B-Roll W/E 1/8/12

Best of 2012 ALREADY
Predictions are awesome. Remember Y2K? I totally fell for that one. This list is one I hope comes true as it forecasts online video galore.

As If Enough People Hadn’t Already Dumped on Netflix….
….HBO has stopped its discounts to the beleaguered service. Though I will say I’m a bit mystified why anyone would pay top dollar for Big Love, but that’s just me, I’m sure.

So Bright, You Gotta Wear Shades
Funny or Die has launched a pretty entertaining series: the 1986 spring lineup, a series of trailers for futuristic TV shows featuring the fabulous stars and graphics capabilities of the Reagan era. It’s kind of like Hot Tub Time Machine, just shorter and actually kind of funny. I’m partial to Cop-Puter with Jennifer Beals and an awesome squib death in the opening. What a feeling!

Did, Like, Stuff Happen Last Year?
Here’s the Google zeitgeist video, a handy summary in case you were mainly focusing on Ke$ha’s love life and can’t remember anything else that happened. I personally throw in the towel; Ke$ha, I simply can’t keep up with you!

Movies This Week: The Devil Inside is yet another movie where people do really dumb things, like go into dark basements with murderers and saws and stuff like that in them. It’s the only thing in wide release, though Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has arrived at my local art house, the Michigan, and looks pretty bad ass. If you haven’t seen The Artist, think about it; it’s lovely, and Jean Dujardin gives a spectacular performance. If nothing else, check out the yummy trailer.

In b.o., Mission Impossible 4 is at 1, with the Holmes and Chipmunks squeakquels in 2 and 3.

B-Roll W/E 7/8

What Goes “Ha Ha Ha Plop”?
A man laughing his head off (h/t Becky Cobler). Funny or Die is hit or miss, but I’m often amazed at the talent they get to do 3-4 minute shorts. If you’ve avoided it for some reason (the dumb name, the frat boy design, you’re just super serious), here are a couple of things that cracked me up lately: Havin’ a Summah with Zooey Deschanel, Fields of Dreams 2 with Taylor Lautner, and Mr. Celebrity with Elizabeth Banks.

Why Are Weirdos So Interesting?
The ultimate Honda fan, Million MIle Joe, is driving his ’90 Accord into the ground. Check out his story.

Can a Hamster Freddy Kreuger Be Far Behind?
This truly bizarre ad series created for TR3S.com may become your go-to the next time a client sighs and says, “You know….we really wanted you to Think Outside the Box a little more….” More on branded series. (This article’s verdict: pitch ‘em. As in sales pitch, not into the garbage.)

Does Black Make Me Look Cooler (and not fat)?
YouTube is testing a makeover.

Viral Video of the Week
According to Ad Age, this Tiny Prints Father’s Day ad received 3 MM views; according to YouTube, 600K. Even at the low end, pretty sweet for a very small company no one’s heard of. Whoa, 100K Facebook fans. I stand corrected.

Movies this week: Zookeeper has talking animals. Horrible Bosses has Jason Bateman. Alas, neither is a musical. Of last week’s releases, only Transformers is in the top 3 at (duh) number 1, followed by Cars 2 and Bad Teacher.

B-Roll W/E 6/24/11

When my daughter was 3, she said to me, “This is the story of the little girl named Apricot who named herself. There is NOT a witch in this story.”

Which I now update with the comforting words, “There is NOT a Rebecca Black in this story.”

Phones Are the New TVs
Revenue from mobile video going through the roof, at least according to this. Woot.

Vancouver Hockey Fans Are the New British Football Fans
And you can watch them in all their 360 glory here. Web dev shop NorthStudio360 anticipated capturing “a fun event.” Stupid irony. Vancouver strikes back here (not video, but an agile response).

Nerdy Guys Who Make Awesome Local Commercials Are the New Rock Stars
Making crazy over-the-top local ads that go viral managed to get Rhett and Link their own IFC show. Watch the first episode online; these guys know how to tap into the benefit and brand personality in an inspiring way, and on the super duper cheap. Also, Rhett? Is totally hot.

Your Laptop Is the New Red Carpet
Check out the preview for the world premiere of this short from Spike Jonez and Arcade Fire to be shown on MUBI for 48 hours starting July 27th. MUBI rocks, so join. And if you have upwards of ten thousand dollars or so lying around, you can even get a celebrity stylist to do your hair just for the occasion.

Angry Voice Mails Are the New PSAs
NC-17 for language, but quite, quite funny in this week’s Viral Video.

Vaginal Is the New Awesome
According to this very funny unbranded rebranding from Summer’s Eve.

