Prometeus - The Media Revolution

An exciting and at the same time scary look into the future.....

Motion Tracking test, After Effects

After many attempts, I have made a breakthrough!

A Treatment for a viral film

Foundation Degree Media (Moving Image)                                                             Chris B Bird

A Treatment for a viral film

“Special FX Leak”

“Ok who left the FX cupboard open? All the traps are empty; there’ll be mayhem in the College!”

Plot:

At the end of the media room there is a cupboard where all the special FX are stored, these are digital FX, but they have a physical presence, although not harmful the need to be kept in this secure environment.

On returning to the classroom after a break we find our students in a state of panic as they have discovered the cupboard open and some of the FX traps empty! The race is on to locate the missing FX and return them to the traps, then back into the cupboard.

As the students search the college they encounter the FX causing mayhem, not in a dangerous way though, but more of a slapstick comedic way; laser beams “buzzing” the heads of students in the hallways, or snowing in the radio studio.

After a while all the FX have been coaxed back into their traps, then locked securely away back in the cupboard, all is well again.

Some of the FX on the loose could be:

·         Laser beams

·         Fire balls

·         Lightning

·         Snow

·         Hail

Duration:

Two to four minutes long.

Platform:

.avi or .mov, to upload to YouTube/Facebook.

Equipment:

Filmed in full HD.

Edited with Final Cut Pro/Premier Pro.

Special FX achieved with Adobe After Effects.

3D modelling achieved with Cinema 4D.

Some ideas?

Hi all, I've had a few ideas for our viral marketing texts. We could make use of the building site at college, maybe a find whilst excavating, Alien bones? A holy grail? A gaseous leak that leads to super powers?
Just a few ideas.

Infographics, charts, and data visualizations

A great website, well worth a look.

http://thefuturebuzz.com/2010/12/27/50-clever-creative-images/

How Marketers have been Utilizing Social Media In 2010

Please scroll down, just past the widgets!

Shared characteristics of viral companies

So launching a successful viral loop company is easy; far from it. Creating a deliciously spreadable product is merely the first step. Then comes the hard work of ramping up a business, and that's where some real challenges await, as Hong and Young learned with Hot or Not.

Viral loop companies succeed for many of the same reasons, while unsuccessful ones seem to fail in different ways. For every eBay and Facebook there are heaps of social start-up failures you've never heard of. In addition to Friendster, which simply couldn't scale, there is Tribe, for example, an online community that never caught on; Plaxo, creator of a "smart address book" that didn't serve an important enough need; and Flixter, which lets users share movie reviews but has had trouble attracting repeat traffic.

Successful viral expansion loop businesses share the following characteristics:

• Web-based: They are far better suited to the frictionless world of the Internet.

• Free: Users consume the product at no charge; after aggregating a mass audience, it may be possible to overlay various revenue streams (offer premium services, for example).

• Organizational technology: They don't create content—their users do. They simply organize it. But facilitating can lead to a mass audience. Just ask Google.

• Simple concept: Easy and intuitive to use.

• Built-in virality: Users spread the product purely out of their own self- interest and, in the process, offer a powerful word-of-mouth endorsement to each subsequent user. (And word of mouth is widely viewed as the best form of advertising.) This means that viral loop products have within themselves the seeds to grow on their own.

• Extremely fast adoption: Within a month of Facebook's launch, half of Harvard's student body had joined. Within thirteen months, 12 million people had downloaded Skype. Hotmail had 30 million users within thirty months. Yet none of them required a dime for marketing or a sales force.

• Exponential growth: Because each user attracts more users, there is a tandem growth model. This is in sharp contrast to a "normal" business, which more typically grows linearly (and far more slowly), at a rate usually corresponding to its marketing spend.

• Virality index: For the user base to grow exponentially, virality must equal or exceed 1.0. In the aggregate, one user becomes two, turns into four, eight, and so on. Anything less than 1 and virality cannot be self-sustaining.

• Predictable growth rates: If a product is properly designed with viral hooks, it spreads at a constant rate, assuming there are sufficient numbers of people, and can be accurately forecast, in the same way epidemiologists can predict with some certainty how quickly a virus will spread through a city.

• Network effects: The more who join, the more who have an incentive to join. A telephone, for example, becomes continually more useful to those who already have one as more people are added to the network.

• Stackability: A viral network can be laid over the top of another, each fostering the other's growth (PayPal and eBay; YouTube and MySpace).

• Point of non-displacement: A tipping point, when a company attracts so many users it continues to grow; it becomes nearly impossible for a competitor to take it down.

• Ultimate saturation: After a network has spread far and wide, it can reach a point of maturity when growth slows. This happened to both MySpace and Facebook, both of which saw their growth rates slow from 3% a month to about 1%, and in MySpace's case even decline slightly. Nevertheless, they had already amassed substantial user bases, with a full 20% of users considered "addicts" who made up almost 70% of visits.

The result is a business that spreads rapidly, scales quickly, and has the potential to create staggering wealth in a relatively short amount of time.

Penenberg, A. L. (2010) Viral Loop: The Power of Pass-it-on. 1st ed. London, UK: Hodder & Stroughton LTD.

© Adam. L. Penenberg 2009. ISBN 978 0 340 91869 2

Practice what we preach!

Hey fellow students, why not utilise some of the viral marketing techniques we are learning about to promote your Blog and get more views/comments/followers, you could try;

• E-mail all you friends
• Facebook/Twitter all you friends
• Ask any forum members to take a look
• Ask in person (like in real life, not electronically!)

