Cool Blog

Just come across this cool blog, its a branding blog but they've got some cool adverts on there too.

Screen Writing

Since writing scripts for adverts, (not great scripts I might add to lessen your disappointment) I have been thinking about screenwriting and have found some interesting things...

Joseph Campbell a mythologist realised that all the myths that have survived and been passed down the generations (they may have evolved just as religions (my note)) were made up of the same formula, he called it The Hero's Journey


1. A call to adventure, which the hero has to accept or decline
2. A road of trials, regarding which the hero succeeds or fails
3. Achieving the goal or "boon," which often results in important self-knowledge
4. A return to the ordinary world, again as to which the hero can succeed or fail
5. Application of the boon, in which what the hero has gained can be used to improve the world

And this is the Syd Field's Paradigm (taken from his book screenplay

Opening Image: The first image in the screenplay should summarize the entire film, especially its tone. Often, writers go back and redo this as the last thing before submitting the script.

Inciting Incident: Also called the catalyst, this is the point in the story when the Protagonist encounters the problem that will change their life. This is when the detective is assigned the case, where Boy meets Girl, and where the Comic Hero gets fired from his cushy job, forcing him into comic circumstances.

Plot Point 1: The last scene in Act One, Turning Point One is a surprising development that radically changes the Protagonist's life, and forces him to confront the Opponent. In Star Wars, this is when Luke's family is killed by the Empire. He has no home to go back to, so he joins the Rebels in opposing Darth Vader.

Pinch 1: A reminder scene at about 3/8 the way through the script (halfway through Act 2a) that brings up the central conflict of the drama, reminding us of the overall conflict. For example, in Star Wars, Pinch 1 is the Stormtroopers attacking the Millennium Falcon in Mos Eisley, reminding us the Empire is after the stolen plans to the Death Star R2-D2 is carrying and Luke and Ben Kenobi are trying to get to the Rebel Alliance (the main conflict).

Midpoint: An important scene in the middle of the script, often a reversal of fortune or revelation that changes the direction of the story. Field suggests that driving the story towards the Midpoint keeps the second act from sagging.

Pinch 2: Another reminder scene about 5/8 through the script (halfway through Act 2b) that is somehow linked to Pinch 1 in reminding the audience about the central conflict. In Star Wars, Pinch 2 is the Stormtroopers attacking them as they rescue the Princess in the Death Star. Both scenes remind us of the Empire's opposition, and using the Stormtrooper attack motif unifies both Pinches.

Plot Point 2: A dramatic reversal that ends Act 2 and begins Act 3, which is about confrontation and resolution. Sometimes Turning Point Two is the moment when the Hero has had enough and is finally going to face the Opponent. Sometimes, like in Toy Story, it's the low-point for the Hero, and he must bounce back to overcome the odds in Act 3.

Showdown: About midway through Act 3, the Protagonist will confront the Main Problem of the story and either overcome it, or come to a tragic end.

Resolution: The issues of the story are resolved.

Tag: An epilogue, tying up the loose ends of the story, giving the audience closure. This is also known as denouement. In general, films in recent decades have had longer denouements than films made in the 1970s or earlier.

Thanks to the article screenwriting on Wikipedia

Matt Stuart

I've been checking out Matt Stuarts photography in Dazed I love his "happy accidents" photography,

I wonder if he sees them when he has his camera out, if I want to take a photo, it always takes me too long to get out my camera and the moment's passed, I guess being prepared is one of the secrets to taking great photography.

Kinetica Arts Fair

Funny Film about Advertising

I hope its not as bad as this suggests, watch out for fabulous Americanism

Wouldnt it be nice

..


Its a shame Britain doesn't look nicer, whenever I go abroad it strikes me that a lot of European countries seem to spend more money on nice things, I wonder what they'll do for
the Olympics 2012, something like this (which is in Chilli) would be nice



..

Dove Evolution

...




I think this is a brilliant advert for brand awareness/ awareness of the brands values because I think its what women want to see.

I wonder if its enough to make people buy their products. I buy their deodorant, and would probably buy their shampoo if I hadn't been given some other stuff, but that's because I tried some that was at my boyfriends house and I liked it.





...

Nike Social Media Ap for iphone

Found Here

Nike is giving us their taste in mobile marketing with True City, an iPhone app with the tagline ‘Making the hidden visible.’ It combines social elements with current mobile technologies to create a next-gen city and travel guide for six European cities.

