Raffi Asdourian

Awhile back I was slated to direct a music video for an up and coming band called Benzos. They were an amazing group that had a unique and distinctive sound with the perfect blend of rock, trip hop and electronica. Unfortunately, the band broke up over some artistic differences, but I remained close friends with the lead singer Christian who went on to form a new group called With Lions. Right now they specialize in providing original music for promos, commercials, TV shows and feature films but they are also creating some amazing songs which they intend to preform live in a cool audio visual fusion show.

Stargazer is the first video I created for them. Over the next several weeks I will be releasing three more With Lions videos to continue our artistic collaboration and help create their show. So stay tuned on the blog, check out the video and let me know what you think!

I seem to be having some type of mash-up fever because I had a blast mixing and matching the trailers of Scott Pilgrim vs The World and Inception. Even though I prefer Scott Pilgrim overall as a film (read my review here) I loved how Inception was marketed and thought the two films fused rather appropiately in the above mashup. So check it out and let me know what you think!

One of the best elements of Inception for me was the spectacular score by Hans Zimmer. So I felt like doing an homage to my favorite film of all time, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and because of all the comparisons between 2001 and Inception I thought a mashup of the two would work rather well. Let me know if you agree ;)

This weekend heralded something truly rare for a Hollywood industry that has become scared of supporting films not based on some sort of existing franchise. Whether it be comic book, TV show or simple retread of a foreign or old film, there is a disturbing trend of lack of originality in both concept and quality of big budget films. So for the summer movie goers who have grown tired of seeing remakes that ruin the source material (see Airbender), Inception is a beacon of hope for those lost in a dreary nightmare of mundane films. Christopher Nolan's completely original concept is a marvel in both ambition and complexity and there's a lot to love about this film.

That being said I had issues with certain elements of the film that prevented me from loving it as much as the overflowing positive public response.

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