Engines Roar

Video Democracy at Work

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 15:35:00 +0000

Recently, I watched an in-flight video done by Delta which featured Bob Mothersbaugh from DEVO and thought this was a good opportunity to talk about how even your most casual of internet viewing affects content production. If you watched the previously mentioned example consider how it works versus your standard in-flight video; honestly which would be a more entertaining five minutes of your time? Short of calling Delta and saying "Hello, love the video, please do more" how can you, the viewer make this a constant or a staple?

The short and easy answer is watch the hell out of it. And furthermore, watch the whole thing. Nothing I'm going to tell you about how to make a video go viral or effective is new, but for those of you who have never sat in on a meeting where a client needs proof your work IS actually effective this will hopefully make you a bit more mindful about your YouTube rabbit holes.

Every time you watch, like, or share (WLS) something it goes into the metrics and becomes part of the feedback the marketing/advertising company can show to their client. Metrics are simply the ways we measure a variety of things concerning online content. For video we often look at the number of views, how long a viewer watches the video, and it's reach once they've seen it. Google did a really good job of breaking down the core metrics when it comes to a YouTube video (or any online video really) here. These metrics are a big deal when presenting or proposing work; for example, if I wanted to create a show based on a series of videos I did online about video games that no one watched, think about how hard it would be to prove said show could have legs? On the other hand, if a company were bidding on a commercial and reasonably wanted a little bit more than the proposed budget, they could justify this with a track record of online commercials that not only were watched all the way through 89% of the time but whose reach went into the millions.

When watching or browsing through videos please consider some of these things. It's no different than using your dollar to vote, your time is money and that money can be quantified into someone's career and livelihood. Take a moment every now and then and give the things you want to see more of an extra minute to comment on or share them. Miss music videos? Well make sure to watch them online and help beef up their metrics, because if you do then record companies will hire someone like me or one of my friends to make more!

While your mindful viewing is all well and good for someone's career, how does this affect you? Let's jump back to Delta's in-flight video again. Your influence online can simply be broken down to this...

...And we're back!

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 16:56:00 +0000

Hello folks,

Here's some recent work Engines Roar has been up to...

SAVE HAPPY'S - link
When the city of Roanoke slapped a condemnation notice on the door of one of favor hometown establishments, Engines Roar went to work. After starting an online campaign that had a reach of over 50,000 people and 3,600 followers, we were able to get the attention of both the media and the city, aiding in Happy's staying open and operational.

Wayne White - Big Lick Boom

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:08:00 +0000

Interview with Wayne White

Wayne White

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Thu, 31 May 2012 18:33:00 +0000

Still from an interview with Wayne White we did last week. A pleasure to work with him and the Taubman Museum of Art as usual.

Taubman Museum of Art

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:17:00 +0000

Engines Roar recently developed a touch screen system and iPad video interface for the Taubman Museum of Art's Resource Lounge.

Astor + Blue Editions

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:11:00 +0000

Text treatment and logo for Astor + Blue Editions, LLC.

AMODA Laptop Battle Flier

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:05:00 +0000

New flier for the Austin Museum of Digital Art's annual laptop battle.

Carter Arrington Test Flyers

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 06:49:00 +0000

Photos by Amanda Moon
Styling by Bo Fahs
Design by William Sellari

The Quondam Empire: Limited Paperback Edition

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 08:05:00 +0000

The limited paperback edition of the Quondam Empire has arrived and will be on sale next week at Domy Books in Austin for $15.00. The book is an edition of 25 and represents Engines Roar's first foray into publishing.

Next month Engines Roar will be producing an extremely limited hardback edition as well as a free e-book version for download.

Here's a quick blurb and several reviews of the book...

This is a book full of crude humor, cussing, drinking, and sex. In it we make fun of friends, heart break, others’ struggles, and embarrassing sensitive memories. We attempt, in the most ridiculous writing device I can think of, to reminisce about things as meaningless as failed gaming systems amongst all the other ways we constantly wasted time. Therefore, this book is about the pointlessness of our lives and the experiences we shared out of boredom. Bored moments when our existence was, at best, thoughtless. The book is riddled with inside jokes, personal anecdotes, and unabashed sentiment about things that only apply to those named in the book.

And yet, in doing so, this book is about some of the most important and formative times in our lives.

As many of you know a book is something reserved for the highest order of prestige and meaning, and yet if you can deduct anything about this book thus far, you know that it doesn’t live up to that mantle. But that’s just it; that’s why this works. That’s the slight of hand we play and in turn, have been played. Roanoke doesn’t matter because Roanoke is of the utmost importance. Roanoke is the bane of our egos and the foundation for anything we accomplish. We battle constantly with the one thing that brought us true peace. And anywhere we go from here we fly it’s flag that no one other than us recognizes. Roanoke kept us isolated and united, sucked in and stuck together in our truest forms. In the absence of anything but ourselves and our surroundings, we developed uninfluenced by our endemic home. And in this vacuum, Roanoke was, and is, an empire onto itself.