Cameron Diaz Is the New Amy Pohler, With Rather Obvious Differences
Opening this week in Bad Teacher, of which Manohla Dargis at the NYT says: “With Bridesmaids still doing gangbusters at the box office, Hollywood apparently thinks it’s time for the ladies to get their hands and other parts dirty. Well, if that’s what it takes to get women out of the house, off the pedestal and into the same serious comedy club where the boys frolic and play, I say let her rip.” It’s definitely sexier than the other big opening, Cars 2, where the star power is supplied by – I’m not making this up – Larry the Cable Guy. Both will probably shove Mr. Popper’s Penguins (3rd place from last week), Super 8 (2), and Green Lantern (1) to lower numbers next week.

B-Roll W/E 6/3/11

Wow
If you’re one of the 4 people on earth (with a computer, anyway) who haven’t seen the Museum of Me yet, please go. It does not save a movie; every time you go, you get a new experience.

Hmmm….
Will people pay a premium to watch their online videos ad-free? Apparently, if they are fans of watching eagles and puppies.

Splice
YouTube’s new Creative Commons lets you sample without stealing. Alas, no more delicious frisson of illicit behavior, but no worries about pesky legalities, either. We’ll call it a wash.

Hush
I swear, the most gorgeous nature video is all on vimeo. Check out this breathtaking work by Terje Sorgjerd of TSO Photography, and thanks to www.openculture.com for the heads up.

Viral Video of the Week
A nerd brings it. When you think about it, viral video is all about nerds bringing it.

Movies This Week
Brothers and sisters, it is dead slow. X-Men: First Class is it. Whoa, Jennifer Lawrence is blue. I think going from an Academy Award-nominated performance to being a blue superhero may mean that she doesn’t get any more nominations. If you don’t believe me, might I remind you that Halle Berry went from Monster’s Ball to Catwoman.
Top B.O.: Hangover II, Kung Fu Panda 2, Pirates of the Caribbean 4. For the love of Pete, please let there be something that’s not a sequel up there next week (but it’s not looking good).

B-roll, W/E 5/27

Who Can See a Trend Rise?
Pre-roll is getting overtaken by mid-roll. What is that, you may ask? Steve Smith will tell you.

Sprinkle It with True
Ok, that’s a lame header, but I’m going somewhere. Anyway, this long article on how the Miami Herald builds its audience for online video is pretty cool, particularly on their insights into consumer expectations.

Cover It with Gaga, Let a Miracle Ensue
If you didn’t see the Google Lady Gaga mash-up that was generated pretty much on the fly….check it out. The accompanying article succinctly sums up how and why it’s pretty swell. (But I will admit that when I first saw her a couple of years back, I totally wikipedia’d her because I SWORE she was a guy.)

The Candy Man Can!
Did you miss the ukelele video bandwagon? It is crazy cool.

But in case that’s oh so 2009, you can now jump in on the a capella bandwagon. Not that a capella is anything new, just that a whole bunch of folks are discovering some pretty awesome stuff via YouTube.

Viral Video of the Week
It’s been around for a while, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it, and the Trombone Dancing Guy? Rocks. It. Out. If this guy were on Glee, I would totally watch.

Movies This Week
The Hangover Part II has Roman numerals. It’s The Hangover with a touch of class! Uh-huh. Yeah. Right. You can instead opt for Kung Fu Panda 2, though it can’t be as good as either the original or my friend’s kid’s impression of it, which is awesome, and for which, alas, I have no video.

Top B.O.: Of course, Pirates, but Bridesmaids is hanging tough in the 2nd spot. Thor the bottom feeder. Enjoy your final week at the top, Kristin Wiig and Thor! You’ll soon find it’s just as lonely at the middle…

Here’s to mixing things with love and making the world taste good, my friends.

B-Roll, W/E 5/20

Why Do I Love the Internet?
Because when my Harper’s newsletter reports this:

“In Dusseldorf, Azeri musicians Ell and Nikki won the annual Eurovision Song Contest, handily beating … a gnome-hatted, unicycling Moldovan ska band called Zdob si Zdub.”

I can go to YouTube and get this:

Now, it’s not really ska, but still…Moldova! (And to apply this logic to work, it ROCKS to be able to find video to support a product. It’s so much more fun than reading. There. I’ve said it.)

Why Do I Not Love “Viral” Video?
Larry Dobrow explains it all here, in a cool article on how to make your fake ad video that’s supposed to be real really look real. (Because one little thing can make it look fake, and then I’m like all, fake viral video, pleez.)

Why Did My Jaw Just Drop?
Because of this. I don’t know WHERE I’d put this Super Hi Vision 85-inch display TV, but if it looks this good in a crappy publicity photo…..damn. (And yes, this isn’t online video news per se, but if you’re not watching your online videos on your TV monitor yet, you will, grasshopper. You Will.)

