SOLE MAN directed by Jon Weinbach & Dan Marks

2015-IV-16 | Color | 80 min | Directed by Jon Weinbach & Dan Marks

Film Summary

What's undeniable is this: Sonny Vaccaro is one of the sports world's most charismatic, polarizing and influential figures. Now 75, he is still a fast-talking maverick whose zeal for basketball, advocacy for underprivileged kids, and instinct for sales forged an era of unprecedented growth for two pillars of pop culture: basketball and sneakers.

It was Vaccaro who advised agents during the ABA-NBA wars of the 1970s, who launched Nike's "Air Jordan" empire in the 1980s, and who ushered in the professionalization of youth basketball in the 1990s, when players such as Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady, both of whom signed shoe deals brokered by Vaccaro, turned high school games into auditions for the NBA.

Directed by Jon Weinbach and Dan Marks, "Sole Man" is a definitive, first-hand and unflinching account of how Vaccaro rose from humble Pennsylvania steel town roots to become the most valuable marketing asset in the $13 billion athletic shoe industry. Vaccaro's personal arc mirrors the narrative of basketball's ascent over the last 40 years. It is an era in which James Naismith's creation morphed from a regional game tainted by segregation and gambling into a global enterprise that stretches from Brooklyn to Beijing. And to a staggering degree, the basketball community is really just Six Degrees of Sonny.

Director's Take

We're both slightly obsessed observers of sports, pop culture and history, and we've had the great fortune to dive into those topics in a variety of formats -- from newspaper articles to feature documentaries to TV series. So when we had the opportunity to make this film, there was no hesitation because, well, Sonny Vaccaro's story is the perfect blend of our personal and professional passions. 

And there's no one quite like him.

Whether you've known Sonny for five minutes or five decades, he is one of the most charismatic and memorable people on the planet. He is both interesting and relentlessly interested -- a "quick" conversation with Sonny rarely lasts less than 30 minutes, and he'll schmooze effortlessly about everything from 70s rock 'n roll (don't get him started on Grand Funk Railroad) to Kobe Bryant's jump shot to the vagaries of antitrust law.

The scope of Sonny's life and career in the sports business is massive, which made this film more fun and more challenging. Beyond his lucrative professional relationships with Nike founder Phil Knight and NBA icons like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, Sonny's story is significant because he forged the link between the sneaker industry and basketball -- and helped invent a whole new era of sports celebrity.

It became a running joke among our production team that Sonny is the real-life "Forrest Gump" of basketball. Pick a significant event, team or game over the past 30-plus years, and chances are Sonny has a direct connection to it -- or knows the father of one of the players, or flew in a coach for one of his all-star games or summer camps. At the same time, Sonny's ascent made him a controversial figure, especially among his former colleagues and competitors at Nike, adidas and other companies. And as we learned, some of those competitors still haven't forgiven him, or simply don't want to discuss or acknowledge him at all. To Sonny's credit, he never shied away from any of those thorny issues -- and encouraged us to speak to whomever we thought could shed light for the film.

When we began working on this film in late 2010, the O'Bannon case really only existed on paper. (And in any conversation with Sonny.) But as the months and years passed, and the O'Bannon case took on more significance and spurred more debate, it became clear that win or lose, Sonny was on the front lines of a story with implications far beyond the sports world. Once again, he was blazing a trail -- even if it meant taking down the business of college sports that he helped build. It's been an incredible ride to take with him over the past five years, and we're very excited to share it in "Sole Man."

Via: ESPN

Wii Room: The Fascinating Repairmen #013 The Book

Wiiの間：修理、魅せます。 #013「本」

 Wii Room: The Fascinating Repairmen. #013 "The Book"

HOW TO MAKE A BOOK WITH STEIDL

How to Make a Book with Steidl | Directed by Jörg Adolph & Gereon Wetzel | 2010 | 88 min

Synopsis

For 40 years, Gerhard Steidl has combined the roles of printer and publisher, resolved to personally check each sheet leaving his printing shop in Göttingen. This perfectionism, combined with an unconditional love for books, for the traditional printing craft, and a commitment to the quality standards of manufacturing (in the original sense of the word, made by hand), has gained worldwide attention. The most internationally renowned photographic artists vie for the opportunity to collaborate with Gerhard Steidl, to conceive and produce the perfect publication with him.

Filmed in the direct cinema style, HOW TO MAKE A BOOK WITH STEIDL observes the publisher, as he collaborates with the world famous photographers Joel Sternfeld, Robert Frank, Ed Ruscha, Jeff Wall and Robert Adams, at their studios and other places of work, in New York, London and Paris, in the Katar desert, and, last but not least, in Göttingen. Here, in “Steidlville”, their works are printed on Steidl‘s own machines, in three shifts. In goes the idea, out comes the finished book.

Gerhard Steidl’s independent empire is founded on several sources of income – a significant portion of his publishing efforts being dedicated to Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel (printing everything for the designers, from admission tickets to catalogues). Other staples are the German metal workers’ collective labor agreement and, for many years, each new book by Nobel laureate Günter Grass. This is where he earns the money that he, to use his words, “throws out the window” on ambitious photographic art projects.

HOW TO MAKE A BOOK WITH STEIDL presents a man in constant movement, a German entrepreneur who has made the whole world his home. His experience and artistic empathy, his untiring dedication and diligence have made him the most important publisher of photographic books of the last decade.

via: http://www.howtomakeabookwithsteidl.com

James White's Laser Horse illustration | Photoshop 25th anniversary

James White's Laser Horse illustration | Photoshop 25th anniversary from lynda.com

Neon, VHS, and palm trees inspire James' supercharged poster.  Join lynda.com to celebrate 25 years of Photoshop with inspiring stories from luminaries who have helped shape the most prolific design tool of our time. Get a 10-day free trial at bit.ly/ldc-25ps

AMARAY CASES

If you notice, most of the films you buy this days on DVD and Blu-ray, came in terrible cases with huge holes with the shape of a recycle logo. It's good to know the plastic is recyclable but come on... those holes and the thin plastic they are made of together with a complete lack of booklets or anything make you feel what you just bought is something to consume and throw away, not and item you want to collect. Fortunately, there are still film studios that care and design thier product whith care, mostly Japanese companies and in the US, Criterion. For all the rest,  you can always buy some of the best AMARAY cases available in Amazon. 

Amaray is Europe's largest DVD box manufacturer, shipping millions of items across the continent every week. It is a company with a history of innovation, continually meeting the needs of customers through an advanced approach to plastic technology.

Amazingly, the company that evolved into Amaray began life in 1880 manufacturing lead-based plumbing products. However, the advent of plastics in the sixties saw the first of many changes to the business.

And even a casual observer would conclude that the company has always been swift to bring innovative products to both existing and emerging markets. With the result that Amaray's products are so often regarded as 'the standard'. Back in 1982, for example, injection moulded polypropylene was rarely used to make video boxes in the UK.

Then, the Amaray keep case became the standard packaging medium for such cassettes. In 1995, Amaray's CD-Safe became the first interactive CD packaging - quickly adopted by Sony for its popular PlayStation range of computer games. Next came DVD-Safe, soon to become the definitive packaging for DVD-Video and CD-ROM. It's fair to say that, together with our quality licensed manufacturers in the USA, Poland, Brazil, China and Japan, we continually offer the global standard in any market in which we compete.

Our capabilities in plastic injection moulding has seen our history manufacture a range of plastic products across many markets.

Amaray is part of ASG Worldwide, the world's leading packaging specialist owned by Atlas Holdings.

via: amaray.com