Hello, hope your 2011 is going well!  I know many of you have been working like a dog for our industry’s Super Bowl.  Sunday was a great showing of work.  It has the usual physical comedy spots, spots with monkeys and talking babies, but what was your favorite spot during the game?  Personally my two favorites were Chrysler’s “Born of Fire” and Volkswagon’s “The Force”. 

Here are some Super Bowl Links.  Another posting will be done this week for many of the other awesome things I’ve seen since the last post.

Watch every Super Bowl Spot here on Ad Age

USA Today’s Ad Meter:-Which I don’t agree with!

Meet Max Page!!! The little kid behind the Darth Vader Mask

Adweek’s take on the 5 Best and 5 Worst

Most popular amongst Tivo users? Seeing Rosanne get nailed by a log for Snickers.

As I said earlier, the Chrysler spot was one of my favorites.  Being from Detroit, it took me back to my teenage years and gave me a real sense of pride knowing I came from there.  Looks like I’m not the only one who felt that way!  Also, meet the stars behind the commercial.  Then check out behind the scenes of the various places where they shot.

Best thing today…non-Super Bowl, but NBA Jam for iPhone!

See you again later this week for more exciting stuff!

Hi all, 
Here’s the latest from me in the last week.  
I was originally going to start off this post by talking about the highly anticipated film, “Tron”, but I decided not to.  I’m going to end with my thoughts…So if you don’t want any spoilers or don’t care too much about my quick review of the film, then skip the bottom portion.
Let’s get to the links!

David Parker: -You may recognize him as the tallest guy in the vfx biz, but MassMarket’s Senior Flame Artist, David Parker, is also a Director.  Here are two pieces that went live last week and already making it’s rounds in various blogs.  Congrats and great work DP!

“B.I.G. E.G.O.”2 

All The Girls Who Have Trusted Me

Charlie Brown Ad Agency:-I mean seriously…if you work in advertising, it’s a must see.  In the spirit of the holidays, you gotta click.

Leica Billboard Ads:-I am in love with these outdoor ads for Leica.  Great advertising for a great product.

Showtime’s Short Stories “The Deep”-Created by PES, this is an amazing stop motion piece deep in the sea with the creatures made out of various types of metal objects.  Really brilliant!

Daft Punk: Derezzed-Some people said that they didn’t see the video on the official Tron site last week so I’m posting this up here.  It’s been out for a bit so I’m sure you’ve already seen it.  Directed by Partizan’s Warren Fu with vfx done by The Mill, Daft Punk creates the music for the film “Tron”

iAd Producer:-So I believe if you were to create iAds, Apple would write the code for you while you provide them all the data.  Well not anymore…Apple releases iAd Producer which is an application to create iAds yourself.  OK…so now can we freakin’ have flash on our iPhones????

Heineken “Open You’re World”:-Here’s the latest campaign by Heineken.  I don’t really know why I have it up here there aren’t any noticeable fx…Just liked the campaign as a whole.  

FX Guide’s Art of HDR:-FX Guide takes a moment to go over HDR through the years.  Really interesting stuff.  

Popular Mechanics Top 10 VFX Scenes:-Like me, you’re probably wondering why Popular Mechanics even discusses vfx.  I’ve always known this magazine as the subscription my Engineer dad had coming every month and I just saw it as somewhat of a nerdy thing.  This goes over their top 10 scenes in film.  I haven’t seen many of these films so you’ll have to decide for yourself if you deem it worthy.

Google - WebGL:-Remember WebGL everybody.  Google just launched it’s Google Body Browser which is much like Google Earth.  This is just the latest in what Google is trying to do with their Chrome browser.  I think there are going to be big things happening when it comes to web browsing.  This latest launch by Google is just the beginning.  With 3D capabilities on a browser, expect gaming which is a HUGE market, to make some changes and possibly revolutionize the gaming giz.

MORE TRON - Forbes: The Technology Behind Tron:-So Forbes mag took a crack at talking about the technology behind the film.  I should’ve known it was going to be shallow in depth, but I think this would be good for some of you there that aren’t in vfx.  You may also be the people who didn’t notice how horribly bad the 30 something Jeff Bridges looked.  It was interesting to read that the original Tron was the first film to use CG.  

