Browse: Home / Lunch Links: Shorts Using Google Mapping Tools

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • Year of the Month: DRY SUMMER (SUSUZ YAZ)
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray
  • The Nutty Professor (Year Of The Month)
  • Celebrating the Living: Conan O'Brien
  • Attention Must Be Paid: Ninón Sevilla
I can see my house from here!

Lunch Links: Shorts Using Google Mapping Tools

Posted By The Ploughman on April 18, 2019 in Short Articles | Leave a response

You, The World, and I (2010) dir. Jon Rafman

Address is Approximate (2011) dir. Tom Jenkins

Via (2018) dir. Maria Constanza Ferreira

Arena (2018) dir. Páraic McGloughlin (if you only watch one, I recommend this)

Thanks to our current friend and future scary-ass AI foe Google there’s unprecedented access to images of the Earth from all distances and perspectives. How would you use this power of omniscience to make a short?

Would you make a thoughtful personal essay on the ephemeral nature of the past?

Would you make a pithy showpiece that gives playthings emotions you learned to imitate from Pixar movies?

Would you blow some minds with painstaking animation?

Shots zooming around the globe may soon replace drone footage as the go-to tiresome short film flourish. Google recently launched an animation tool that works in tandem with their satellite and 3D imaging technology. The shorts here were produced before Google Earth Studio was launched a few months ago, but they still point to the filmmaking possibilities contained just within our browsers.

More than we’d probably care to examine, Google shapes the way millions of people interact with the Internet and, by extension, the world. Zoom in: one part of that interaction is the ease of access to mapping and imaging tools, making our world (on the surface anyway) more easily knowable and navigable. How has the way you navigate a city a changed when you can be instantly familiar with its layout upon arrival? Does being able to pull up images of Antarctica in seconds make it feel closer or more real?

Zoom in again: these can be filmmaking tools. How does our perception of establishing shots in a movie change when we can create our own sky tours of the Alps on a laptop? What sort of role can the Earth play in film as an infinitely manipulable prop?

Zoom in again: I think that’s a cow down there. Maybe a deer? It’s still kinda blurry on this level.

Posted in Short Articles | Tagged Google, internet, Lunch Links, Shorts

About the Author

gemofpurestray@gmail.com'

The Ploughman

Related Posts

Is it untoward of me to complain about the work of making a screencap of the header image I wanted on a film about rural poverty?Lunch Links: PULENG→

"I'm a pilot! How crazy is that!"The Friday Article Roundup: Will That Fly?→

Lunch Links: THE PRICEMASTER→

A title I can relate to every morning.Lunch Links: I’M HUNGRY, I’M COLD→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    33235 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    27257 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    24577 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    19935 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • Yvonne, or: CASABLANCA In One Character and Three Scenes

    10905 views / Posted August 21, 2014
  • Year of the Month: DRY SUMMER (SUSUZ YAZ)

    January 31, 2023 / Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray

    January 31, 2023 / Greta Taylor
  • The Nutty Professor (Year Of The Month)

    January 30, 2023 / Tristan "Drunk Napoleon" Nankervis
  • In the year 2000 . . . .

    Celebrating the Living: Conan O’Brien

    January 29, 2023 / Gillianren
  • I mean, shame about the rest of the movie, though.

    Attention Must Be Paid: Ninón Sevilla

    January 28, 2023 / Gillianren

Last Tweets

  • Year of the Month: DRY SUMMER (SUSUZ YAZ) - https://t.co/UsVO3rELrd, 9 hours ago
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray - https://t.co/g20wsxDBE0, 9 hours ago
  • The Nutty Professor (Year Of The Month) - https://t.co/XOYLKqjaVc, Jan 30

©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

Menu

  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!