Double Rainbow All The Way Across The… Windows Live?

by BlakTornado, September 2, 2010

Microsoft have finally done it. Not only have they created an advert that not only makes some sort of marketing sense, but they’ve also created an advert that is actually genuinely quite amusing. But at what cost? Only the Double Rainbow meme.

Most readers will probably be wondering what I’m on about. Well, Microsoft has commissioned an advert in which the Double Rainbow Guy advertises Windows Live’s panorama stitch feature. This is good. Not only is the advert quite amusing, but it also makes sense. Most of Microsoft’s adverts, such as the I’m a PC campaign and the bizarre Microsoft Office 2010 campaign they’re running (there are posters up at my work, you see), don’t really make any sense. They’re trying to advertise a product or feature of Windows or Office that most people don’t care about in the most annoying and patronising fashion ever. Most of these adverts involve some cheery ‘normal’ person who is scarily enthusiastic about the most mundane tools in our lives demonstrating how wonderful Internet Explorer’s Privacy Mode is. Or declaring their love for Windows in a generally quite creepy fashion, all while doing ‘normal’, everyday things like motor-boating and skydiving. How many normal people love Windows that much- that much that they’d evangelise the operating system while experiencing one of life’s greatest thrills? Only the complete nutters, I tell you. While they may be mental enough to buy your products, nutters aren’t a particularly great demographic to be aiming them at.

Evidently Microsoft’s advertising division is a shambles, then. So when Microsoft gets it right, they deserve a bit of a celebration. A bit of a fuss. Like a toddler that’s being potty trained; everyone else can get it right, but you have to encourage the little darling to keep going when all their other attempts usually end in a sack of excrement around their waist. Let’s hope someone in Microsoft’s building baked the guy who came up with this idea a cake, or something. At least a pat on the back. Even just a high-five or a supportive smile would suffice.

But, as with all good things, there’s naturally a downside to this; Microsoft has killed the Double Rainbow Meme. While it wasn’t that great of a meme, it had it’s laughs and it definitely deserved to be kept as one of the internet’s treasures. But just like when Google changed every video on the front page of Youtube to redirect to Rick Roll a couple of years ago, all memes die when they go mainstream… and this one went mainstream through Microsoft, the most untrendy, unpopular company in the world. Microsoft is the Gordon Brown to Apple’s Barack Obama. Rest in peace, Double Rainbow meme. We hardly knew you.

Anyway, enough talking. Here’s the video. Now you, too, can experience the mixed feelings of joy and dread when you realise that Microsoft has created a good advert that has just killed a meme. I’m guessing it’s the same feeling as the successor to Adolf Hitler when he became President of Germany; You’ve become President at last, but you’ve lost the war and your country is heading towards inevitable doom. Ah well, you take the good with the bad.

(With thanks to Tom who pointed me in the direction of the article on Neowin.net that informed me of this video.)

My quest for the perfect Indie Film Production Kit (Pt. 2 – The Tripod)

by BlakTornado, August 24, 2010

Last time in my quest for a perfect Indie Film Production kit, I discussed my camera and how it compares to to it’s older brother, the Sony HVR-Z1E. What else do I need, though? A tripod, to start with!

Ever since I bought my first camcorder in 2006 (a Samsung VP-D362 – the one I’ve used to film the Rowan and Jimmi Adventures, a couple of music videos and the vast majority of Clayground shorts), I’ve been getting by with using a cheap little Hama tripod that I bought from Amazon for £12. Despite its cheap price, it has actually been a really handy little tripod and has paid for itself many, many times over now. It fits in my backpack easily, it’s light and it’s about a metre and a bit tall when the legs are fully extended. Bargain. But alas, the time has come where I desire a larger, sturdier tripod to carry my newer A1E.

Now, a wise person once told me that the best equipment is the stuff you’re familiar with. This is true. When purchasing my A1E I was quite nervous that I’d never used one before. I kept panicking that it wouldn’t work properly or that I’d made a bad choice. Thankfully I hadn’t and all was fine, but I ran a massive risk. So when it came to purchasing a tripod, I knew what I was going to get; a Libec TH650 DV. Not only is it sturdy, but I’d used one of these (or at least something very, very similar) when filming most of Robot. I know it’s quite sad buying stuff I’ve used at college, but I know it works and I know how it functions. (Left: the same/very similar tripod supporting up a Z5E while filming Robot)

So with that out of the way, I’ve now got two tripods to keep my shots sturdy and stable; a larger one for the majority of shots and a small one for shots in tight places, or to be used as a makeshift steady-cam (one of the added bonuses of a tripod that small). What about a Dolly? Well, I’m one step ahead. When purchasing the tripod I could add an additional dolly for about £30 extra. A chance I jumped on, naturally.

In the past, I’ve used a Hague track and Dolly system -I think it was- which produced some really amazing shots. Thanks to the tracks, the dolly had a really smooth, debris-free surface to roll over, and even in the middle of a field I could get incredibly steady tracking shots that really looked fantastic.