AMI - Australian Advertising.-I can’t remember where I saw this, but this is a crack up.  Those people from Oz are funny.

Gorilla vs Bear’s Fave Videos of 2010:-I think Arcade Fire’s “The Wilderness Downtown” had to be my fave vid of the year just because of the ways it pushed the Google Chrome browser to it’s limits.  It was a first of it’s kind and I felt that it was very successful.  The other video i dug was the Twin Shadows vid, but mainly because I just saw them in concert on Friday.  A definite not to miss is the El Guincho video.  Great song and the visuals were ummm…interesting…lots of great moments in there.

Post Production Trends in 3D Visualizations:-This goes over different styles and techniques of how CG could look.  I like how they referenced the Third and Seventh.  Amazing work created by Alex Roman.

16 Top Quotes from Fast Company’s “The Future of Advertising”:-Fast Company wrote an article about what it felt the future of advertising was.  It’s a lengthy read, but on this blog, it breaks down some of the top quotes from the piece.  The link to the full article is at the bottom.

Black Swan Meets Showgirls:-If you’ve seen Black Swan and Showgirls, this is a lot of fun to watch.  If you’ve just seen Black Swan, it’s still fun to watch.  If you’ve just seen Jessica Spano shake her thing topless in Showgirls, it’s still fun to watch.  Oh I do have to mention that it is NSFW (Not Safe For Work)…Sort of.

Defaced:-I’m a huge fan of graffiti.  I may have mentioned this before.  What I really like is when people “deface” the outdoor advertising by creating it into something else.  A lot of times it’s funny, but sometimes people get a bit political.  There’s a mix of things on this blog that is pretty fun.

Catchafire-Motionographer posted this up last week and I thought it was a really cool idea.  I have yet to really go through it and see what I’d be perfect for, but those of you who like to do volunteer work, check it out.  The Whitehouse and MassMarket work with NY Cares every spring on the Hands on NY Day if any of you would like more info on that, you can always hit me up or The Whitehouse’s Lauren Hertzberg.

50 Greatest Sneakerhead Moments in Pop Culture:-Yes, I’m a sneakerhead.  Many of you know it already.  I also know that there a lot of you who are closet sneakerheads.  This is for you.

OK…now my quick review of “Tron”.  Not sure how many of you had seen it this past weekend, but I saw it yesterday and wasn’t exactly impressed.  I was told by some people to come into it with very low expectations so that’s exactly what I did, so to come in with that mindset was the right attitude.  

First off, I’m not a huge fan of 3D stereoscopic.  I’m hoping it’s just a gimmicky thing and it phases out like it did 25 years ago.  It doesn’t add much to this film in my opinion.  I say go watch it in 2D the way film is supposed to be watched and appreciated.

I guess my biggest gripe about this film is the lack of story.  I think I left this film with more questions than after “Inception” where Christopher Nolan left the story open for your interpretation.  Without spoiling it for any of you who saw it, there were just too many holes in the story and probably could’ve been a great film if those holes were filled…it didn’t feel that long so maybe if there was another 20-25 minutes of film that was more dialogue based about background story, I think that would’ve helped a lot.  

The second annoying thing about the film was  that young Jeff Bridges wasn’t done well.  In my opinion, it was a step backward from what Digital Domain had done in “Benjamin Buttons”.  I would put it in the same category as present day video games, “Polar Express”, and even “Final Fantasy”…might be a bit of a stretch, but that’s what I think.  

However, I still think it’s a film to watch.  Daft punk’s score was really good and the art direction was really nice.  Still doesn’t beat out “Black Swan” which is my own personal fave of 2010.

Lastly, check out the Boston Globe’s comparison of Tron and the latest Tron: Legacy.

Hey everybody!!!

So sorry that this hasn’t come out in some time.  It was really funny how people would ask me,”How do you have time to put these together?” I’d always say it’s no big deal and like many other people in the industry, I’m constantly looking at new stuff, I just take an extra few minutes to throw it in an email that I would just compile throughout the week.  Well, I went off traveling a bit for a few shoots and completely got thrown off my game.  So here it is revived.  This time it comes with a new name…

MASSTIGE

Thanks to Jacqui Bosnjak of Q Department for coining the name for me :)  

This also comes in a new format as a website!  Feedback from many of you have told me to get it on a site so I have an archive.  Thanks guys.