Why Do I Not Mind Living in the Midwest as Long as I Can Say, “It’s Near Detroit?”
Because every other midwest big city makes you think of corn, but Detroit says “badass.” Chrysler is tapping into the city’s ethos nicely and just released a couple of follow-ups to the superb Super Bowl ad. I just noticed that Super B/superb thing, which is awesome. Anyway, check out one of the latest “Imported from Detroit” spots, which I think represent stellar rebranding of a brand that was kinda over. (By “kinda”, I mean, “Chrysler? Do they, like….make those things any more?”)

And here’s the spectacular original 2 minute spot.
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Meanwhile, Mitsubishi’s shot some awesome and scary video and has a well-intentioned and reasonably interesting interactive deployment.

Viral Video of the Week
If the talking dog didn’t make you cry….this might. Unless you have a heart of stone. Alas, many of you do.

Opening this week:
Pirates of the Caribbean opens. It appears to completely suck. Absolutely no one cares. It will makes Millions and Millions of dollars. Johnny Depp will not watch, because he never watches his movies. Those two braids in his beard TOTALLY squick me out. Ew. They’re like rattails for your chin. Shudder. Penelope Cruz will play a cartoon character, and you all really should watch some Amaldovar movies because she’s actually a hell of an actress.

Meanwhile, Thor stays on top but with a drastically reduced gross, indicating that, well, it’s kind of crap, though, according to the linked review, not as crap as Pirates 4. Bridesmaids, meanwhile, did rather nicely no doubt thanks to good reviews that say it’s actually not crap, jumping into the 2nd spot and pushing Fast Five to #3. But nothing will matter because next week, Pirates 4? Will be in all 3 places.

B Roll, W/E 5/13

Talk about Time to Market
Remember that 2009 Superbowl Gatorade ad, and how they managed to work in a story of a kid who had….I admit, I had to YouTube it because I couldn’t remember the story, but he was this autistic kid and had the awesomest jump shot ever? And Gatorade stuck it in their ad, which I can’t find but I remember it because I wrote about it. But, point is, this is a brand with a legal department smart and agile enough to jump on a topicality and deploy it at warp speed. Here’s a very NC17 Language unbranded video that I include because it could ONLY happen online. I mean, damn, I am watching this well-produced thing on May 12 and it references May 9. I don’t think it’s LMAO funny, but it is a stunning example of what the internet can do with video that no other medium can, and for exponentially less money, and hella fast.

Women with Braids
I thought this bizarre Facebook campaign for Hot Pockets – not exactly a cutting edge brand – was LMAO. It’s the kind of video you’d have a hard time getting away with in a spot, but is the flavor of random that works nicely online. Not for everyone, but also clean if slightly kinky. See what you think.

All Kinds of Nerds Love Video
I loved Cave of Forgotten Dreams, an arguably groundbreaking use of 3D, making history, travel, and science nerds alike all swoony. I also am frequently searching YouTube for science videos to try and explain biology when I help my kid do his homework. So this use of science video strikes me as fairly awesome, particularly since my agency has health clients.

Viral Vid of the week
So many different lists purporting to track viral vids of the week. I include this one because it has a kind of cool FB campaign with it. Like the bin Laden vid above, I don’t find it funny so much as interesting.

Snobby Cultural Moment of the Week
Working at Criterion, where you watch movies easily (no exaggeration) 40 times in a row, you become a credits geek. So imagine the thrill when www.openculture.com (AWESOME site) pointed out this spectacular destination dedicated solely to opening/end titles. Including the sequence for Lemony Snickett’s A Series of Unfortunate Events here, because, really, did anybody see that thing? And yet it has this utterly gorgeous bit of work. Enjoy.

Movies
Bridesmaids: “an unexpectedly funny new comedy about women in love, if not of the Sapphic variety, goes where no typical chick flick does: the gutter.” Manolha Dargis, NY Times
Priest: Not many reviews in, but it looks….kinda crappy.
Everything Must Go: Will Ferrell does a Stranger than Fiction type of thing to try to make up for Blades of Glory, I guess. Reviews are looking good, but seriously, unless he puts on a tutu, I’m thinkin’ the Oscar will elude him yet again.

Top B.O.: Thor (like, duh), Fast Five, with Jumping the Broom in a dead heat with Something Borrowed, which is pretty interesting when you look at the target audiences; SB should be killing JtB (and also has a lot more work to do before turning a profit). Also interesting is that Fast Five IS killing Thor overseas.

B Roll, W/E 5/6

Mobiles, The Movie
Holy smokes, check out the leap in mobile video views.