The changes in moving image production

New technologies and mass access to professional technology have changed the production process. Below is a table contrasting old and new requirements/strategies. Changes in the following areas have been addressed:

·         Costs

·         Aesthetics

·         Logistics

·         Access to Technology

Mainstream (Broadcast Media)	Alternative (Social Media)
Pre-Production Most costs are high, scripts have to be paid for, researchers have to be paid & research can be time consuming. Most management & crew are highly skilled & educated usually with tight schedules to adhere to. Financing can be difficult, especially for high budget films. All the latest technology is available, with state-of-the-art techniques utilized.	Pre-Production Scripts, if any, can be sourced at a lesser cost, amateur writers are keen to be noticed so command smaller fees/royalties. Management/research tasks are usually carried out by the producer, thus eliminating costs; amateur producers are mostly Jack’s-of-all trades. Financing is usually achieved from the producers own pocket.
Production Camera/sound equipment is usually up to date (HD), resulting in high hire charges. Lighting is predominantly hi spec and widely used. Actors can be, depending on ability very expensive and/or demanding. Mise-en-scene has a high priority; sets are built to a high standard, costumes are sourced to correctly depict the theme of the production and the acting performance has high priority.	Production Camera equipment can be easily sourced, thanks to the increase in prosumer technology the cost has decreased. Virtual sets can be created with inexpensive software, or public places can be used for location filming. Actors can be hired with social networking platforms. Costumes can be homemade or bought/hired relatively cheaply through fancy dress agencies.
Post-Production Editing is very time consuming and costly, the cost being relative to the release/broadcast date. Special FX are carried out by specialist teams, usually outsourced, involving a high cost, the same can be said for title/credit sequences. The main reason for outsourcing is that dedicated companies use the best technology available, to stay competitive. Post-production may be carried out in different locations, resulting in logistical costs/time.	Post-Production Production software is now inexpensive; there are free trial versions of professional editing/producing available or student versions. All this work can be carried out on an average home computer; some of which have software built in with the operating system. Titles can be created with free software. Soundtracks/sound FX can be sourced through royalty free websites.
Distribution To distribute the media, cost is very high, whether this is on film or Disk, both have to be produced by the laboratory then shipped to the distributer, then onto the retailer. At every stage a cut of the profits has to be taken, and the risk for leakage also increases at every stage. The choice at this stage is great, cinema, TV, disk, dongle, pay-per-view, stream, etc.	Distribution There is no need for a physical version of the created texts; they can be simply uploaded to websites such as Vimeo or YouTube. With some simple viral marketing strategies implemented, the film can go global within a matter of hours.

My favourite Viral Ad so far

In April 2010, 2 videos were posted, by Pixar, to YouTube under the names MrCrazycommercials and GaikokujinJoe1' as a promotion for the release of Toy Story 3. They were made to look like 1980s toy commercials.

This is (in my view), one of the best ways to promote. The viewers are completely unaware of the digital trickery to make the film look like 1980's VHS, or in fact that this is promoting a 2010 CGI Movie. Fantastic!

I do have to say, this would have fooled me :-)

Social media to boom among UK businesses in 2011

A report published in January suggests that UK businesses will increase the use of social media in 2011, read more:

http://www.officecavalry.com/blog/press/press-release-social-media-to-boom-among-uk-businesses-in-2011-new-report-reveals.html

Loser generated content; People who post utter nonsense as content, just because they can

A fantastic article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/dec/05/charlie-brooker-screen-burn

Enjoy!

Top 10 viral marketing campaigns

Take a look at these:

http://www.blogstorm.co.uk/the-top-10-viral-marketing-campaigns-of-all-time/

A virus targeting the mind

Viral marketing depends on a high pass-along rate from person to person. If a large percentage of recipients forward something to a large number of friends, the overall growth snowballs very quickly. If the pass-along numbers get too low, the overall growth quickly fizzles.

Plenty of viruses succeed without spreading beyond a single community, and in terms of viral marketing and how it can work in conjunction with search engine optimisation; sometimes a single community is all it takes to initiate a high search result. Once it is accessible via top search results for a popular/relevant search query, a page/site hosting a commanding idea (i.e. a virus targeting the mind) can be very difficult to shift, as it quickly becomes self-reinforcing.

Viral marketing has come under criticism from consumers, privacy advocates, and marketing pundits because of concern over unsolicited e-mails. The best campaigns, however, use the principles of viral marketing tactfully to avoid negative reactions and ensure a high pass-along rate - the number of recipients that will pass the message to others. Much like the common cold, effective viral marketing uses people to unwittingly transmit a message within their social network. It takes the concept of word-of-mouth and enhances it with the instant global communication afforded by the Internet.

Alternative vs Mainstream

What is mainstream ? What is alternative? At what point does alternative become mainstream?

The Brief

To produce a folder of supporting documentation for the practical component of the module.
This will include:
A written analytical discussion of both mainstream & alternative practices of moving image production for advertisement/promotion, reflecting critically on recent changes in media practice in terms of access to digital technology. This should include reference to production methods & user/audience engagement.

A production log (this Blog) documenting planning & production of the practical project. This should include reference to theoretical aspects discussed in the essay above.

A critical personal reflection on your input to the practical project & your role within the group, which draws on your learning from PPD & WBL modules.

Welcome to my Blog

This is a production log documenting planning & production of a promotional piece featuring Craven College's Art , Design & Media department.