The Creators Project invades Manhattan! And movie trailers galore…

THE CREATORS PROJECT INVADES MANHATTAN!

Sensory overload is the only way to describe The Creators Project, a joint Vice magazine and Intel party-all-day-and-rock-into-the-night bonanza on Saturday, June 26, at Milk Studios in New York City’s Meatpacking District.

Yes, Milk Studios was transformed into an eight-floor, 80,000-square-foot art exhibition. During the 12-hour-long fiesta, from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m., approximately 3,500 art/pop culture-obsessed hipsters lucky enough to score a wristband ingested as much of the intimidatingly eclectic performance space as they could. There was something for everyone at the event, which featured multimedia installations, various works of art, panel discussions and a star-studded roster of live musical performances.

If witnessing megaproducer Mark Ronson craft a pop song (in under an hour) with psychedelic dance outfit Neon Indian, or schmoozing with the likes of fashion designer Alexander Wang to hipster girl-preying actor Josh Hartnett wasn’t your thing, you could satisfy your inner movie nerd by attending a screening of Spike Jonze’s latest short film, “I’m Here.” The 35-minute short, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, explores themes of emotional fragility and loneliness – similar to his latest feature film, “Where the Wild Things Are.”

Set in contemporary L.A., save the fact that robots have been integrated into society, the film centers on two different robots:  Sheldon, a bashful, unerringly sweet library assistant played by Andrew Garfield (“Boy A,” upcoming Facebook film “The Social Network”) and the capricious Annie, played by Sienna Guillory (a staple on the Maxim Hot 100 lists). The two opposites soon begin an unlikely courtship that explores the entire emotional-relationship spectrum. Bathed in bright lights and bitter melancholy, the creatively-lensed film sees Jonze doing his best Gondry imitation, with poignant results. A ghostly score by ASKA permeates the film, and, as the film ended, the screen lifted to reveal the ambient rock outfit ASKA, there to perform their hauntingly beautiful soundtrack. You can view Spike’s film here: http://www.imheremovie.com.

It should be noted that the film is sponsored by Absolut Vodka, but as far as I can tell, they just ponied up the money for it.

I’m not sure what exactly the goal of the Creators Project is – or how they intend to make any money – but they bill themselves as:

…a new initiative by VICE and Intel to identify leading artists across the world who are pushing creative boundaries through technology. The project establishes new platforms for these artists to showcase their work and to engage a young audience of millions.

It’s apparently the first of five global launch events, with the others set in London, São Paulo, Seoul and Beijing. And with films, a bevy of weird art installations, musical performances by Sleigh Bells (raucous, bass-thumpingly awesome); Interpol (always nice to hear the old stuff, but clearly missing Carlos D and his mustache); Neon Indian (trippy in a good way); “surprise guest” M.I.A. (whose cuts off upcoming LP /\/\ /\ Y /\ continues to disappoint) and more – PLUS open bar (!) – it’s one of those days-journey-into-nights’ that makes you thank your lucky stars you live in NYC. More Pics below:

TRAILERS GALORE!

Quite a few anticipated trailers hit the Internet this week. Here are a few of note…

The (spooky) teaser for David Fincher’s Facebook drama THE SOCIAL NETWORK, starring Jessie Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker and Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin:

RED, a film based on a graphic novel and directed by Robert Schwentke (“Flightplan”), starring Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren (!), Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich as a team of retired black-ops agents who must get the band back together when they’re targeted by the government:

The surprisingly generic-looking trailer for THE GREEN HORNET, the comic book adaptation directed by Michel Gondry and starring Seth Rogen as millionaire Britt Reid, Cameron Diaz as his love interest, and Christoph Waltz (!) as the baddie:

And last but not least, for all you wizardry nerds, the trailer for the final HARRY POTTER film, HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS:

…UNTIL NEXT WEEK!