Online Video, The Movie
“28% of media buyers revealed that they expect to see the greatest increase in ad spending in the online video category for 2011, followed by mobile video (27%) and social media (25%).” Think I made that up to further my own nefarious ends? I didn’t.

DO Quit Your Day Job, the YouTube video
Volunteer bloggers with followings and good content – at least, in YT’s opinion – can start doing it full time, thanks to the YouTube Creator Institute. If only that double rainbow guy were one of them….

Minority Report, The Reality
A new startup allows for customizing video ads on the fly. Who needs a chip embedded in the eye?

That T-Mobile Royal Wedding Ad, The Analysis
Great breakdown of why that thing worked so well.

Movies This Week
Thor: “When something like Thor comes town, there is really no refuge to be found in drink, death, or subtitles.” A.O. Scott, NYT
Jumping the Broom: “Yes, there really is a way to make a boisterous, dramatic comedy about African-American life better than Tyler Perry does.” Owen Glieberman, EW
Something Borrowed: I seem to recall some sort of tie-in with a client hair product, which will no doubt give Kate Hudson a run for her money in the acting department. “Lame, misguided, plastic, obnoxious.” You go, pissed-off Indiewire critic!
Mel Gibson is in something with a stuffed beaver. I will now go wash out my eyes with soap.
Top B.O.: Fast Five knocked Rio to 2, Madea to 3

What You Should See Instead, aka Snobby Cultural Moment
Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams is playing at the Michigan. I adore Herzog. Come to my desk if you would like an enthusiastic Herzog primer. I will try not to lecture. It will be difficult. This one is also a breakthrough in the use of 3D; it’s used to record the extraordinary environment as precisely as possible, not to throw pizzas out of the screen. Or big squawky birds straddled by hot blue chicks. Here’s the trailer.

Viral Video of the Week
A talking German shepherd. What’s not to love?

B Roll Week ending 4/29

Music to Our Ears (and Video to Our Eyes)
“…as silos are slowly coming down within agency walls, traditionally defined roles are changing. So if a media agency has a great creative idea for a TV commercial, and the talent and tools to pull it off, some clients are going for it. Ditto for other big, outta-the-box ideas,” says Steve McClellan in Ad Age. YES. Read the story.

And While We’re on the Subject of Silos…
“It is hard to think of another retailer that has so fully obliterated the longstanding silos between media and marketing.” Amazon launched its new Author Interview Series this week. Good. Video. Content. Engages. And. Drives. Sales. (Reread until memorized.)

I Stream, You Stream, We All Stream for ……Scream 4?
Having survived digitizing video clips in the glorious days of lossy, I find Netflix’ streaming service a true miracle. Here’s a forecast/roundup of other companies about to start streaming feature movies more seriously.

The Raw vs. the Cooked
Analytics lovers everywhere will be pleased as punch to see all the much easer-to-read tools from YouTube tracking performance stats. Unless, of course, they have a thing for raw data stuffed into spreadsheets, which is how YT has been delivering this info.

Viral Vid of the Week:
The president of the Czech Republic is a total klepto.

Movies Opening This Week:
Fast Five (Vin Diesel NOT aging well), Hoodwinked! Too (there was a Hoodwinked! Won?), and Prom (….I got nothin’….)

Top B.O.: Rio holding the top, with Madea’s Big Happy Family and Water for Elephants in the next two spots.

The Thick – Really Thick, Actually – Line Between Clever and Stupid

While flash mobs are SO 2008, people are still doing them, because, well, it’s kind of fun to see people “dancing” en masse in public. To that end, there are half-assed flash mobs. And there are flash mobs that look a little more like people sort of spontaneously bursting into dance because the product is so damn awesome.

So first, we have this painful number from Arby’s. Then again, what do you expect from the people who sunk bazillions of dollars into a spokesmitt?

Then there’s this one from American Airlines.

I think one reason it works is that it starts with a little girl pretending she’s an airplane, which is something you’d see. Also, the choreography flows naturally and takes optimal advantage of the space, no mean feat. Finally, note how much better shot and edited the AA one is; really important, as there are probably only a hundred people who see it live, so its impact is through web views.

At the end of the day, a flash mob should evoke joy. Not …. lameness.

It is only fair to note the nasty comments on the AA YouTube page, which naturally say things like, “Run a better airline, morons!” Airlines do seem to bring out the worst in people. Having logged a lot of miles in the last couple of years, I have no issues with AA. All airlines are the same except Spirit, which is true torture for the tall AND charges for carry-on which…come on. Anyway, the snarking here is excessive.

As to whether or not there was any perceptible ROI on this….I think the hope is that the mob gets picked up as a news story on local tv. It’s an old concept, so…I’m thinking not.

But I still liked it.