The Hurt Locker from the director of Point Break Kathryn Bigelow. This without a doubt looks a raw take on an interesting role within war. It is out before Green Zone which is in post production at the moment, with Paul Greengrass at the helm will surely pull an equal amount of punches.
http://thehurtlocker-movie.com/
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
Monday, 6 July 2009
Music video shot entirely on I-Phone
http://www.psfk.com/2009/07/music-video-shot-entirely-via-iphone.html
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Digital disruption
Something I have been asked recently was about TBWA's disruption philosophy in digital, and how this could be possible given that the point of digital is engagement? Well firstly the point of disruption, if I 'get it' right, isn't to disrupt people but disrupt convention of markets. So for digital it stays the same, how can we create an experience that disrupts the convention in order for it to truly stand out from the crowd.
Secondly just saying that the point of digital is engagment is misguided. The buzz is about participation and engagement. Yes this is something that digital now allows but to say that other types of digital creative activity are redundant is misguided. It is about getting the mix and balance right and for me they are all centred on experience. Whether this experience involves participation is the question...
Secondly just saying that the point of digital is engagment is misguided. The buzz is about participation and engagement. Yes this is something that digital now allows but to say that other types of digital creative activity are redundant is misguided. It is about getting the mix and balance right and for me they are all centred on experience. Whether this experience involves participation is the question...
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
A true visual discussion?
It has been a while since I have been stimulated to blog in a work capacity, but something has dragged me out of my stupor. Story and digital merge to create motion picture. Whilst this blog has recently been focused on my creative adventuring/creating currency, or whatever you want to call it, my professional background is, lets not forget, digital, whilst my passion is moving picture and story, and something I am constantly actively cultivating, so it is not a surprise that this did the trick…
One reason I ever blog is to get my thoughts together when I am unsure about them, and Purefold definitely is something that you can’t grasp straight away and something that has flicked a switch.
The premise if I surmise correctly, we have a topic: What does it mean to be human? This is seemingly topical having watched the pointless Terminator Salvation’s attempts to deal with this same question last weekend. This topic is to be the centre of an open media franchise. Here brands, platforms, filmmakers, product developers and communities can collaboratively imagine our near future.
Interpreting this; we have a topic, let’s get everyones thoughts on the matter and create some compelling content. The content, webisodes initially, are interlinked and the story continually evolves… Essentially this is creating a visual discussion.
There are several things that strike me:
1. Informed by real time conversation: The integration of the subject to the method.
The audience's thoughts regarding the topic are integrated by listening to conversation online, currently friendfeed is quoted. This is effectively using intelligence to groom our thoughts from across the web, distil them into a story and reprocess them for our consumption. This is potentially a much deeper web (spiders not internet) than just using digital to integrate the user, it is topic starting to become embedded into the process.
Given that it runs for 8 years we have no idea how the user thoughts will be groomed and integrated, and it would not surprise me if these issues were not all intertwined in some capacity into the actual content.
2. Getting user participation: The promise
Practically one thing intrigues me, which is personal reward. One of the reasons that the web is highly interactive is gratification:
• Instant involvement, I can see I have had an effect i.e. my picture is involved on a site, or
• Self actualisation / ego. I push out my thoughts but they never go anywhere get judged etc but I feel important
Here lays the problem and something I blogged about a couple of years ago, the promise.
What is the audience promise? That you can shape the content? Now this is what I am interested in, how feasible is it for me as an individual to shape it? And if I can’t do this do I feel cheated, not valued and resent the concept?
As I wrote this and redrafted it I feel that this is less about direct interaction but more passive interaction and that the loyalty will be due to the creativity.
Personally I think that it is interesting because it puts digital and potentially the semantic web at the heart of a visual discussion on what it means to be human. The only question is how do you have a visual discussion rather than a visual feast where my voice isn’t heard but just consumed and repurposed? The ride looks like it will be fun…
As for the ‘brand involvement’ and potential negative views on this. If it is a true visual discussion and the brands are committed to the creative then they will get welcomed by its community. The integrity can’t be compromised else there will be no community.
