“Enter The Dragon“, Bruce Lee’s first (and only) solo big Hollywood production, ran on Australian television last weekend. So it is good timing that I have managed to pull together a video case study of my/SKOP’s “I know Where Bruce Lee Lives“. This tells the story of an ultra-interactive KungFu remixer combining the heroism and cheesiness of 70s KungFu films, the ironic use of the VHS video aesthetic with simple yet engaging interactivity. Here’s more on the making of this interactive art piece. Unfortunately we never filmed any of the live installations and performances. Teaches you to document everything well for cases like these.
We recently got tasked by LG Australia to create an online campaign for their top range of Smart TVs. The general point of Smart or Connected TVs is to combine web browsing and accessing personal and social media with scheduled free-to-air and cable TV programs.
We created a not-so serious dramatisation of the users’ entertainment options. Our “Your Digital Life” makes you the hero of an impossibly awesome movie trailer. From action, sports to romance, you can have it all. Oh, and did we mention a Nobel Prize worthy intellect holding it all together?
The talent in this example is Tim Burrowes, editor of Australian marketing blog Mumbrella. The Facebook integration contains potentially a world first. As soon as you connect via facebook “Your Digital Life” features your face, personal facts and friends prominently in the film. But additionally it uses text-to-speech to turn 2 of your status updates into dialogue in it. So true to the tag line, an LG Cinema 3D Smart TV really “puts you in the picture”.
LG Your Digital Life
Just today I stumbled across a classic Italian animation, “La Ligna” with a story line not unlike our “Your Digital Life”. Being framed in the television set did not seem so desirable back in the 1970s.
Additionally, BBH Labs wrote an interesting piece on the impact of connected TV on video content production and advertising. Check it out here: Part 1 and Part 2. Indeed, how much will these TV sets change the way we couch surf? What do you think?
The Young Cyber Lions competition finished last week, and as a sign of hope for our talent-starved industry, the round of 2011 brought a record number of entries. The winning team’s entry, conceived and produced within 24 hours as per the rules, can be seen here.
Cyber winner entry by Gene Brutty and Tim Seddon
Two things stood out for me as Chairman of the jury. Firstly, the very deserved winning team was from Perth, which produces a good crop of talent (100% of Cyber and 50% of the Media winners). Perth might just not be able to hold onto it for too long. Secondly, the Cyber entries still only amount to 25% of the print entries, grossly misrepresenting the type of work flowing through almost every agency in the world.
Still too many young Australian creatives find making a great poster more achievable, or even more interesting. But at the same time, we label them ‘interactive natives’, view them as part of a well-connected generation. Even the most senior participant couldn’t have been older than 15 when sending his first email or browsing for her friends party photos.
What’s certain is that the odds of winning a Cyber ticket to Cannes were still a lot better than in any other discipline. In the interest of ever growing creative field, let’s hope the race in 2012 will be a much tougher one.
It essentially was a very early mash-up piece, using snippets of Bruce Lee films (animations, fight sounds and loops of the score by genius Lalo Schifrin). Particularly entertaining for us was the hammy gangster dialogue snatched from the German dubbing of said martial arts films. Sprinkled into the mash-up were Chinese characters that mimic some of the sounds you hear. In order to get these right we had asked a Chinese language professor for help – to this day I have no idea what they really mean (see a trailer for the app here).
I know where Bruce Lee lives - by SKOP
The playful interactivity comes through using your keyboard to ‘make music’ with Kung Fu. There is a longer list of the international festivals and exhibitions (from the US, Brazil, Spain and Holland to Hongkong and Australia) it was part of.
To this day ‘I know where Bruce Lee lives‘ ranks among the top Google search hits for the Asian hero. I still receive emails of people discovering and liking it, among them many martial arts fans but also musicians such as Krautrock-god Holger Czukay of CAN fame. The latest feedback email came through last week, from one of the members of ‘V for Volume‘. They are apparently a very popular Chilean band, coincidentally sporting some half-German members in their line up.
It is kind of hard to see the Bruce Lee connection in this video, maybe I should brush up on my Spanglish. But despite this, it never ceases to amaze me how the internet connects us in different ways at different times with our various tastes and aesthetic sensibilities. Double Rainbow all the way.
For a while my music finder of choice has obviously been HypeMachine – if you don’t use it already I would seriously recommend it to you. At least till Spotify is officially available in Australia.
As I tweeted a new discovery (go check out Wooden Birds) I was surprised by HypeMachine’s scorebot. A nifty script that automatically comes back with a display of my “musical influence”. I apparently made 39 other people discover and like the same band/act.
Hype Machine's Scorebot
Gave me a little pat on the back, like someone asking you if they could copy your mixtape (I know, waaaay back in the days). Or that nod of approval by the long-time employee of your favourite record shop. Nice.
