Go Forth - America

Optimism and patriotism are afoot in Wieden + Kennedy Portland's new campaign for Levi's. The agency's treatment reads, "America is going through a challenging time, but our self-reliant American pioneer spirit will persevere." Leading the new campaign for the 150-year old brand is "America," a TV and cinema spot that reaches for the recession-aware heels of "Generation O," a fairly new term rooted in last year's campaigning of Barack Obama in reference "Generation Y" or the "The Millennial Generation." The overall campaign is called "Go Forth."

"America" debuts this Friday, July 3 at cinemas in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Boston, New York City and Miami. This is the first work since W+K Portland won the Levi's account in late 2008. The campaign assets also include print work by photographer Ryan McGinley.

The spot is directed by Cary Fukunaga, a graduate of NYU Film and abuzz since winning directing and cinematography awards at Sundance for "Sin Nombre" (2009). The voiceover in the spot features Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892) in what may be a recording of him from 1890 reading four lines of his 1888 poem, "America." In a memo to press, it's noted that Whitman:

…was an optimist at a time when it was easier to be a pessimist. He lived through the Civil War, one of the darkest periods in American history, and drew strength from the struggle. He saw the potential for greatness that lies in each of us, to flourish in our personal search and build our brave vision of this country. The Go Forth campaign aims to share his words, in TV executions and online, with today's generation as a small ray of hope.

Certainly on the pulse of today's generation, but does the anthem resonate this July 4th?

Credits

Agency: W+K PORTLAND
Creative Directors: Danielle Flagg and Tyler Whisnand
Copywriters: W+K Five
Art Directors: W+K Five
Producer: Jeff Selis
Associate Producer: Juliana Montgomery
Account Team: Maggie Entwistle and Tamera Geddes
Executive Creative Directors: Mark Fitzloff and Susan Hoffman
Agency Executive Producer: Ben Grylewicz
Business Affairs Manager: Teresa Lutz

Production Company: Anonymous Content
Director: Cary Fukunaga
Executive Producer: Danielle Peretz
Line Producer: Joe Mandarino
Director of Photography: Darren Lew

Editorial Company: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Elliot Graham
Assistant Editor: Jessica Baclesse
Post Producer: Neil Kopp
Post Executive Producer: Patty Brebner

VFX Company: A52
Rock Paper Scissors EP: Carol Lynn Weaver
Rock Paper Scissors Producer: Vicki Tripp
Colorist: Angus Wall
VFX Supervisor: Pat Murphy
Smoke Artist: Paul Yacono
Flame Support: Scott Johnson
Nuke Artist/Matte Painter: Shahana Khan
A52 Exec Producer: Jennifer Sofio Hall
A52 VFX Producer: Pete King

Sound: “America” poem by Walt Whitman courtesy the Walt Whitman Archive
Music Composer: Owen Pallett and Charles Ives
Artist/Band: Final Fantasy
Album Title: Many Lives 49 MP
Song: The CN Tower Belongs To The Dead (Many Ives Version)
Publishers/Record Company Name: Third Side Music Inc./Peer Music/Third Side Music Inc.

Mix Company: Eleven Sound
Mixer: Jeff Payne
Mixer Producer: Kristin Felt
Assistant Mixer: Ben Freer

Director Shawn Levy with Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan

• A Day in the Life of Director Shawn Levy: http://is.gd/19pW8 You might not dig his movies (Night at the Museum), but this video is kickass — Jaemin_Yi, 10:48 AM Jun 22nd

Directing 201 with Shawn Levy from MakingOf.com

(via /Film)

Merlin Mann. Photo by Douglas Dollars.

Merlin Mann, creator of 43folders.com, a site about "finding the time and attention to do your best creative work," is a recent guest on the public radio show, The Sound of Young America. The talk covers the workflows of doing creative work, specifically how to stop trying for perfection and just do it.