With each city comes a host ‘tastemaker’ to guide users to lesser known community attractions. For Paris, it is BKRW founder Jay Smith. Of course Jay’s perspective alone is not enough, as an addition to each host there is a second tier of designated contributors and a third of so called ‘civilian’ contributors. Everyone is encouraged to add their own finds, geo-tagged, throughout a city. The best, or most popular, will have an opportunity to join the team of Nike insiders. It appears that Nike is reaching for an army of hyper-local, mobile-connected advocates.

Nike’s agency, AKQA, has also implemented a QR code reader which will let users unlock secrets around the city. Events could be announced through these, giving an added social incentive for being the first to know. And of course, all content can be shared via Facebook.

Ideas Bounty!

I've just become aware of this website:

Where live briefs are posted and anyone can submit ideas, I wonder how notable winning one would be and how this will effect agencies, if at all...

Blue Dot Chair experiment

Blu Dot Real Good Experiment from Real Good Chair on Vimeo.

"When we opened our SoHo store in 2008, we were introduced to the resourceful culture of "curb-mining": the act of finding furniture and art on the street. Now that a year has passed, we decided to conduct a curb-mining experiment of our own to celebrate our one-year anniversary in New York.

On November 4-5, 25 Real Good Chairs were dropped around NYC, free for the take. Many were GPS-enabled. Watch the film to see what happened."


I think this is a cool thing to do, i don't think there are enough experiments for design, we might be a lot wiser about it if there were.. to think about!

GoViral

Just heard about the company 'GoViral' who distribute viral adverts, seeding them in places with high traffic... looks interesting.

Royal Mail Releases Personalised Stamps

This is so cool, now you can upload a picture and have it made into a stamp, I love the Royal Mail

do it here

Advertising that only shows when it rains

This is an interesting use of media, the paint used to create this tires advert, I guess suggesting that the company work well in the rain, driving message, only appears when it rains

I suppose this might make people notice it if they go that way often enough to notice that it appears and disappears,

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/8644/raincampaign-continental-tires.html

Simon C Cage, Year of Astology posters

Here's what he has to say:

"Here are some retro style posters which I have created for the International Year of Astronomy which is this year (2009). Rather than go for a modern sci-fi highly photoshopped image I have gone for a more retro feel with posters that you might of expect to see on an old astronomy book back in the 60s and 70s.

I initially designed these as self-promotional works but word gets around and last week I received an email from the IYA 09 that they thought the posters were great and would like to use them for their promotional work - this was awesome and I of course said yes."

Google to sell Virtual ad space on Street View

here

According to a new patent that was just granted to Google, the company could soon extend the reach of its advertising program in Google Maps to Street View.

This patent, which was originally filed on July 7, 2008, describes a new system for promoting ads in online mapping applications.

In this patent, Google describes how it plans to identify buildings, posters, signs and billboards in these images and give advertisers the ability to replace these images with more up-to-date ads.

In addition, Google also seems to plan an advertising auction for unclaimed properties.

In Google's example, the software could identify the marquis and individual window posters on a theater property and replace them with new information.

Through this, a theater could promote a new play in Street View, even if the actual Street View image is completely out of date.


This is really interesting, especialy considering the last post, and crossover between virtual and physical, i think we are just getting the hang of this, its interesting.

Kevin Slavin- Playing the City

I've just watched Kevin Slavins' lecture for the RSA called playing the city.

He talks about new ways that the physical and virtual world interact when we have location aware technology,

like with one of his games, people are physicaly running away from a virtual enemy, which appears on a map on their phones, it's interesting that players look at a corner ehrn the enemy is showen on their map as coming round it,

and he mentions that games are often about territory, thinking about it other themes for games are combat, social interaction (sims) all more developed ways of practicing our primeval human skills, as we would have played as children from the beginnings.


He talks about how games went through a brief spell from the late 80s where people played on their own, things like lemmings and worms come to mind,(bearing in mind that people often would sit with another person watching or contrubutin0 but now technology has brought people into games again in the form of online multiplayers, and apps.

I find this interesting, as I have often been frustrated and confused about the appeal of spending massive amounts of time playing single player shooters as apposed to socialising, but am pleasantly surprised that people now prefer to use the social aspects of games and claim that that's the real fun, that makes more sense to me.


