Wednesday, September 22, 2010

You Gotta Like the Like a Leika

This summer I fell in love with everything HBO. I was already a True Blood fan but I also started to watch The Sopranos, Big Love, Six Feet Under, Bored to Death... what can I say? I didn't have a whole lot going on this summer. Anyway, one of my new favorite shows comes from the fabulous HBO, The Neistat Brothers. If you haven't seen the show it's a compilation of home videos made by two brothers, Casey and Van, all about the crazy adventures they have in their life. It's a super simple concept but done so well. They split the show in half so each brother gets 15 minutes to do with what ever they want. The results are funny, crazy, and inspirational all at the same time. They make films about whatever is going on at the moment in their life, not afraid to leave anything out, from stories about how they climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, to finding Van's biological father, to getting their HBO deal. They have their own website here, or here is the HBO page.

Casey on the left and Van on the right.

They use several different low end cameras that they talk about on their show. My favorite camera that they use is what they call the Like a Leika. How amazing is that? It is actually a Canon PowerShot SD780 that is painted black with a Leika logo on it. I don't have a thing for Leikas or anything, I just love the name and thought it was funny. It's little things like that that really make the show the gem that it is. I only found out when researching for this post that Tom Sachs is the creator of the Like a Leika. He is an artist based out of NYC and employed Casey and Van before they got the HBO gig. He also sold 12 of the cameras for $2,500...each. Makes me wish I had thought of that! His website is here.

The Like a Leika!

Throughout their videos they have a bunch of stop actions segments and other low tech touches that make the show feel complete yet spontaneous at the same time. By the end of the season I had convinced myself that I had to move to New York (where they live) and just be creative, go on adventures, and life would work its self out. That idea only lasted a couple of hours, thank goodness. I told you I'm a little crazy, haha. The show is just that inspirational and great.

They also have an AMAZING Polaroid wall that consists of pictures of everyone that had been in their studio. I think I need to start that in my new apartment. All I need is a Polaroid camera and some film and I'll have a great conversation piece!

I think I need more friends...

 It is a great, original show and I think everyone should watch it. The end, no more discussion.


May X never mark just one spot!

Kim


1 comment:

Jessie-Lee said...

So apparently I need to watch more of the right TV. I might have to switch from Bravo to HBO.