In a time when everyone wants to be doing ‘engagement’ projects and things that involve ‘participation’ we create fads, things that come and go but don’t have longevity or actually contribute, they become meaningless and not memorable. The power of digital is to connect it is not changing what is the most powerful content which is motion picture.
I look forward to consuming my own thoughts via a minority style experience booth soon…
One reason I ever blog is to get my thoughts together when I am unsure about them, and Purefold definitely is something that you can’t grasp straight away and something that has flicked a switch.
The premise if I surmise correctly, we have a topic: What does it mean to be human? This is seemingly topical having watched the pointless Terminator Salvation’s attempts to deal with this same question last weekend. This topic is to be the centre of an open media franchise. Here brands, platforms, filmmakers, product developers and communities can collaboratively imagine our near future.
Interpreting this; we have a topic, let’s get everyones thoughts on the matter and create some compelling content. The content, webisodes initially, are interlinked and the story continually evolves… Essentially this is creating a visual discussion.
There are several things that strike me:
1. Informed by real time conversation: The integration of the subject to the method.
The audience's thoughts regarding the topic are integrated by listening to conversation online, currently friendfeed is quoted. This is effectively using intelligence to groom our thoughts from across the web, distil them into a story and reprocess them for our consumption. This is potentially a much deeper web (spiders not internet) than just using digital to integrate the user, it is topic starting to become embedded into the process.
Given that it runs for 8 years we have no idea how the user thoughts will be groomed and integrated, and it would not surprise me if these issues were not all intertwined in some capacity into the actual content.
2. Getting user participation: The promise
Practically one thing intrigues me, which is personal reward. One of the reasons that the web is highly interactive is gratification:
• Instant involvement, I can see I have had an effect i.e. my picture is involved on a site, or
• Self actualisation / ego. I push out my thoughts but they never go anywhere get judged etc but I feel important
Here lays the problem and something I blogged about a couple of years ago, the promise.
What is the audience promise? That you can shape the content? Now this is what I am interested in, how feasible is it for me as an individual to shape it? And if I can’t do this do I feel cheated, not valued and resent the concept?
As I wrote this and redrafted it I feel that this is less about direct interaction but more passive interaction and that the loyalty will be due to the creativity.
Personally I think that it is interesting because it puts digital and potentially the semantic web at the heart of a visual discussion on what it means to be human. The only question is how do you have a visual discussion rather than a visual feast where my voice isn’t heard but just consumed and repurposed? The ride looks like it will be fun…
As for the ‘brand involvement’ and potential negative views on this. If it is a true visual discussion and the brands are committed to the creative then they will get welcomed by its community. The integrity can’t be compromised else there will be no community.
In a time when everyone wants to be doing ‘engagement’ projects and things that involve ‘participation’ we create fads, things that come and go but don’t have longevity or actually contribute, they become meaningless and not memorable. The power of digital is to connect it is not changing what is the most powerful content which is motion picture.
I look forward to consuming my own thoughts via a minority style experience booth soon…
Friday, 22 May 2009
On reflection
Thinking about the trip as a whole I am reminded of being in Kathmandu having done the trip, all washed up, in many forms of the phrase, but fresh thanks to the lads at Bulldog, a few kilos down, still feeling ill, lying on my guesthouse bed.
It was then that I really felt like we had achieved something out of the ordinary and out of our comfort zones. We were in a developing country having been through hostile terrain that doesn't tolerate life, had literally dug into our bodies to do so and come through it more complete people, an evolution we'd all shared and seen with our own eyes.
Since I being back in the UK it is the execution of what we did that I take pride in. We had a vision and collective responsibility to implement the challenge in a way that would make people who knew us and saw us on TV or in papers proud, and the feedback we've received endorsed this. Finally it is also how people who were close to the organisation have grown as individuals and are looking for this to be the start of something rather than the end.
It was then that I really felt like we had achieved something out of the ordinary and out of our comfort zones. We were in a developing country having been through hostile terrain that doesn't tolerate life, had literally dug into our bodies to do so and come through it more complete people, an evolution we'd all shared and seen with our own eyes.
