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We are very excited that the new video game magazine Killscreen has secured it’s first round of finance via Kickstarter. Given that Call of Duty 2 just made $310M on its first day, the market is long overdue for more in-depth cultural conversations about gaming.
For starters, read this excellent Wall Street Journal article by Junot Diaz: Grand, but no Godfather. And then subscribe to Killscreen.
On November 14th, the film festival Betting On Shorts will screen its program simultaneously in London, Athens, Barcelona, Bucharest, Maribor, Naples, Novi Sad, Poznan, Thessaloniki, Stockholm and Wiesbaden. And the short film Windows Vista: Predator Edition by Desedoian Paul Kamuf is in that mix.
Betting On Shorts is unique not only for it’s dispersed distribution, but also that:
So the audience can have some fun as well, we invite everyone to bet on which film will win. Bets must be placed before the screening. But no worries: trailers of all participating films are screened in all participating venues and on the website a week in advance of the competition. Those who have placed their bet well, can win cinema tickets, dvds, books and the like.
I think that a festival giving additional and unique value to the audience is in sync with Brian Newman’s talk Better Than Free. Former CEO of the Tribeca Film Festival and a film industry consultant, Newman engages this issue:
As the wealth and survival of traditional media businesses are built on selling precious copies, the free flow of free copies is undermining the established order. If reproductions of media are free, how can we keep on financing films and how can we find value in the media we create and sell?
Given that we can now see short form content online, it also behooves film festivals to re-think their USP and value exchange with audiences, and I believe Betting On Shorts is doing just that.
Earlier this summer, MHB worked with fashion designer Rachel Nasvik and creative strategist Biba Milioto on a project called The Alice Bond Bag.
The challenge was: How can a small company with lovely customers and a valued product increase brand awareness?
The answer was to make a limited-edition of 96 bags and create a citywide scavenger hunt for them using the tools of social media. They were surreptitiously left in bars, bookstores and phone booths. They were sold by hotdog vendors, ice cream men and Canal Street bootleggers.
When the dust cleared 10 days after launch, the project had become a media darling: covered by 50+ blogs and followed by 1000+ people on Twitter. Mainstream outlets like NBC New York, Vogue, Nylon and MSNBC’s Your Business all took note.
Most importantly of all, it was fully embraced by Rachel’s fans – once we tweeted about the location of a bag, within 10 minutes, women were on the scene looking for it. And those who couldn’t make it, often sent boyfriends in their stead.
It increased interest and sales in Rachel’s brand, reinvigorating past connections and creating new ones.
And was some of the most fun we’ve ever had playing with social media.
Holding an orange on camera. Sweet.
Three NYC tattoo artists talk about process, inspiration, and adventures with the needle. A visit inside a popular Harlem parlor, The Black Ink Gallery, and an underground space in Queens. Originally produced for Format magazine.
This is a promo we did for HBO’s True Blood via their ad agency. The number 1-877-TO-BITE-U is no-longer active. Which is a bummer, because the youtube commenters were really getting their kicks from calling it again and again during the campaign.
An interview with cinematographer Bradford Young for the lifestyle brand Grustler.