My dolly, on the other hand, is slightly different. Being a studio dolly, there are no tracks for mine. The whole thing is freewheeling and this causes a couple of problems. Firstly, it’s difficult to control the dolly and you need a fair amount of room to use it. As the wheels aren’t fixed, they can rotate and twist underneath the tripod, and when you start a manoeuvre there can be a bit of an awkward pause where it sorts itself out that stops it from going where you want it to go immediately, like a baby buggy or a shopping trolley. Secondly, it’s quite stiff, so there’s no chance of using it outside to get a nice tracking shot; the only flooring it can really be used on decently are smooth ones, such as wood flooring, Lino, and other such smooth surfaces. I recently used it for a video I shot on a weird, spongey flooring and it worked pretty well, but I’ve also tried using it in the street and it was so wobbly that it was unusable. It doesn’t really help that, by design, CMOS cameras are much more susceptible to camera shakes, which can cause “Jellyvision” (here’s another fun one involving windscreen wipers). But at £30 I can’t complain that much when track-based alternatives can cost over ten times more.

Overall, I feel like this is starting to come together. Next time I’ll discuss my new microphone that I bought recently, and then I’ll go into lighting and editing in future editions. Until then, I must try and work on writing a couple more scripts so that I have something to make with all of this stuff!

The A-Team Film wasn’t that bad…

by BlakTornado, August 15, 2010

Today I went to the cinema with my girlfriend. We were originally planning on seeing Inception, which looked like an awesome film. Unfortunately for us, we missed the screening we were planning on attending because I wanted to get a case for my camera (I didn’t end up getting one in the end, frustratingly), so instead we chose to see The A Team, since she likes that sort of thing and I was just happy to do something nice on my day off. So what did I think?

Well, ever since seeing the trailer for it a couple of months ago, I thought it was going to be awful. I thought it was going to be an awful Hollywood remake of an old, popular TV Show because almost everyone in the film industry has run out of new ideas these days (or at least has run out of ideas that will make money, anyway). Other titles that fill this specification include the absolutely appalling Thunderbirds film and Michael Bay’s Transformers (which I quite enjoyed). Most of these films are made to either relight interest in a dead franchise, or make kids interested in a dead franchise, presumably just so they can understand the apparently ‘pop’-cult references TV shows make about these old shows. Regardless, I was right and wrong.

I was right in the respect that it was one of those films that fits in the aforementioned category; it was a lame Hollywood adaptation of a traditional, classic TV Show that lots of people love and would probably hate to be abused in such a manner. However, I was wrong about it being awful. To be honest, it was actually quite enjoyable to watch. Ridiculous, but enjoyable. I most likely wouldn’t buy the DVD, but I’d probably watch it on TV if it was on at Christmas when I was at my grandparent’s house and had nothing else to do. The story was relatively easy to follow, the plot was pretty well structured, and by the end of it I did feel quite drawn into what was happening. The only thing that I didn’t like was how ridiculous aspects of it were (e.g., A tank being flown through the sky and everyone in it still being alive when it crashed into a lake), and how unconvincing the CGI was that achieved those ridiculous aspects, especially when the rest of the film was really good quality. I just feel that CGI dates films really quickly, and if it looked pretty unconvincing at release then it has no hope for the future. Other than that it was good.

However, the film got me thinking about something I’d been discussing with a work friend recently; when making this film, were the actors not really depressed? I mean, if I were in something like this, I’d be very aware throughout the entire process of making the film that my performance, no matter how hard I tried, was going to be compared to the friggen’ A-Team, and that most people would probably leave the cinema grumbling because of it— even if I put my heart and soul into doing the best I could in order to please those people. I mean, the guy playing B.A. Baracus surely would have been constantly aware that he was having to try and put on as good of a show as the legendary, internationally well-loved, Mr. T, no? That is one pretty high bar to jump over. I imagine that most of the lead cast were probably suicidal/on sedatives by the time the film premiered.

All in all, it was worth watching and if you want to go to the cinema and there’s nothing else on then it’s worth a go. But I wouldn’t choose it over any of this summer’s Blockbusters, such as Toy Story 3.

Still Chugging Along

by BlakTornado, August 11, 2010

Still chugging along as per usual. Nothing interesting to add. Life feels a bit repetitive at the moment, and I keep forgetting which day it is. It feels like a Friday today. It’s not Friday. Look forward to actually doing something for once. Keep putting off the things I should be wanting to do due to a lack of energy. Will have to muster some enthusiasm from somewhere.

Really Need To Stop Procrastinating

by BlakTornado, August 4, 2010

I really need to stop procrastinating on doing productive creative things. While it’s not like I’m spending each and every day being lazy, laying around playing computer games or watching reruns of Scrubs on E4, I’m not really doing much creative-wise at the moment and I really should be – or rather, I really want to be. I have about a month and a half before I leave home to go to University and I had hoped to actually do something before then. Plus I’ve just bought a load of camera gear that I should probably make the most out of.

So until I stop procrastinating, I think I’m going to spend my time creating an anti-procrastination device. I’m not sure what it’ll be but it’ll have to be something pretty darn good! I think maybe something that prods me when I visit Facebook or Twitter… Or maybe something that holds a random member of my family hostage until I make a new video – actually no, scrap that. That’s a terrible idea; the product of that scenario would only be forced into existence, so it would suck almost as badly as Speed 2. Back to the drawing board, I guess.

I know! I’ll crowd source; How do you get over procrastination? Give me a clue in the comments! (Did I do that right?)