Blogbook

OkGo has a crazy new video called “The One Moment”, which celebrates salt and changing the world. Via News.com.au:

The American rock band — already famous for their iconic music videos — have reached new heights with their most recent video ‘The One Moment’ topping them all. They’ve danced on treadmills in perfect synchronisation and defied gravity aboard an aeroplane but none of their past iconic videos have been shot in just 4.2 seconds.

Premiering on Facebook yesterday, the cameras rapidly shoot one incredibly colourful, explosive moment and then proceed to slow that four second moment down to perfectly synchronise with the song.

OK Go singer and director of the video, Damian Kulash explained it was all about mathematical calculations and breaking down every single frame into a spreadsheet.

“Every single event had to have an exact time. We literally had a spreadsheet with the frame number in the video … Each of which corresponds to a millisecond of real time of when we’re shooting.” Some of the shots were slowed down by 20,000 percent from real time reports Rolling Stone.

The insanely sophisticated and complicated film includes everything from exploding watermelons to flipbooks with singing band members to cannonballs and swords.

And for those that had an internal cry at the 16 guitars exploding, Kulash explained “the guitars are all manufacturing defects. We want to blow up guitars but we don’t want to keep musical instruments out of the world.”

In this new postapocalyptic short film by Jeremy Robbins set in a predatory ice age, two brothers look for a place to call home. Via Short of the Week:

Aftermath works because it’s not just about the milieu—too many post apocalyptic tales care more about the grungy aesthetic then they do the characters. And, while Robbins’s production feels suitable dirty, cold, and bleak (i.e. think John Hillcoat’s The Road) it stands out because, at its core, it’s a film about brothers. The central relationship that drives the short feels real and well developed—the universal ups and downs of brotherly love/hate are transplanted from suburbia to post apocalyptic tundra. Aftermath asks the question: what if you had to deal with your annoying kid brother even after the world has gone to hell?

The film’s realistic depiction of brotherhood—even amongst a highly stylized backdrop—was inspired by director Robbins’s own childhood. As he relates via e-mail: “As the oldest of three brothers, I got an early start at directing—ordering my brothers Ethan and Noah in make-believe sword fights in our basement. In many ways, this film is an extension of those childhood adventures.”

But, the film’s connection with his family doesn’t stop there: Robbins also cast his youngest brother, Noah, to star in the film. The personal nature of this choice definitely shows up on screen—the protagonist’s journey from childhood to manhood is etched out across the short’s 19 minute runtime in a way that is quite effecting.

Postpanic’s excellent dark cyberpunk short film Lost Boy is an atmospheric film influenced by American action classics and Japanese samurai films. Via CGSociety:

LOST BOY is an ambitious sci-fi concept heavily influenced by the American action classics and Japanese samurai films. LOST BOY represents the second feature in a series of director-driven film projects from the Amsterdam-based production company, PostPanic Pictures. In similar exposure to SUNDAYS, the aim of PostPanic Pictures is to set the international community alight once again, this time with the LOST BOY concept short.

Anthony Scott Burns and Ash Thorp are a familiar name in the international creative community, having built up a great reputation for their notable contributions to feature films and commercial work. Anthony Scott Burns is also currently attached to the high profile sci-fi feature ALPHA, written by New York Times bestselling author Daniel H. Wilson, and produced by Brad Pitt. Having worked individually in the creative industry for the past 15 years, the directing partnership of Ash Thorp and Anthony Scott Burns was a natural next step for the instinctually creatively-matched pair, and they debuted as a directing duo for the prestigious 2014 OFFF Festival (Barcelona) main titles.

The idea of LOST BOY was born years back by Ash Thorp’s passion for sketching out these unique characters and scenarios, which quickly gained a huge fan base. Once Anthony Scott Burns and Ash Thorp joined together for collaborative efforts on LOST BOY, it further evolved with a fascinating storyline and uncompromising vision of society’s far distant future sure to surprise audiences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouu6LGGIWsc

Amazon Prime has put up its latest holiday ad, which shows an imam and a Catholic priest meeting for the first time. It was made in-house. Via Adweek:

A quick glance at any news ticker or social media feed might lead one to conclude that ours is a world split by class, race, nationality and political persuasion.

