NEW VISIONS OF EARTH. NASA
Earth Information Center Campaign, Special Event Film
What can a tool reveal about Earth that our eyes can't see? Commissioned by NASA and the Studio at Jet Propulsion Laboratories to create a retro-future campaign for NASA’s new Earth Information Center, Lookout Mountain draws inspiration from Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders’ Earthrise photo to craft a mixed-media campaign about the tools NASA uses to see Earth in radical new ways. Incorporating photography, a broadsheet, postcards and a cinematic remix of NASA's iconic "worm logo," the campaign is anchored by "New Visions of Earth," a 12-minute documentary portrait of NASA's 50+ year commitment to better understanding our home planet.
Narrated by Patti Smith, "New Visions of Earth" premiered at NASA House during SXSW. Hosted at the Austin Central Library, the three-day event drew more than 18,000 visitors. The inaugural screening of the film was followed by a Q&A hosted by Dr. Karen St. Germain, Division Director of Earth Science at NASA.
Credits:
Tristan Patterson
|Creator
Tristan Patterson's commercial work includes global campaigns for agencies like 72&Sunny | Amsterdam, W+K | Japan and TBWA | Paris and brands like Converse and Adidas, Samsung and Sprint, BMW and Nissan. His documentary shorts "Chasing Horizons" for Citizen Watch and The "War at Home" for Mission22 were awarded with a Gold Cannes Lion for Promo & Activation and an AICP for Best Public Service Announcement. "Cokewhite, Starlight," his experimental collaboration with performance artist and rapper Mykki Blanco, was named one of the best music videos of the decade by Slant Magazine. As a filmmaker, his documentary feature Dragonslayer received the Grand Jury Prizes for Best Documentary and Best Cinematography at SXSW and was nominated for four Cinema Eye Honors. It was distributed theatrically by Drag City Records. He began his career as a screenwriter and has worked on projects for studios and networks including A24, FX and Warner Brothers and production companies including Color Pastel, Plan B and Scott Free.
Thaddeus Ruzicka
|Director
Thaddeus Ruzicka is a director and editor whose documentary shorts for the film studio A24 include portraits of experimental music collective Son Lux, filmmakers Joanna Hogg and Martin Scorsese, and The Bagel, a lo-fi tour-de-force about four roommates in an Atwater Duplex tasked with turning a donut into a bagel on the cheap for the Oscar-winning film Everything, Everywhere All At Once.
John Benet
|Producer
John Benet is a documentary and commercial producer with three decades of experience. He has produced hundreds of advertisements working with prominent production companies and notable directors, including "What Is the Value of Zero?" directed by Malcolm Venville for Anonymous Content. His decade-long partnership with filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu resulted in groundbreaking campaigns for brands like Procter & Gamble, Facebook and Apple and the non-profit Montana Meth. More recently, John produced the first collaboration between Mother Los Angeles and Sonic Drive-In, a national campaign driven by 38 unique documentary vignettes. He is also the producer of the documentary California Typewriter, featuring Tom Hanks, John Mayer and Sam Shepard, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and was released theatrically to critical acclaim. His projects have won numerous awards, including an Emmy, a DGA award and many Cannes Lions.
Michael Schmelling
|Photography, Graphic Materials
Michael Schmelling is the author of eight photo books, including The Plan (J+L Books) which was included in the ICP Triennial; Your Blues (The Ice Plant / Skinnerbox), his first one-person museum exhibition at The Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago; and Rise & Fall (Here Press). As a graphic designer and editor, he has collaborated on over two dozen publications with artists, writers, musicians and photographers, including: The Dennis Hopper Trust; Hilton Als; Sharon Van Etten; Friedrich Kunath; Sara VanDerBeek; Ahndraya Parlato; Richard Maxwell; Amanda Shires; Amen Dunes; Racquet; and Odd Future.