i learned how to dougie...

...actually i didn't, as illustrated in this video:

Oh, hey!

Long time no see... I'm back though, and with a good cause!

At the end of this month I will be shaving my head to stand in solidarity with children fighting cancer, and also raise money to fund research that I know will one day find cures.

I'm doing this through the organization St. Baldrick's, which is an admirable example of what a charity should be, as it is well organized and extremely transparent. Follow the link below to view my donation page, where it is very easy to give. I've joined a group of other "shavees" from NYU and I've already made some pretty high claims about the generosity of my friends and colleagues... So don't let me down!

How To Pick a Winning March Madness Bracket

This is topical, right? I mean, it is March... Although for all I know, March Madness may not even happen in March.

Nonetheless, I do know a lot more about basketball now, and you can too!

How To Pick a Winning March Madness Bracket on Howcast

We Are All Conected

How To Create a Wikipedia Article

Not only am I proud of this video, I also think it is chock full of good advice for any would-be Wikipedians!

http://www.howcast.com/videos/317519-How-To-Create-a-Wikipedia-Article

Jump/Start

I've been keeping myself busy between jobs working on this short. I started it while on vacation in Wyoming this last christmas. My dad's garage was the perfect place to construct a giant cardboard pencil.

The animated sequences consist of over 200 printed and cutout images of myself. Here's a handful of them:

I have no idea what I'm going to do with them now. It seems a shame to just throw them all away. . .

tiny ben

New Year's Eve Day, 2009

It's been getting as cold as -30 here at night, making it a pretty tough winter, especially if it's your first one ever. This deer kid has been hanging around the house lately. We didn't particularly think anything of it, other than trying to keep the dogs from giving it a hard time. Apparently though, it had become desperate to find any kind of food or shelter from the cold. We found it this morning curled in a ball near one of the measly exhaust vents of the house, where it must have just succumbed to cold and hunger. It missed the sunrise by no more than a few hours.

I went down, down, down...

And the flames went higher.

Check out Jeff Scher's new film!

I did a little after effects futzing on it...

Here's a cool band!

This weekend I helped out the always wonderful Kendra on a music video shoot for a great band called Lavalier. It was a whole lot of fun, and I think the video will be really sweet when it's all finished up, so keep an eye out for it. Thank you to everyone who was involved!

Candymation!...

...is the word that I promised myself I wouldn't use when I started making this.

Heaven

Here's a 3D self portrait from Heaven...

Sing Sang Sung - AIR

Good song, great video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuSPRu4lzag

Racist Robots and Guinea Pig Spies? Fine. But Sound Scientific Theory?!

Science and reasoning has no place in popular American cinema. I was pretty upset by the fact that in its most recent Ice Age installment, Blue Sky abandoned all understanding about the Earth's prehistoric timeline, simply for the sake that, well, kids love dinosaurs. Whatever, it's just a cartoon that's bound to confuse kids. What else is new.

But this is ridiculous. The film Creation, starring the fantastic Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as Mr. And Mrs. Charles Darwin (respectively), can not find a distributer in the U.S. because the theory of evolution is simply too controversial for an American audience. It has a deal EVERYWHERE else in the world, except our own country. It's embarrassing, and not just because such a huge percentage of the American public (61%) refuse to believe a beautiful and simple truth that has done more to further humanity's understanding of the natural world than any other idea. It's embarrassing because so many American's refuse to give a film that the Hollywood Reporter called "even-handed and wise" a chance because they're so vehemently opposed to any form of thinking other than their own.

I've been to church, several of them in fact in fact. Not my thing, but hey, I see the appeal. Is it too much to ask of the American public for a similar show of open-mindedness?

NY GeekCast Cult Classics

It seems the only thing internet related I do these days involves the GeekCast. Not that that's a bad thing, but still... I need to plug back in.

So check it out!

NY GeekCast's Pc vs. Mac

I make a short and irreverent appearance on the most recent NYGeekCast episode. In my defense I had just been at a bar. And apparently, these do not have a great microphone...

Here's the link.

Beeatify me, baby.

I love being on film sets. It can be a lot of work and mean giving up a little sleep, but when the people are fun it is more than worth it. Plus you get to goof around and make fun stuff like this:

Untitled from Ben Oviatt on Vimeo.

Animation + Science = Awesome

I've been to three animation festivals in only the last two weeks, and I didn't see anything half as... I don't want to say good, but, awesome perhaps, as the films that Drew Berry is making. 

I hope that there can be more of a place for this type of animation in a festival setting. I don't see why there couldn't be. These are amazing and beautiful films that anyone can appreciate.

link to more

CS 4-EVA

Ooooooooooh:

Cisma's "Le Sens Propre" from glossy inc on Vimeo.

Meet one of my role models.

His name is P.Z. Myers, and I've been following his blog on ScienceBlogs for a while now. His most recent post, however, went so far as to earn him a special introduction.