring the city. Friday we are hosting an Emerald Open House Party at our home. dress is Green.

GRADUATION

http://olivermellan.com/graduation.htm

everything is in order. I will indeed be graduating with cum laude (GPA 3.5 ) honors.

the future

Graduation is May 9th, for anyone that would like to come. i dont think tickets are needed.

Visions and Cucalorus

Here is a recent article for the Seahawk in which i was interviewed about the Cucalorus film festival and Visions Student Showcase.

Cucalorus celebrates unexpected cinema - Lifestyles

I am excited for the festival.

Podcasts

a friend for long hours at the computer.

I have recently been listening to a lot of podcasts while working at the computer. I have sort of exhausted my music library, and just cant devote half of my time to playing DJ. I have found some really good podcasts playing and mixing the exact music i want to listen right then and there. its also a good way to hear about new, or old, bands without too much research.

i recommend them.

here is one i like
http://guinol.podomatic.com/