Embrace Life Video

Really great video that, I think, effectively uses emotion to get the message across. Wow...

Old Spice and Misdirection

"Look down, now up. I'm on a horse." Just a simple ad execution with great writing and essential over-acting. 

Panasonic Introduces 3D TV, Explains Details

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20100210/180133/?P=2

Is John The Client Dense or Are You Failing Him?

The link to the article below is one of the best articles I have ever read about the relationship between us and our clients. I think that parts of everything in this article have happened in every project we work on. Please let me know what you think I may send a link to this to everyone here.

Is John The Client Dense or Are You Failing Him?

www.PleaseRobMe.com

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (social media version).

- Mary

Mother Ship has Landed

Mother Ship is a new agency / production house that is backed by Digital Domain. To Read more and see examples of work they have put together click the link.
Article and videos.

Memento Mori from Mothership on Vimeo.

Cool ad from Nike

I thought that this was a cool ad.

Human Chain from NikeSportswear on Vimeo.

Content: The Once and Future Kingmaker

Always happy to see a "content is king" article; they make the world righter for writers. Then again, this particular article arrived in my email unaccompanied by, um, video...

- Mary



Digital Video WILL Reign Supreme
by Matt Wasserlauf
Wednesday, February 10, 2010

My 3-year-old has been nagging me a lot lately about "watching video on the computer." He's relentless. And ever since my wife customized some JibJab content online, Theo hasn't stopped: "Can we watch video on the computer?" "Can we watch video on the computer?!!"

My son doesn't care where he watches his video -- and neither does most of his generation. In fact, 178 million viewers are now watching 33 billion videos online, according to comScore Video Metrix, December 2009. I have to wonder if Dave Morgan (author of last week's "The PC Will Not Beat the TV For Video Ad Dollars") has seen those numbers lately.

The fact that this viewership online is only capturing $1 billion in video advertising is a short-term issue. Some factors do need to be worked out. These include serving and tracking standardization, measurement -- and most of all, economics -- in order for our industry to close the revenue gap with TV. In order for more content to get on-board online, the means of tracking and measurement have to be worked out. I agree with many of the voices out there, from writer Daisy Whitney to Mindshare's Cary Tilds, that standardization is the last hurdle.
Once our industry organizes around common standards, the potential becomes unlimited. Hulu just announced that its audience has exceeded 100 million viewers. I'm proud to say that so did BBE's (yes, that's my company.) But viewership is not the barrier. The masses are tuning in, despite the lack of compelling, high-quality content. Cable TV suffered from this same fate early on.

The real barrier is content and the model necessary to make more of it. In order for the creative community to produce future hit shows for the online medium, they must understand the metrics around success. With common currency, the industry can scale in a way that TV has enjoyed since its ascent to the top of the media funnel. Ratings and share, brought to you by Nielsen, have allowed the TV industry to reign supreme for 50+ years -- and they're all that that stands in the way for Online Video.

The next generation of viewers, from my son Theo to the new Facebook generation, are ready to watch "TV Everywhere." Jeff Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner, may have coined the phrase, but the next generation of viewers live by it. IPhones, iPads, laptops and Xboxes -- they will all do. With a common standard of tracking and measurement, these devices will deliver the next wave of content, never seen before on a TV or on Home Box Office. The future of TV is digital, and the future of digital is online video.


Matt Wasserlauf is the CEO of BBE.

Clean. Simple. Demo.

This simple concept is also a deceptively hardworking demo. Nice.




-dp

A couple of good ones

First off: We've all done this news story:



Then, and I hear John is a fan of this show, Top Gear, which in this episode features one car for eight minutes...and holds you captive the entire time. Definitely worth watching before the next Trail Nation shoot.

Lexus Edit from Stephen Fenn on Vimeo.

HBO Intro: CG FX without the Computers

How did they create that iconic intro for HBO before HBO showed movies? It's amazing the amount of time and effort, especially considering that Avatar has become.

The Best & Worse Commercials of the 2010 Super Bowl

Super Bowl ads this year was a big disappointment to me, personally. They were a sign of, like Holleywood, completely out of new ideas. Let's just rehash old ideas. But, there is still a number one even if it comes from a steaming pile. Here are my picks for: Best, Funniest, & Worse

BEST: Google- Search On.

Google has never had to do traditional TV advertising. By the very fact that we all say "google it" means they have won! But, I guess Bing is starting to cut into them. This spot is amazing for it's simplicity and the story it tells by using Google. Truly search on.

FUNNIEST: Volkswagen - PunchDub

And there were a lot of ad that were kind of funny, but nothing resonated me more than taking a universal game inspired by VW Bugs and humanizing it. Punch after punch after punch. And who doesn't love Grandpa getting punched in the nuts? Plus, like any great funny ad, there is a good zinger at the end with Stevie Wonder.

WORST: Anything from GoDaddy.com

Guess what? Dana Patrick is not gay or even bi and we are not going to your website for anything, but registering website domains at a cheap price (I recently got trevorawright.com for only $1) and that's never going to change! No one wants to watch your PG-13 content that is "too risky" for the Super Bowl because someone somewhere decided that the Super Bowl is a family show. Docker's offered free pants and their site crashed. I bet GoDaddy.com saw a slight increase in web traffic for a couple of hours.

And CBS, just because they can afford to buy the time doesn't mean you have to give it to them. Stop banning their ads because they are too "risky" and more because they are just BAD!

'Buckle Up' PSA is Beautiful

Here is a PSA that aired in England this last weekend during the Super Bowl (yes, they watch it over there too!). Simple premise with amazing shooting. This is probably one of the best PSA's I've seen that it's preachy, violent, or over the top Rachel Leigh Cook beats the crap out of a kitchen. Watch and see:

Now, here's Rachel:

Which tells a better story?

How it works: 3D HDTV

Here it comes:

http://www.macvideo.tv/news/index.cfm?email&newsID=3211499

Pushing the Boundaries

Go Pro. We've got 'em. What've we done with 'em? And how does that stack up compared to what they can do? We'll see, we're in the process of putting together a reel of our best footage. But (and don't take this the wrong way) I expect our footage will be put to shame by what I see all over the web. We aren't into the "extreme" sports, and we don't have the riders, etc, doing the extreme, crazy, could get you killed style things that look absolutely amazing. So what can we do? Get inventive. Check this one out. A Go Pro on a Broomstick, and some amazing shots that couldn't have been gotten any other way. What else like this can we do? And out of curiosity, how much of an impact can these things take? Just in case ;)

GoPro HD - Skimboarding In A Storm! from Patrick Lawler on Vimeo.