Because we’re at the end of the year, there are many “Best ofs” for the year, but I wanted to start with something that we’ve all been waiting for this year…TRON!!!  It comes out this this week and I can’t tell you how excited I am for it.  I hope you are too…Ultimately, I just hope it doesn’t suck.

TRON:

-It only links to the official site, but it has all the updated trailers, Daft Punk video, and various interviews to catch you up before you go out and see it…but really, just go watch it without seeing any of this stuff!

Ok…now the real stuff:

Most Contagious 2010:

-Check out what Contagious thinks the coolest and most successful in categories such as viral, gaming, design, companies and others.  So many awesome things that were new to me I just had to share.

Mashable’s 10 Most Innovative Viral Video Ads of 2010:

10 CG Shorts you must see:

Top 10 Best Celebrity Ads 2010:

Adweek’s 30 Freakiest Ads of 2010:

-I have to say, some of these are pretty crazy!!!

10 Tips for pitching a 3D project:
 

KCRW Dj’s share their list of 10 Best Albums of 2010:

-Yeah, it doesn’t exactly fall into what I usually send out, but oh well.  It’s a cool list and worth sharing.

Black Swan - Natalie Portman’s Wings:

-If you saw the film, you know which shot I’m talking about.  Holy crap was it cool!!! See how it was done! 

Kevin Bacon talks about playing his own biggest fan: 

-If you have an internet connection or a tv with at least rabbit ears, you should’ve seen this commercial for Logitech.  Kevin Bacon talks about the process of playing the role of being Kevin Bacon’s biggest fan.  Such a good spot.

Meet Buck

-This is an animated short film by By Denis Bouyer, Yann De Preval, Vincent E Sousa and Laurent Monneron. A beastiality piece between a human girl and a deer and the girl’s father who doesn’t approve.

BMW - Flash Projection:

-So when I was in college in one of my ad classes we spoke intensely about subliminal messaging.  Whether or not it really existed, how it was done, and what type of results there were in various experiments.  I think there was even a “Saved by the Bell” episode about subliminal messaging too.  Well BMW had created a spot with no physical branding in the commercial, but everybody leaving the theater knew that it was a BMW commercial.  Check out what they did and how they did it.

Audi “Imagination Meets Engineering”

-Really super visually trippy spot from Blind that has the music to go along with it from Basement Jaxx.  

Puma - iPad Concept

-Many of you who know me well, knows that I’m addicted to buying sneakers.  So when I saw that Puma was rolling out their Mongolian BBQ concept again which let’s you customize various kinds of styles, I was excited…Then I got less excited in the way that they’re doing it.  They apparently spent a million+ on doing the experience off of iPads in the store.  The original idea let you touch the material and put it on a tray that would then get submitted to Puma for them to make.  This concept always made Nike ID so much better.  More technology, but less interaction.  

Sour “Mirror” Video 

-First time anybody heard of the group Sour was because of their really fun video for “Hibi No Niero” .  They follow that up with an interactive video which uses your information on Facebook and Twitter to tell the story.  

Create visualizations with processing:

-The first time I heard about processing was probably 7 years ago when it was used for some of the original HP hands commercials that Motion Theory created.  Now processing is used more and more in many ways.  This has a few examples of what you can do with processing.  

Michael Jackson & Akon “Hold My Hand” Video:

-Ok, not everything I’m going to post is going to be great.  This is definitely an example.  We all love MJ and yes, it’s great that he’s going to have an album come out this Tuesday, but how creepy is it that they used stock footage and impersonators to pull off this video?  

Lemonade: Detroit

-Become a Producer for upcoming film “Lemonade: Detroit” by buying frames of the film for $1!!!  Until Dec. 31st, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan will match your donation.  
If you got this far, thanks for going through all of this.  

Samsung Boosted Tweetwrap:

-This is a cool application.  You can choose a few styles of wrapping paper and then choose a holiday #hashtag word and it’ll pull people’s tweets based on that search.  I post all the time on Twitter (@rhysrama) so I definitely think it’s cool.

14 Actors Acting:

-The NY Times did a study of 14 of the classic screen types.  I thought some of them were great while others fell short.  Afterwards, see the behind the scenes here.

Happy Holidays!