Screwed up!

Here are the nuts and bolts of love:

Screwed Up from Kris Hofmann on Vimeo.

An alphabet that animates itself

Here is a second video for The Alphabet by Italian design studio n9ve:

The Alphabet 2 from n9ve on Vimeo.

Each letter of the alphabet is filled with an animation demonstration. Like D is for DESTRUCTION and watch the D explode into smithereens. And N is for NOTHING. NIENTE. NADA. NICHTS. O is for ORIGAMI. T is for TETRIS, and so forth.  It's fun a little video.  

The first installation of The Alphabet includes a typeface representation for each letter of the alphabet:

The Alphabet from n9ve on Vimeo.

Helvetica wears a crown. Because it is truly the king of typefaces.

Play with the largest train set in the world

While there have been a lot of videos that feature a miniaturized-style, this one for Reseau Ferré De France uses this technique to make the French Rail Network look like a toy train in a really playful way:

Larger than life marionette show

Here's a video for Royal de Luxe, a French street marionette company.  They performed their new show Giants Royal de Luxe in Nantes, France:

ROYAL DE LUXE / EL XOLO on Vimeo.

This is the film Being John Malkovich come to life.  The attention to detail with these mechanical marionettes movement is phenomenally impressive, from the batting of the eyelids, to the realism of each step. Towards the end of the video, it shows the team jumping off the platform in order to pull the ropes of the extremely tall marionette.

Little girls for sale

Here is a video that just seems like an ordinary video of a little girl selling her toys, but when you mouse over the girl... WTF!  Little Sharon is for sale too!

When you click on Sharon you get an explanation of Love146:

You have to press play more than once

I had to press play seven times to be able to read the copy on this video ad for the International OCD Foundation: 

When you can finally see the copy, it reads:

"For some people,

performing simple actions repeatedly is an everyday matter.  

But this is just one of the issues people with

obsessive compulsive disorder deal with."

A very simple, one-frame video communicates a powerful message.

Inspiration corner

Here's an amazing video from Radiolab:

This one entitled "Symmetry" shows the balance of all the naturally paired objects in our lives.  

Without darkness we cannot have light.

Denny's tries to woo the drunken 3 am crowd

This video created for Denny's "Always Open" campaign, starring David Koechner, has all the ingredients for what may become an excellent video:

1) Sarah Silverman

2) awkward humor

3) Sarah Silverman

This spot is only mildly comical.  Kind of like Denny's food.  Yes they serve food, but it's not that great.  Where else are you going to go at 3 am and have senseless drunken conversations?  So maybe this ad is really spot on after all.  

The first Always Open "webisode" with Jason Bateman seemed even more rambling than the Sarah Silverman spot:  

The latest one stars Will Arnet and may actually the best one so far.

"Viral" sale-a-bration

Here is a "viral ad" by Pixar to promote Cars 2:

I think what initially bugs me about this viral vid is the fact that it is live-action.  Pixar produces great CGI-animated films, so why is this campaign live action?  Which in itself is not that bad, but the video is not really compelling nor does it contains the components of the typical weirdness found in viral.

This viral ad mimics low-budget local car dealership commercials usually found on telly in the wee-hours of the night.  There are hints of Pixar-stuff in the background with the mysterious bad-guy in the background and the robot that pops out from underneath the car, which will probably become clearer once the film is released.  

But this ad is such a disconnect from this, the image we have become accustomed to of Cars universe:

To this:

Teasers tend to tie-in with the whole campaign so this video was a gigantic HUH? for me.  Maybe it'll make more sense with the movie, but I don't recall there being a human in the first Cars film. 

But I will say it was incredibly meta to have a fake ad be the platform for your ad. 

Putting your finger there makes a difference

The first time I watched this video for Skittles I did not follow instructions and place my finger on the screen:

Big mistake!  It's kind of a creepy, but it works.  When the kitten is liking your finger, it almost feels like it's actually liking your finger.  When beardy-cat comes along, this ad gets infinitely creepier with his eye expressions.

The others in the Touch campaign are pretty hiliarious:

Don't use the word "viral" in an ad

There have been some crappy viral campaigns coming out, like this "press conference" with Ford ... and Doug the puppet? 

 

The first time, I got to 1:33 before I found something better to do.  The jokes were pretty awful.  Viral cannot be forced.  It gets worse with the one-on-one interview with Doug and pretty pants.  And apparently... there are going to be a whole series of webisodes with Doug.  Unfortunately...

And then there was the LOSS protests for GE appliances.

  

This advert seem really tasteless considering very serious and very real protests happening around the world.  And at the end, "NOTICE: ... "You, on the other hand, understand this is an elaborate joke.  We hope it makes you chuckle.  Or chortle.  Or both."  Interesting way to get around legal copy copywriters, but it draws attention to the fact 1) the suspension of disbelief has been broken 2) if you have to say it's a joke, it's not funny.

Last one, and I actually like this one.  But I have a soft spot for nerdy boys.  It has the right percentage of hokey.  It is a little too long, but of course it's a "music video."  And they brought back the Kid n' Play...

 

It just works for me, until the faux tour when they walk into the "viral video" department.  That just kills it.