He also talks about how when designing a game now, he sets up the premise, like providing a map and saying that you can claim different bits of the map, and trade with neighbors, he found that from introducing it in America, people have traveled and claimed parts all over the world, and it has escalated without him doing anything about it.

This is inereting because the it is viral and becomes a self sufficient system, which is what i think is interesting about programing, and seems to be the basis for artificial inteligence.

He set up spore and I can see what he is interested in. He seems to be behaving like a scientist but researching evolution and self sufficient systems, possibly the evolution of intelligence and things becoming essentially brains, but using games, personal technology and people as his research. Reeeeeeealy interesting!!!

Typogrpahy Self Portrait

We had a project to make a self portrait using typography

I wanted to make an image for each letter of the alphabet showing an everyday activity that i would be doing.

This way the alphabet would be like a series of image from my life.

Here is a sample!

Recreating famous postcards

Stonehenge



I found this on Design Boom and love it:


markus georg is a berlin-based photographer who has created a series of images that recreate famous
postcard sites using an array of people and everyday objects.

the series features environmental
landmarks like the matterhorn in switzerland, urban sites like the skyline of frankfurt and historic
events like september 11, 2001.

the series of photographs stands on its own, but is made even more
intriguing when paired with its real life equivalent.

georg intended the images to be used on the front

of 4x6 inch post cards calling our perceptions of these iconic scenes into question.



brandenburg gate, berlin

New Advertising sitcom

Oh dear, I hope this isn't what I'm studying for, looks awful, will have to ask Gareth how realistic it is when the sitcom comes out



"From the makers of the award-winning series, The Inbetweeners, and debut screenwriter, Jonathan Thake, comes new British sitcom, The Persuasionists."

They continue:

"The sitcom focuses on the lives of five overpaid and underworked employees at fictional advertising agency HHH&H.

The uncontrollable urge-bag Keaton peruses the workplace for new conquests – everyone he hasn’t already had. Billy, the intelligent underachiever, indulges in his role as the office menace. Spoilt neurotic Emma would like to break the glass ceiling, but only if it doesn’t damage her lovely hair. Boss Clive, the most Australian man on the planet, exults in his position as the resplendently ridiculous manager. The hopeless, witless and feckless Greg is the eager Account Director desperately aspiring to be as ambitious and amoral as his colleagues.

Over the course of the series viewers will witness the five advertising degenerates battle their way through a variety of scenarios from having to sell a brown smelly ‘cockney cheese’ for a disillusioned, aggressive and frightening cockney client. Issues of beauty are tackled in episode two, as Emma becomes the ‘Head of Handsomeness’ and creates the ‘corridor of beauty’, placing the uglier colleagues in the boiler room. Later in the series Keaton, the Head of Global, becomes impotent as he learns that women are “somehow human too”. Keaton and Billy engage on a war of being impractical and battle it out to prove they are not mature and sensible. Emma embraces the new ‘Diet Stuff’ drink a little too enthusiastically and begins protesting against obesity. Billy experiences the frustration of writer’s block and Keaton sets out to steal his colleagues’ happiness."

Let's hope it's better than the last agency-set sitcom that I vaguely remember. Can't remember the name but I vaguely recall something unfunny with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Leslie Ash.

The one reliably hilarious advertising 'sitcom' is always the bit in The Apprentice when the candidates are sent to work with a 'top' agency and end up producing stuff that a ten year old would be embarrassed to post on YouTube. It's always interesting to see who will manage to make themselves look more foolish - the candidates or the agency 'experts'.

The Persuasionists starts on BBC2 next wednesday at 10.00 pm.

http://wklondon.typepad.com/welcome_to_optimism/2010/01/new-advertising-sitcom-coming-to-bbc2.html

http://www.taylorherring.com/blog/index.php/2010/01/the-advertising-industry-gets-the-sitcom-treatment/

Wayne Levin

Just discovered the amazing photography by Wayne Levin
Here are some of my favorites

WAYNE LEVIN Freediver Photographing Oceanic Shark, Hawaii

WAYNE LEVIN Pearling WAYNE LEVIN Line of giant Ulua, Pearl and Hermes

WAYNE LEVIN Synchronized Swimming #2

From www.waynelevin.com