The Pixelati blog has moved!

We’re now located at pixelati.net! Please come and visit us there : ).

Back from Holiday!

We’ve been on break for the last while – although “break” implies that we stopped working… xD What we did stop were updates to the blog but we’re back on track now and looking forward to filling you in on all the things Pixelati has coming this year!

For starters, we’re going to be redesigning our logo to coincide with the relaunch of our homepage. The black hole concept is something closely tied in to our brand but it’s time we overhauled the animated graphic we’ve been using for the last while. We want to keep the clean simplicity of our current logo and bring a new sparkle to it – if anyone has any great ideas we’d love to hear them : ).

The Art of Freestyle – improvised poetics

Hip Hop Freestyling is the art of improvisational poetics – writing poetry “on the spot”. The thing about freestyling, though, is that you don’t have the luxury of freeform or avant garde delivery (not if you want to be known as a competent freestyler anyway xD) – you have to think quickly, be on time and you have to rhyme (for the most part).

A few weeks ago Pixelati caught Palestinian-born New Zealand MC MC Bling (aka Imagine This) dropping a twenty-plus minute freestyle on DJCXL’s radio show for BaseFM. The performance was part of a longer video article on DJCXL’s radio show “The Champ Is Here” (which we’ll be uploading soon). An edited version of the clip below appears in the forthcoming video but we thought we’d release this longer version to showcase Bling’s impressive freestyle skills.

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Web Zen: when freestyling goes horribly wrong.

The importance of music in editing

Here’s a great clip of Ridley Scott from the Fox Searchlight channel on Youtube. He speaks about the importance of music in editing with various anecdotes about Alien and the inclusion of Baaba Maal in the Blackhawk Down soundtrack.

The right music at the right time can set the perfect tone, and surprising genre choice can add a truly unique perspective to the visuals. As long as the music complements the images and editing rather than overpowering them you can create an emotionally engaging rhythm and tone that couldn’t be achieved otherwise.

Note: jump to 6:13 in the video for the section on music – or click here to go straight to that spot on Youtube.

NZ Hip Hop Represent

While we’re busy working away at our online presence please feel free to check out our current work with NZ’s premier turntablist/producer DJCXL at www.djcxl.com.

We’ve got regular video content coming through djcxl.com and an official iTunes video podcast (called DJCXL TV). Pixelati’s own video podcast will also be available at sometime in the near future! (we’re aiming for the end of first quarter ‘09 if you really want to hold us to it… ; )

DJCXL - NZ Turntablist and Hip Hop Producer

Welcome to the Official Pixelati blog!

We’re still a way off being fully setup but there’s no time like the present to plunge into the creation of online profiles, blogs, video channels and general craziness : ).

This is the first inception of the Official Pixelati blog which will feature ongoing content about all things creative in our homeland of New Zealand. New Zealand is a tiny country made up of two large islands (and one small one) and a whole bunch of creative and interesting people. Because NZ is so small you always know someone who knows someone doing something exciting on some major creative endeavour, and our regular video content aims to capture these amazing people at work in their respective fields.

Creativity manifests everywhere so we’ll be covering creatives in the music field, the film field, animation, crafts, tattooing, technology – you name it! We work with artists and artisans who don’t compromise their creativity for a buck – of course it’s a given that we all have to take on a job to make ends meet occasionally, but the individuals and teams that interest us are the ones who are truly passionate and dedicated to their art.

We hope you’ll enjoy the content as our blog evolves – please keep in touch with us if you have any comments, congratulations, suggestions or abuse : ).