“...there are many opinions of what Roanoke is.”
-roanokeva.gov

“oh my god. U R so GAY.”
-jonathan coward

“Are you really making a book? Feudal Japan?!? ...I’m speechless. ”
-scott zara

“I Live Here it gets boring most of the times there's nothing to do. I like South Carlionia Better.”
-brittany whitaker, facebook

Hoovers / First Research

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 07:52:00 +0000

For a subsidiary of Hoovers, Engines Roar mastered and edited a series of enhanced podcasts for First Research. The podcast series pertains to industry insights and will be available soon here.

Lucky Dragons

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 07:47:00 +0000

Engines Roar recently shot and edited a Lucky Dragons' performance for the Visual Arts Center at the University of Texas. Enjoy!

The Daytripper

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 02:07:00 +0000

Engines Roar has recently finished work on Chet Garner's Daytripper site. Head on over and check it out!

The Quondam Empire

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 00:15:00 +0000

Blurry Polaroid
Dr. Zaius is holding
Jonathan's manhood

Engines Roar will be publishing it's first limited edition book this Christmas called The Quondam Empire: Roanoke Haiku 1997-2002. Written by William Sellari & Matthew Permenter, this book is a nostalgic collection of loving, revolting, and naked haiku about the two authors' formative years in the Roanoke Valley.

Engines Roar will be producing a short paperback run as well as an extremely limited hardback edition. For ordering information please email: CONTACT@ENGINESROAR.COM

contact@enginesroar.com

LuckyIam Flyer

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:19:00 +0000

Last minute flyer for LuckyIam of Living Legends.

New ER Bumper

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 18:43:00 +0000

Low Resolution & AMODA

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:58:00 +0000

flyer by Engines Roar

Low Resolution 003

Engines Roar is helping to put on another installment of Low Resolution this month on Saturday, August 21st at the Baby Blue Studios. We were incredibly fortunate to have the Austin Museum of Digital Art on board to bring in a dream line up of friends and extremely talented musicians.

Furthermore, the event is being sponsored by the extremely generous and amazing Switched On; which if you haven't been to Switched On yet, please do yourself a favor and drop by. Switched On is legitimately the modular synth equivalent of every Bruce Willis movie, if every one of his roles was played by a different, rare, and equally amazing synthesizer.

The show starts at 8PM on Saturday, at the Baby Blue Studios directions. It's BYOB so make sure to bring your favorite beverage, ie Lone Star, 40 oz. of Micky's , or some Sparks.

As for the music on Saturday, we have the following artists to peak any area of electronic interest your ear could possibly desire. They are as follows...

Shams New York, NY / Richmond, VA

If sex is bliss, Shams is an orgasm

Links myspace, live performance

Shams is a pulse. No matter what form his sound takes, it aches out at you in an undeniable stroke of passion, genius, and raw sex. Often mixing live performance with electronic backing, seeing Shams live is like the blissed out bastard kid Nurse with Wound always meant to have with have with the KLF.

Animal Style Philadelphia, PA

Chip-guitar wielding dance floor champion

Links myspace, website, live performance

Animal Style is a living chip music schematic. His creations range from genre connections to genre transformers and aren’t limited to common rules and regulations of normal sound organization. Known for bringing a heavily improvised approach to chip music, Animal Style with his Gameboy Foot controller + 8bit fuzz pedal, create a unique musical chemistry.

Narwhalz (of Sound) Richmond, VA

Menthol Gameboy, end poem

Links myspace, website, live performance, judge judy

Narwhalz himself once described his set at “metafiction”. While Narwhalz’s sound comes from a handful of angry interlocking Gameboys, it’s the subtext of his all to real and sometimes humorous dialogue he provides that makes even the 8bit aspects seem like an allusion. Each fevered piece is as much of a poem as it is a critique, and Narwhalz leaves the stage unsure if even it was real.

Wet Mango Los Angeles, CA

Pussy & Bass in Yo Face

Links myspace, live performance

Between two undulating GameBoy Colors is Wet Mango. A sucker for the four to the floor, freestyle, hip hop, industrial, and all other shades of electronic music mate unconsciously in her beats. A lover of simplicity, there are thick separated layers of pop music sewn in her use of experimental electronics. Wet Mango is the dirty, the glitchy, and heavy side of chip music.

Oven Rake Olympia, Washington

Epic 8-bit Nintendomancer

Links myspace, live performance

Oven Rake was that kid you remember talking to once in high school. He was in a band, and your friend dragged you to their first show. You ran into him later when he ordered some black coffee at your work. He likes what you did with your hair. Don't feel embarrassed, no one in this small town has made it big time yet, he’s just a secret master of an 8bit universe.