Amazon, however, suggests that the members of our human race may not be as far apart as we think we are. The retailer’s new holiday ad for Amazon Prime stars two men of different faiths: a Catholic priest and a Muslim imam. These two wouldn’t seem to have much in common, but they’re united by a friendship and an all-too-common discomfort.

Amazon’s European director of advertising Simon Morris told The Guardian this week that the ad is about “selflessness.” Amazon consulted with various religious organizations in Great Britain before deciding to produce the spot, which was made over the summer directly after the contentious “Brexit” vote and made its broadcast debut in the U.K. this week.

One may be forgiven for viewing this effort with a somewhat skeptical eye given that it is promoting a shopping service. But there’s something to be said for celebrating the things disparate people have in common, especially with the holiday season upon us.

GS&P creates “Poverty Line Prices” campaign for Tipping Point Community to show people what shopping feels like for the very poor. Via Adweek:

One in 10 Bay Area families (about 788,000 people in all) live below the poverty line. To raise awareness about this massive dissonance, San Francisco agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners took over a grocery store in the upscale Nob Hill neighborhood and charged regulars “Poverty Line Prices”—inflating products to five times their normal cost, with hidden cameras rolling.

Under “Poverty Line Prices,” created for the poverty-fighting organization Tipping Point Community, four rolls of toilet paper skyrocket from $3.46 to $17.30. Monthly bus passes, which normally cost $73, jump to $365. And milk goes from $4.88 to $24.40.

“The Bay Area is a tale of two cities: the haves and the have-nots,” says GS&P co-chairman Rich Silverstein. “We wanted people to get a small sense of the reality of living on the poverty line to truly understand the importance of Tipping Point’s mission.”

To calculate the prices used in the Poverty Line campaign, GS&P took the average costs of necessities and determined what percentage of a paycheck each item represents for a family living on the poverty line—whose figure is a federal standard guideline.

Lucian Read’s beautiful shot documentary The Stand at Standing Rock, features water protectors from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Via MotherJones:

Read’s latest short film, Mni Wiconi: The Standing at Standing Rock, turns a camera on the plight of Native Americans, a group that has been neglected and wronged perhaps more than any other in this nation. “We were thinking of ways to continue the America Divided project with groups that weren’t included in that series,” Read says. “And I’d especially been thinking about poverty and inequality in Indian country.”

In September, when members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota made national headlines for their protests against construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline—which the tribe says interferes with its ancestral land and water rights, Read thought it might be the perfect subject.

Mni Wiconi (“Water is Life” in the Sioux language) doesn’t aim to be an exhaustive document of the battle against this 1,172-mile oil pipeline. Rather, the film is an introduction to the conflict and the players at Standing Rock—”a primer,” Read says. The fight isn’t over, after all. On Monday, the tribe seemed to get a reprieve when the Army Corps of Engineers called for further analysis of the proposed pipeline route and consultation with tribal officials about their concerns. Standing Rock activists have declared Tuesday a “national day of action” against the pipeline, a project that is 95 percent complete despite the lack of the official easements and permits needed to finish it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4IY0Ay63bQ

GoPro has just launched its first scripted tv ad, which will roll out globally as part of its largest campaign yet, aimed at creating 1.4b+ impressions. Via Adweek:

For years, GoPro has taken a user-centric approach to its advertising, packaging submitted content for TV spots that have run everywhere from YouTube to the Super Bowl.

But today, it’s launching its first scripted TV spot, which is part of its largest campaign yet that’s rolling out on a global scale. TV spots will run in the U.S., Spain, Germany, France, Korea, Australia and other markets. And there’s an accompanying global campaign aimed at creating around 1.4 billion impressions. The campaign is a combination of regional and national ad buys, with the first spot airing today before ramping up Friday and then airing in prime time during Sunday Night Football.

According to GoPro svp of marketing Bryan Johnston, the campaign is meant to reflect the diversity of the brand’s users over the past few years, as its core user base grows from being adventure-seeking people documenting the great outdoors to a camera that can be used by anyone.