Periodically catch yourself. And say, "Stop. I gotta go make something now. I'm not going to take any more input until I've made something with what I've got." … There's a part of you that probably wants to make something really awesome. And there's another part of you that's screaming that part down because you're probably a little bit scared of looking like a jerk. … I think it's worth trying it. It's worth starting out with some very modest, very low goals in terms of output but very high expectations of how seriously you take it so that you can actually set aside a little time and kinda be the human being that you'd like to be and make the kind of stuff that makes you feel alive.

Hear the full podcast at The Sound of Young America or embedded below:

(via John August)

Keep it for now. Photo by Brandon King (Creative Commons).

"Hollywood hits the stop button on high-profile Web video efforts," Los Angeles Times:

"So many of the major media companies thought they could just make a good show, put it online and sell advertising," said Jim Moloshok, a former Warner Bros. and Yahoo executive who is now chairman of online advertising company Betawave. "That's like taking a radio show and running it on television."

"Digital technology and dollar signs," Los Angeles Times op-ed by Scott Kirsner:

Business models for content on the Internet are still evolving. But it's already becoming clear that $100-million movies like "Land of the Lost," or even $10-million independent films, may not represent the future of the industry. And new technologies like YouTube, the iPhone and next-generation gaming consoles are opening up all sorts of new, creative possibilities. The artists and business people who will succeed in this new environment are those who are paying attention to the changing behaviors and tastes of this new digital audience — rather than trying to ignore them or, worse, explaining why they are wrong.

(via Scott Kirsner's Cinema Tech)

Randall Park stars in IKEA Heights

"IKEA Heights" is billed as a "furniture store melodrama" shot guerrilla-style at IKEA in Burbank. They just used a Rebel T1i, wireless lav mics and went about the store one afternoon.

The web series teams David Seger and Paul Bartunek. Cast includes Randall Park, Whitney Avalon, Tom Kauffman, Jess Lane, Dean Pelton, Wade Randolph, Abed Gheith and Del Shoopman. Additional writers include Spencer Strauss and Tom Kauffman.

The series was voted up on May 31, 2009 by audiences on Channel101.com, an experiment in online voting and offline screening. "For the creatives that participate, … the deadlines are unreasonable, the time limit is impossible, the pay is non existent and the judgment is blunt. The amount of ego and sense of entitlement with which you enter is exactly proportional to the amount of pain you'll experience before you leave. Channel 101 is where you learn three things: [h]ow to fail, how to succeed, and finally, how there is no difference between the two." Like FWD:labs, they have monthly events in Los Angeles.

Episode two of "Ikea Heights" will be screening June 28 at Cinespace in Hollywood and uploading soon thereafter.

(Thanks to Scott Gruber for the tip.)

$9.99

"$9.99" is a festival-winning feature playing this Friday in Los Angeles and New York City, before going to Boston, Washington D.C., Berkeley, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Atlanta.

"Sorry I'm Late" is gliding past 128,000 views on Vimeo since it went up three weeks ago.

"Monsters" is now into it's 96th video, a series of integrating simple (and slightly-staged) live action video with animated monsters.

"$9.99" by Tatia Rosenthal

"Sorry I'm Late" by Tomas Mankovsky

"Monsters" by Volstok Telefunken

YouTube will be premiering an environmental, non-profit feature documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. "Home" is simultaneously being released in 50 countries in movie theaters, on TV, on DVD and on the internet.

You can view the film starting June 5th at http://youtube.com/homeproject.

The press release touts French director Luc Besson ("The Fifth Element," "The Professional") who is involved as a producer. Oscar-nominated, Globe-winning actress Glenn Close narrates.

Arthus-Bertrand is a photographer known best for environmental work. On his web site, his biography mentions that "[h]e also discovered the beauty of the world seen from above when he became a hot air balloon pilot and began experimenting aerial photography."

Virtually nothing about this was written about in the trades. The Hollywood Reporter only picked up the Reuters release. One commenter ironically noted that the first simultaneous online/offline premiere was "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," which was leaked online prior to its May 1 theatrical release.

