howdy friends,

happy Comic-Con week to you! this will be my 4th year going…last year I felt like I was just hitting my stride with planning and execution of the convention. the only major change for this year… a closer hotel. all the better to facilitate afternoon iPhone recharging and naps. anyhoo, I’ll be talking about #SDCC next week.

this week, here are a couple of things I’ve seen on the interwebz

here’s a video where some nefarious characters battle with “cardboard” weapons… take a look.

I think this video is a perfect example of putting the cart before the horse. these guys have made a visually impressive video. they’ve taken a funny concept- “cardboard” weapons- and added in great vfx.

the different sorts of weapons and the escalating nature of the fight are great.

but story? characters? emotion? these are nowhere to be found.

visual effects should serve the story, not the other way around.

if they’d spent 30 seconds at the beginning developing the characters and setting up say, “a plot,” I’d want to watch this again…instead, I found myself losing focus during the 3.5 minutes. does it work as a visual effects demo? yes. does it work as a short film? no.

take a look at this Milk ad from Japan. it took has cool vfx and an interesting premise…but there is a STORY and we identify with one of the characters. caring about the characters makes it an ultimately more rewarding viewing experience.

-Luke

so early today I got an email from an acquaintance regarding a contest that a large HUGE mega corp is holding.

here’s the message:

Subject: Microsoft 7 Shorts Contest for $$$

My friend, [NAME REMOVED] told me about this contest. He works for [NAME REMOVED] and they are recruiting videographers to create extremely short (7 second!) videos about Microsoft Windows 7.

Here’s the deal:

They’re sending videographers a free copy of Windows 7. You then need to make up to seven different 7 second videos about one of the new W7 features. Each clip that gets accepted will earn $50 (so, if you submit a string of 7 short videos that are decent quality, you’d get $350 upfront). In addition, the 10 best videos they receive will each earn an additional $700 bonus (good odds, because they don’t expect that many entries), and ALL of the videos will have a chance of appearing in a national MSFT Windows 7 campaign.

Would you be interested? Anyone who wants more info should email [NAME REMOVED]

Good luck!

Seriously? $50???

Doritos…yes the snack maker DORITOS is giving away 5 MILLION DOLLARS. Check out this article in USA Today.

Wait, what am I saying, this is actually a GREAT opportunity for a director with real vision to show off unlimited creative potential and the awesomeness of Windows 7 AND make some serious loot in the process.

Now where did I leave my VHS-C camera?

-Luke