Happy Birthday to MM
Armando Alves @ July 2nd, 2008
The best place for heroes
Armando Alves @ July 3rd, 2008Branded entertainment has found a new home on the web, with collaborations between brands and media industries. From sweepstakes to sponsored videocasts, the growth of online content is being fed by partnerships with brands.
One of the most active participants are movie studios, and altough many brands are only trying to cash in on the big names like “Star Wars” or “James Bond”, some campaigns actually feel relevant to the film plot.
Such is the case for Mercedes-Benz and their latest van, Viano. Together with Hamburg agency Syzygy AG, they’ve accomplished a beautifully executed website, The Best Place For Heroes.
Mercedes partnered with Disney, and based on the story of the blockbuster movie “Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian” created a interactive narrative where the beauty of their online video navigation stands out.
From becoming a Narnia mythical creature (yes, that’s me above) to a hero message board (aren’t these the new guestbooks ?) the whole experience makes you wonder if you’re in a movie website, in a theater or just enjoying a road trip adventure on the new van. Be sure to turn you audio on and explore the online chronicle.
Source: Ars Thanea Blog
Cannes Lions have left this building
Armando Alves @ June 27th, 2008This won’t be the usual retrospective on the most famous advertising festival, only a remark on the fact that this humble site featured (and even premiered) many of them.
Halo 3 and Whopper Freakout won at Integrated .
On Cyber, Uniqlock had a important win, specially for showing that blogs are a a valid online media alternative.
Other works featured here were also winners at Cyber: Absolut Machines, A Blind Call, Who is Fermin and Orange Unlimited, Red Cross Horselstest, Coke Zero, Get Out and Play, First Few Words, Flugtag Flight Lab and Bring The Love Back.
I guess i have an eye for winners. Perhaps it’s time for the folks at Cannes to invite me as a juror?
Hillman Curtis short films
Armando Alves @ June 26th, 2008For all the love birds out there, enjoy “Bridge”, the new short film by one of my first masters of digital creativity, Hillman Curtis.
It’s rewarding to see the path that Hillman has trailed, developing the first Macromedia Flash banners to becoming a film director. Once you find your creative genius, it’s just a matter of time until you start using it on other disciplines, making the invisible visible.
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)
Armando Alves @ June 22nd, 2008UM: International Festival for Experimental and Mixed Media
Armando Alves @ June 16th, 2008New media festivals are usually promising, with lots of great performances and exhibitions, and yet, they do a lousy job of promoting themselves on the web. That’s what probably happened to UM, the International Festival for Experimental and Mixed Media, taking place in Lisbon, that has almost no reference in Google. Come on, is it that hard to announce the event on Upcoming.org or Rhizome ?
Of course i’m not happy about as the even occurs while i’m out. AdobeAS3Tour with Colin Moock is taking place next Monday, and no way i’ll miss a weekend break in Milan for a badly announced event. For those interested, here’s a small selection:
2008 Programme
Lisbon, 19 - 22 June 2008
Exhibition
Performances
Workshops
Enjoy.
P.S.:
Any reader suggestions for this weekend in Milan are welcome.
Moodstream by GettyImages
Armando Alves @ June 11th, 2008Brainstorms are the quintessential tool for creative people, and though the results are not always tangible and reflected in the final concept, they remain one of the most effective tools to think out of the box.
The web has given us other similar tools like mindmaps, but none was so powerful has the freshly released Moodstream by GettyImages, produced by Barbarian Group.
With the imense amount of metadata that image banks have, with additional assets like video and audio, it was a matter of time to mashup all these creative assets and come up with a imagination machine like this.
We can fine tune our settings, select the transistion to the moodboards or adjust the audio. Once you pick enough inspirations, it’s all up to execution.
Great work by GettyImages, a worthy successor to the previous 10 ways.
Source: Infosthetics
Frozen Rua Augusta
Armando Alves @ June 10th, 2008A few months ago, one of the missions of ImproveEverywhere went viral, the now famous Frozen Grand Central. The stunt then had iterations around the world in several cities.
It was about time that Lisbon had such a prank, and with Rodrigo as the organizer, we managed to get 65 agents downtown Lisbon.
Rua Augusta is one of the busiest streets, with lots of tourists, and this last Saturday was particularly crowded with people getting ready to watch Portugal-Turkey for Euro 2008. All went well, with no police intrusion or harassment of the agents, but i’ll let the video (in portuguese) speak for itself:
I found myself freezing for 5 minutes, while carrying the book Groundswell. Oh, the irony.
If you want to to be on the next mission, join us at our Ning group..
The full story, in Portuguese, here.
Moo Minicards crowdsourcing
Armando Alves @ June 9th, 2008EDIT (11/06/08): Celso is pushing the idea further, and created the Moo Crowdsourcing Flickr Pool. Join in and submit up to 7 selected works.
I also got in touch with the Moo staff, to see if they extend this idea. Thanks everyone. I will be delighted to feature your works on my Moo cards, with a great story to tell.
Are you an gifted illustrator? A sharp eye photographer ? A kick-ass graphic designer ?
Then leave a comment with your URL , send me an email or post to the Flickr Pool.
I’m ordering some Moo Minicards and would love to promote your great work.
This post will be updated with the selected sets and URLs. It’s also a great chance to find out the extraordinary talent of some of my readers and/or their friends. Thanks.
Example: submit to the Flickr group or comment with the address to your Behance portfolio page, as long as your Creative Commons license allows it.
