Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Free Dives and Magic Men

Tonight at dinner, Tony brought up how David Blaine held his breath for 17 minutes, at which point the whole table called shenanigans.  However, Tony would not be phased and claimed it for truth...along with his beans. There certainly was no denying the Beans of Truth, so the Blaine thing must be true, right? Then the discussion moved onto free diving for a bit and suddenly I knew what video I was going to post tonight.

This short filmed called Free Fall was made earlier this year and I loved it the first time I saw it.  When shot correctly, the underwater world can seem magical and ethereal and I think this film captures that wonderfully.  The music is a perfect fit as well, having two musical styles juxtaposed together to mimic the beauty and danger inherent in free diving.



The free diver is Guillaume Nery, and it was shot by Julie Gautier who is also a free diver and camerawoman.  Sure he holds a world record, but I'm actually more impressed by her in that she had to get all the fantastic shots and angles while holding her breath.  And I just read that they're a couple as well, isn't that sweet? The music is You Make Me Feel by  Archive, a London-based band.

Anywhoo, Tony had seen David Blaine on a TED talk, and Amy hadn't heard of TED, so I'm posting the talk and the link here.



So Blaine is either impressive...or a little nutty. I'm not sure which, but anyone who would shove a hose down his throat just to see if it'll help him breath under water deserves some modicum of respect. And a little distance...cause whoh.

Although frankly Mitch Silpa does Blaine better than Blaine (some of the dialog NSFW)

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