Archive

Tag Archives: advertising

Video Games as Cinema

By
June 11, 2013
A Video
Leave a comment

The people behind Quanitc Dream argue that the time has come for CG to take a step beyond where it’s been and enter the artistic world of art and cinema. Anyone who has seen the overuse of golden light for egotistic, rather than artistic, effect, might doubt their claim. But Quanitc Dream, who have a video game coming out soon starring Ellen Paige and Willem Dafoe, stand behind that claim. After all, these are the same folks who made Kara, a 7 minute long animation that was beautiful, creepy and showed everyone how much harder they have to try.

The Dark Sorcerer is their latest, released today as a part of E3 2013. It’s not a trailer for a video game, though it is a promo for PlayStation 4.

CG Chimp is both the character and the argument

By
June 4, 2013
A Video
Leave a comment

Sticking with the theme for a second, here’s another video about an ape (though decidedly different from my last post). This time it’s a short ad from PETA advocating against using chimps in television and movies. It’s brutal, yes. But the best part of the video is that the incredible CG Chimp is both the character and the argument.

Chad Vader Pimps Popsicles

By
November 9, 2012
A Video
Leave a comment


I don’t know what I love more, that ThinkGeek released a kit to make lightsaber popsicles or that they enlisted Chad Vader to promote them. For those of you who are not familiar, Chad Vader is a web series created by Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda in 2006. It’s one of the first instances where an original online web series gained a massive following proving that serialized success on YouTube can exist. It also helped further the not so untrue theory that anything Star Wars related has the potential to be huge online. If you haven’t seen the series, I’d highly recommend digging deep into the YouTube vaults and giving Chad Vader and his disappointing life as a dayshift manager a watch.

Nonstop: Let Your Body Drive

By
April 19, 2012
A Video
Leave a comment

Is this an ad? My guess is yes, but do I care? Nope. Featuring the very talented Marquese Scott, aka  Nonstop, this video showcases a new move by the sensational YouTube dancer called the ‘body drive.’ There’s a random car in the background and the video has it’s own landing page. All of pieces scream digital advertisement, but that’s not a bad thing.

Nonstop still impresses with moves that are part street, mime, and Michael Jackson all rolled into one breathtaking take. The first time I watched I thought the parking garage was green screened, but it’s not! According to the video description it was “shot in one take. There are no edits, no visual effects and no pre-planned choreography.’

Also interesting, this video of questionable origin also has four times the viewership of the official video for ‘Feel the Love’ by UKs Rudimental. So why wouldn’t the sponsor at the very least drop their name in the description? Are ad agencies selling subliminal as the next big thing? Or do I just not know the first thing about car brands in Europe?

Creating a ‘Method’ to the Madness

By
March 15, 2012
A Video
Leave a comment

There are moments when working in branded entertainment impacts my judgement on what is awesome, and this is one of them. Created by the digital agency Mekanism, this Method ‘anthem’ is definitely an advertisement, but not in the tradition sense. There’s something very internet-specific about it that makes me love it. Maybe it’s the close ups, the music choice, or the hipster styling, but it reminds me of a video that could possibly be made by OK Go.

Despite all the madness (drums, lite-brite wall, balloon half pipe), one thing is clear. Method is one of the companies that ‘gets it’. Digital distribution is different than television. And if audiences are going to click on your video and spend the time to watch it online, they want to be entertained.

So touche, Method. I’m convinced that you are the coolest. If I didn’t already use your products, I would now.