“If we succeed, then we create thousands upon thousands upon millions of 21st-century storytellers,” Johnston told Adweek.

The spot begins with a scene showing dozens of people in the desert taking photos of a sunset, their smartphones creating a shadow across their faces. A narrator then challenges the viewer about what they’re really doing: “Is this being in the moment? Is this hanging out? And is this really playing with your kid? Don’t stop what you’re doing to capture what you’re doing. Just keep doing.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oI-YD-nv_0

“Ella” is a short film that tells the story of Ella Havelka, the 50-year-old Australian Ballet’s first indigenous ballet dancer. Via Broadsheet:

When Ella Havelka was accepted into the Australian Ballet in 2012, as the company’s first Indigenous dancer in its 50-year history, it attracted a huge amount of positive media nationwide.

Havelka herself was thrilled to finally achieve the goal she had strived for since she was eight years old.

But three years down the track, Havelka is questioning her position in the company. Notwithstanding artistic director David McAllister’s insistence every dancer is accepted purely on merit, Havelka is tormented by the thought she might only there because she is Aboriginal. The pressure she puts on herself is immense and heartbreaking.

These insecurities are something filmmaker Douglas Watkin knows only too well. As the only Indigenous student studying film and television at Queensland University of Technology, he recognises how lonely and isolating life can be.

“Trying to find an identity, where you stand [is tough]. When you’re born you have to decide which type you are: the successful black fella or the lazy black fella,” he laughs wryly. “It’s a lot of pressure put on you because you’re so used to seeing your culture stereotyped or portrayed negatively in the press.”

Short film “Love, Dad” is shot in Manshiyet Nasir, a location of epic poverty near Cairo, and is about fatherly love in a narrative of sacrifice. Via Short of the Week:

The film is shot in Manshiyet Nasir, a location of epic poverty near Cairo where over 60% of the city’s waste is processed. 25 years ago something unexpected happened in the midst of this misery, a school started right in the heart of the area. While an opportunity for a leg up, and the potential to break out of a generational cycle of poverty, the proposition of enrolling a child in this school was by no means a simple one for residents. For families barely surviving in “Garbage City”, the loss of a child’s labor had immediate short term consequences. Still, the schools came to thrive, and their founder Maggie Gobran would go on to garner worldwide fame and multiple Nobel Prize nominations for her efforts.

The germ of a story about Garbage City and its schools was developed by The Bittersweet Foundation, a non-profit story shop dedicated to telling ‘counter-narratives’ told from multiple angles. Executive Producer Kate Schmidgall and Managing Director Dave Baker had been going after this specific story for the better part of six years, and brought in Bray to tell a documentary of Gobran’s life and work. Bray decided he wanted to approach things from a different direction though, and, while on the ground at the location, heard the story of a young girl, one of Gobran’s first students in fact, who went on to medical school in Canada. For Bray, the story “exemplified the entire struggle the people of Garbage City face everyday, and the brave parents that took a risk on education.” Thus, Bray decided to refocus the film on dramatizing the efforts of this young woman, and the sacrifice of her father to believe in her and secure the opportunity.

In its post election ad, AirBnB unveils its Community Commitment. All users must now sign this nondiscrimination pledge. Via Adweek:

A diverse group of Airbnb hosts and staff representing various races and age groups appear in this minute-long film, “Accept,” which touts the service’s recently introduced Community Commitment. Poignant in its own right, the spot resonates even more strongly in light of Tuesday’s election results.

All users must now sign this nondiscrimination pledge, or they won’t be allowed to host or book through Airbnb. The policy states, “I agree to treat everyone in the Airbnb community—regardless of their race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age—with respect, and without judgment or bias.”

Airbnb unveiled the oath as the month began, following a series of embarrassing episodes of alleged discrimination. Some of these transgressions have been catalogued via the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack.

Produced in-house, “Accept” takes a no-frills approach. Faces of men and women flash by, along with on-screen text that begins, “We believe that no matter who you are, where you’re from, or where you travel, you should be able to belong.”

“The energy from the election made acceptance all the more important for moving us forward as a global community,” says CMO Jonathan Mildenhall, Adweek’s 2016 Brand Genius winner for hospitality marketing.