Within the last two years, but especially in recent months, feature films have been premiering online:

• May 2009 – "The Hunt for Gollum," a 40-minute fan film based on "The Lord of the Rings" and which received a blessing from director Peter Jackson, premiered via DailyMotion, one of the popular competitors to YouTube.
• April 2009 – Full-length feature documentary "Bananaz," about music group Gorillaz, premiere exclusively online for global audiences at Babelgum.com.
• October 2008 – "Crawford", a full-length feature documentary, premiered on Hulu.com.
• October 2008 – Wayne Wang's feature film, "The Princess of Nebraska," premiered on YouTube. The film is now no longer available to watch.
• July 2007 – Google Video (no longer) distributed "Waterborne," which ended up netting "80,000 viewers, but only 300 went on to purchase the $3.99 download."
• March 2006 – Before YouTube was around, the over-discussed film "The Secret" premiered online. It's now viewable for $4.95. The distribution was made possible by Vividas, a developer/provider of video streaming technology.

Related, social causes tend to work well online, especially events (Pangea Day), shorts ("50 People 1 Question"), commercials ("Girl Effect") and other high-profile features ("11th Hour.")

In an industry of smoke and mirrors, not everyday is there a gaming ad that works as advertised.

Just recently, LucasArts showed off a cinematic trailer for "Star Wars: The Old Republic," yet game-play graphics are far from what wows viewers.

Now half-way through the three-day E3 Expo, Microsoft's Project Natal has been the talk of the industry since Monday's announcement. The controller-free device, which uses two cameras and a microphone, extends their XBOX 360 line. Take a look at the ad:

Also see Wired for a promotional video and Monday's introduction, which included Steven Spielberg. And check out the BBC interview with Spielberg on his involvement with gaming.

(via The Daily Dish)

"Stimulus Package," an interview with technology evangelist (and famed filmmaker) Steven Soderbergh in Filmmaker Magazine: "[The Web] has sort of eliminated the agency and the pimp. In terms of a business model, I would think that’s a much more efficient way to make money."

"Mood Lighting," a multimedia supplement from The New York Times of an interview with Soderbergh about shooting "The Girlfriend Experience" on the Red camera and working with the real thing (via @silveradosys)

"Showcase: Videos Worth Watching," a new Friday feature from Erik Olsen, a video journalist at The New York Times, who highlights the best from the newspapers that embrace video and the web (via Tyson Evans)

"Jacek Utko designs to save newspapers," a March 2009 TED Talk on increasing circulation and winning awards by improving design

Currently abuzz at the 62nd Festival de Cannes is the feature zombie film, "Colin," directed by newcomer Marc Price with an inspired budget of $70.

Spent on a crowbar, a couple of tapes, and some tea and coffee, everything else came into place by leveraging volunteer zombies via Facebook and MySpace. One VFX make-up professional volunteered after working on "X-Men 3."

"All zombie films seem to be siege-based with people stuck in a house, a shopping mall or a pub, that's the formula. I was watching 'Dawn of the Dead' one night and it got me wondering if there'd ever been a zombie movie from the point of view of the zombies and I couldn't find one," he told The Hollywood Reporter.

Price, a 30-year old courier living in London, worked on the feature for 18 months. Previously, he had helped crew a friend's film.

He told CNN, "[a]nyone involved in sales will say, 'Oh, it cost [$70], well how much do you expect us to pay for that?' but with the current economic climate it seems to be a great way to make movies."

According to Daily Mail, a couple of Japanese film companies have already bid to distribute the movie. Price told the paper "[i]t's a bit weird to be at Cannes. Colin is just a movie shot on a camcorder and I have no delusions that's all it is. It's crazy to be arrogant about it. It's a small film which is really about story and character. It's a dirty little film, but we really hope it's got a lot of heart."

You can show your support for "Colin" by visiting the official site (trailer, clip, press release, press buzz), fan on Facebook, or follow on Twitter.

Related coverage is an interview with the director on ITN.

(Thanks to filmmaker Eric Yang for the tip.)