Sewn Leather Portland, OR

Smoke ov the Pvnk

Links myspace, live performance

Sewn Leather is the brain child of Griffin Pin & John Root. With a dark wave aesthetic and a roots punk approach, music as a whole hasn’t seen the likes of a group of this sincerity since the early days of Suicide and Cabaret Voltaire. Sewn Leather is rides the impossible balance of being perfectly suited for it’s time and a reminder of how perfect it seemed in the past.

AMODA Digital Showcase / Low Resolution 003

Saturday, August 21st, 2010 @ 8PM

The Baby Blue Studios

1522 East 12th St., Austin , TX, 78702

Brought to you by Switched On!

Free for all AMODA members, $6 cover for general public

BYOB

Arrington & Associates Website

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 03:44:00 +0000

We're about done with Arrington & Associates. Drop by their URL to check it out.

www.ArringtonAssoc.com

TnT

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Thu, 27 May 2010 19:09:00 +0000

Recently, Engines Roar has been responsible for a good portion of the creative development of a new restaurant and bar in Austin called Tacos and Tequila. TnT has been something of a patron saint to Engines Roar, largely due to their owners Jim & Liz Baron; together they have been enthusiastic and offered support and approval of nearly all our proposals. Furthermore, TnT has served as a perfect model for how to propel a complex vision in relation to a local demographic that incorporates not only the local art and music scene but the desired patrons and clientele.

So far, our primary duties and developments have been the following:

Booking
Curating
Online promotion / advertising
Social networking
A/V systems and development
Custom remote and playback applications
Training manuals
In house production

Please drop by TnT to see some of the collaborative efforts that have occurred due to our latest partnership.

Low Resolution 002

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Mon, 17 May 2010 23:41:00 +0000

Friday, May 21st at 8PM, Cheer Up Charlie's is hosting the second installment of Low Resolution, a monthly showcase of synth, 8bit, and DIY artists. This month Low Res will be feature Hexcrusher, MVSLVS, Psychic Violence, and I, Cactus.

Low Resolution is brought to you this month by Okay Fresh!, Engines Roar, and Kung-Fu Saloon.

Click here for directions

High Score Mondays

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 19:59:00 +0000

As part of our on going promotion and partnership with Kung-Fu Saloon, Engines Roar is throwing High Score Mondays, every Monday at Kung-Fu Saloon. This is perhaps your one chance in life to get rewarded for being whip-ass at video games. Think of it this way, if you were to put your high score in Donkey Kong on a resume, you probably won't get the job. However, at High Score Mondays you can win gift certificates to Vulcan Video, Game Over Video Games, and be the proud holder of one of our custom mugs.

What's the big deal about a custom mug?

Well, I'm glad you asked! If you're the colossal champion of Moon Patrol then you're entitled to fill that glass with any one of the variety of amazing beers Kung-Fu has to offer. Furthermore, you're the only who can use it, an 8-bit god strolling through a valley of 2-bit 1s & 0s.

So, please join us for High Score Mondays, where every man can be a GOD!

Kung-Fu Saloon: High Score Mondays

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 22:33:00 +0000

Starting April 12th, Engines Roar will be running a high score competition for Kung-Ful Saloon, a new arcade/bar in Austin. To the left is an example of one of the Mugs we are designing for the winners of said competition.

For more information on High Score Mondays please click HERE

Low Resolution Logo

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 03:09:00 +0000

Recent logo for Austin based chiptune / 8bit promoter.

Arrington & Associates Logo Treatments

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:07:00 +0000

Here's a quick preview of some of the logo treatments we have been working on for Arrington & Associates out of Marietta, Georgia.

BONUSmission: Opening Monologue

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:10:00 +0000

DATAPOP

noreply@blogger.com (William Sellari) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:46:00 +0000

We helped find a bunch of generous sponsors to make DATAPOP 2.0 happen again this year. It's going to be at the Highball on Tuesday & Wednesday. Come check it out!

Show info:

http://www.thehighball.com/events/datapop-3-0/

Tuesday, March 16th
Visuals by Jean Y. Kim and Omeros
8:00 PM – The Mysterious H
8:45 PM – Sievert
9:30 PM – Nullsleep
10:15 PM – IAYD
11:00 PM – Hally
11:45 PM – Random
12:30 AM – Bit Shifter
1:15 AM – nordloef

Wednesday, March 17th

Visuals by Paris and outpt
8:00 PM – Talk to Animals
8:45 PM – Starscream
9:30 PM – Henry Homesweet
10:15 PM – 8BK-ok
11:00 PM – Sabrepulse vs. Saskrotch
11:45 PM – Je Deviens DJ en 3 Jours
12:35 AM – Anamanaguchi
1:20 AM – Trash80