Since I being back in the UK it is the execution of what we did that I take pride in. We had a vision and collective responsibility to implement the challenge in a way that would make people who knew us and saw us on TV or in papers proud, and the feedback we've received endorsed this. Finally it is also how people who were close to the organisation have grown as individuals and are looking for this to be the start of something rather than the end.
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
On mountain updates
Day 5
Yesterday a group of 12 of us 'coached' children cricket at Khumjung school. 'Coached' is a loose term as so many of the children were too young for specific skills training, so that gave way to fun games. To see the joy in their faces was uplifting and as the school was at the bottom of an 'indiana jones' type set of stone steps, it felt like cricket was on some sort of frontier journey. Selecting the 12 people from 50 was a tough task and ultimately we went for those whose behavior still resembled that of who we were visiting - it was a wise choice! At the end we presented a full bag of cricket kit to the school.
Days 1 - 3
The third day in and the first chance to write. Two hours sleep in three days as we went from London to our first trek night meant that I really felt the pace on day 1 when I thought I may be suffering from altitude, fortunately it was only sleep deprivation, but after 18 months planning it is only today on day 3 of the trek I feel relaxed and that we are actually here. My biggest thrill so far was the professionalism of the medical team, I spent a lot of effort recruiting them and to see them not only deliver the goods but gain the trust of the team has been so rewarding. On a personal note I have managed to get lots of stunning film footage with easily the biggest challenge persuading enthusiastic people to ignore the camera!
Yesterday a group of 12 of us 'coached' children cricket at Khumjung school. 'Coached' is a loose term as so many of the children were too young for specific skills training, so that gave way to fun games. To see the joy in their faces was uplifting and as the school was at the bottom of an 'indiana jones' type set of stone steps, it felt like cricket was on some sort of frontier journey. Selecting the 12 people from 50 was a tough task and ultimately we went for those whose behavior still resembled that of who we were visiting - it was a wise choice! At the end we presented a full bag of cricket kit to the school.
Days 1 - 3
The third day in and the first chance to write. Two hours sleep in three days as we went from London to our first trek night meant that I really felt the pace on day 1 when I thought I may be suffering from altitude, fortunately it was only sleep deprivation, but after 18 months planning it is only today on day 3 of the trek I feel relaxed and that we are actually here. My biggest thrill so far was the professionalism of the medical team, I spent a lot of effort recruiting them and to see them not only deliver the goods but gain the trust of the team has been so rewarding. On a personal note I have managed to get lots of stunning film footage with easily the biggest challenge persuading enthusiastic people to ignore the camera!
Monday, 30 March 2009
Result
It is funny trying to get the balance between the offbeat nature of our project and capitalise on its commercial appeal. We've been keen from the start to get partners rather than logos, with Qatar Airways, Met Rx, Medirite and North Face etc we were on the right path.
Now after a long time coming we have secured our title partner, Nokia, and more specifically Nokia Maps. Really chuffed as in the current climate it has been tough, especially consumer sectors like mobile phones. We were determined that we were going to go with a brand who shared our passion and vision and actually had relevancy to our project, and Nokia Maps ticks all of those boxes.
So far it has been a pleasure working with the guys at Mission Media who look after Nokias account. Am especially looking forward to getting a wicked phone now to do some cool funky things on the mountain.
Also a big shout to Bulldog who have come on board as a grooming partner. Again it is going to be a huge positive in the evenings but mainly we've got a huge reception dinner party when we've finshed the expedition and after 18 days on the mountain we're going to need all the help we can get.
Now after a long time coming we have secured our title partner, Nokia, and more specifically Nokia Maps. Really chuffed as in the current climate it has been tough, especially consumer sectors like mobile phones. We were determined that we were going to go with a brand who shared our passion and vision and actually had relevancy to our project, and Nokia Maps ticks all of those boxes.
So far it has been a pleasure working with the guys at Mission Media who look after Nokias account. Am especially looking forward to getting a wicked phone now to do some cool funky things on the mountain.
Also a big shout to Bulldog who have come on board as a grooming partner. Again it is going to be a huge positive in the evenings but mainly we've got a huge reception dinner party when we've finshed the expedition and after 18 days on the mountain we're going to need all the help we can get.
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