17; My Little Sony

For the last couple of days I've been playing with various toys and a friend's digital camera. This is the result:


My Little Sony from Anthony Lewis on Vimeo.




If it's not obvious, it's a parody of a series of adverts. Everything is better in miniature:
Cadbury: Gorilla, Eyebrows, Airport Race.
French Connection: The Man
Skoda: Car Cake
Innocent Smoothies: Rabbit 
And the running theme: Sony Bravia: Bouncy Balls

I've chosen these ads purely because they are all very recognisable, memorable and parody-able, and made by Fallon. As I mentioned the other day, I went to a talk by a couple of guys from fallon the other day, and that's when I thought of making this video. It was mostly an easy way of helping to choose which ads to reference, and it really does show how high profile, entertaining & varied one agency's work can be.

Probably more on this tomorrow, and I'll hopefully add a higher quality version at some point (although it was all taken on a fairly ordinary digital still camera, so the quality will never be great).

Also, thankyou Rachel for baking, giving me the camera and collecting up the balls.

#c; 1 Question

Back to posting links/videos since I don't have time to do real things...

This video is interesting. First, watch this:

Fifty People, One Question: London from Fifty People, One Question on Vimeo.


Now decide what you think. By far the most interesting thing about this video, is the responses. Look over the comment thread below the video at http://madebyon.com/fifty-londoners-one-question/

Opinion seems to fall, very broadly, in one of two schools: Either, "this film is great. Such a probing question -emotional, and moving" or, "this film is a bit ridiculous. It is over-done and self important; its question isn't really all that poignant or emotional, and this question really isn't going to change the world or people's lives."

There are clearly many people who have watched this and felt very moved and touched - there's several people who have been brought to tears. When I watched it, I admit I definitely responded to the film in some way. But, on considering it, I think I'd fall closer to the sceptical opinion of this. For me, this video is much more a great example of how good editing, nice photography and careful music choice can afford an average video the illusion of quality. I would be interested to see the same video filmed on a video phone and editing with less leading emotionality. In a sense, I wonder if this is the equivalent of using incredible CGI in a blockbuster film with no real substance - after about 30 minutes of robots fighting you need a bit more, but will happily enjoy the spectacle for a while.

I'm not at all attacking this video - I genuinely enjoyed it, and it is quite powerful. However, I think it works as a great illustration of just how powerful the potential of video is. The right medium, used cleverly, can work wonders. 

Once these exams are over, I'm definitely gonna learn me some video editing...