Fourteen Actors Acting by the New York Times

I don't remember how I stumbled onto this, but Fourteen Actors Acting is easily one of the most creative, enthralling projects I've seen.  The New York Times Magazine gathered figures who defined cinema in 2010, no doubt a feat in itself, and arranged for director Solve Sundsbo to, well, direct them one by one.  The scene is only about a minute long, so the actor has to play out all that he or she has to play out in a kind of micro-story.  What's more, it's not a contemporary setting, rather one of the classic silver screen.

You get the picture.  Below are three of my favorites.  Reference:  14 Actors Acting playlist on YouTube.

“You’re going from making iconic images to creating narratives,” [Sundsbo] said, “but there is less of a narrative capacity in 60 seconds, so you need to create something like a poem that can lead your imagination.”

Kathy Ryan, the magazine’s photo editor, put the challenge simply: “We had to get somewhere really quickly with an impact. And it had to be beautiful.”

This is the first time that video has been as significant as the print portfolio. Ms. Ryan said she knew from the beginning that she did not want this year’s performers simply to sit for a portrait. “Celebrity portraiture demands reinvention,” she said.

Reference:  Fourteen Actors Acting, The New York Times