Category Archives: Video

Disney buys Star Wars – My opinion

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The Walt Disney Company and George Lucas have recently got to a deal in which the latter sells all his creations managed by LucasArts. And here’s my opinion on it.

First of all, I see a very favorable deal for The Walt Disney Company; I think that they also bought Pixar to Steve Jobs for approximately two times the price Disney has paid to Lucas. And it is obvious that the Star Wars franchise looks like a much more profitable business overall. Disney is going to be able to exploit Star Wars on their theme parks, and on their merchandise store channels. And they are going to be able to make more Star Wars movies (this is what I’m most afraid of).

And second, although it is a very favorable deal for Disney, it is the same for Lucas; half the price will be paid in stocks, so he will be one of the biggers Disney stock holders today. He will still have small control over his work and if everything goes well, he should see profits coming.

To sum up: Well done, Lucas; well done, Disney!

Animated Series: From the internet to the TV

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There are now a few animated series which were born on the internet as pilot episodes or short films. I can name at least three of them, sort in chronological order: Happy Tree Friends, Annoying Orange and now Adventure Time. The first and last ones are pure 2D animation, and the middle one is some sort of image composition.

There is one point in common on the three series: they became an internet success first. Happy Tree Friends obtained an instant success and was made quickly by an industry veteran, although the drawing style is very refined. Annoying Orange went viral within a year or so (starting on Youtube), and Adventure Time was a pilot episode aired on the net to gather interest or investors and finally went viral, then the creators were able to pitch it to Cartoon Network (which finally put the money to make the series). It’s funny, now that adventure time is so popular I remind having watched the short film not so many years ago when they were trying to make something out of it.

The moral of the story is that nowadays the trend to start on the net for a TV series is growing stronger and there’s room for more. There is another series which was born on the net as e-cards: Pucca (from South Korea). This one is a bit older, though.

K-Pop is taking over the World

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While you are reading this you have been probably impacted by one of PSY’s videos on Youtube. And some time ago perhaps you were impacted by one of Girls Generation Youtube videos, or 2NE1. And the truth is that Kpop or South Korean Pop is virtually taking over the World.

There have been a couple of Korean entertainment companies (like SMEnt) which have raised these years and have managed to make those Korean artists on top of the World pop culture. In fact, they haven’t spent many money on advertising; they have spent money in making their videos appealing: the make-up, the choreographies… Some people said that Girls Generation girls were trained to dance like if they were on the Army (LOL).

Perhaps this is the beginning, perhaps it’s the end, but I haven’t seen such a rise on the artistic field in many time. Now we must wait until the Red Dragon wakes up in terms of culture (China).

The golden Age of Webcasting

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Today I want to talk about a recent phenomena which is taking place on the net and especially on Youtube. It is the Webcasting phenomena. And it means that people around the globe record computer sessions with their own background voice, commenting what’s happening.

It is also tied to gaming, because most of them play games and then air what’s going on in them, it’s a common thing. There are many: some webcast their Starcraft battles, some weird videogames, some talk about Minecraft, and so on. Here’s an updated list of highly successful webcasters for you to enjoy:

Husky http://www.youtube.com/huskystarcraft
Day9 http://www.youtube.com/day9tv
LAGtv http://www.youtube.com/lifesaglitchtv
PsyStarcraft http://www.youtube.com/PsyStarcraft
PaulSoaresJr http://www.youtube.com/paulsoaresjr
PewDiePie http://www.youtube.com/user/PewDiePie
Toby Tobuscus http://www.youtube.com/user/Tobuscus

Have fun!

Simon’s Cat

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This is a short article to let you know that there’s a new cat in town (well, actually, it’s two or three years old), it’s called Simon’s Cat and since it appeared on Youtube it has been rocking the internet.

It’s beauty lies in it’s wonderful 2D animation, it is really good. Sometimes it miaows a littlebit but there’s almost no sound aside from a couple fx. This is good news because you will understand the plot of every chapter whether you speak English or not. It’s Youtube channel is… here. Enjoy!

Splash Kitty Artist

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Splash Kitty Artist is my kind of artist. She is from the US (I guess) and she says she’s only 13 years old (will it be true?). But she’s managed to get a solid Youtube channel with many, many, many views.

And what does she do? Animations. Funny animations featuring kittens and foxes. They usually dance songs from other artists and currently people like her so much that they are starting to make fanarts of her creations and other stuff!!

Although her animations could be considered, let’s say, a littlebit rough, they are very funny and made with so much love, so much that she’s got many views. Link to her Youtube channel here. Enjoy!

Internet broke art barriers to entry

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The internet is a cool place. Everybody knows it. And there are many reasons why it is so cool. One of them is that it has definitely changed the way artistic content is known by the general public and it has turned upside down the previous model.

In the old days, if you were a musician, you had one way: first, create art. Second, show it to music labels A&Rs. Third, pray for A&Rs to choose your work. Fourth, in case you are choosen, pray for the public to like it.

This way has improved with the internet and it is more or less the opposite: First, you create content. Second, show it to the world. Third, if the public likes it or you manage to get many views, music labels will call you. Fourth, you choose to stay on your own or to join a music label. It’s that simple!

The art barriers to entry have been broken. You don’t need to make an A&R like you, you must make the public like you. And this is so good because new artistic content is rising, but beware! Now that you can create content and show it to the world, you may think there’s room for everyone in art, and there isn’t. As in the previous model, only the best succeed, but now A&Rs have much less power, or no power at all, in the content pipeline. There are other things that affect this pipeline, and I will tell you in separate articles.

Happy Wheels stuff

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Today I want to mix two topics like the one who makes a Martini: games with Youtube or Happy Wheels with Pew Die Pie.

Happy Wheels is a free online flash game who has had great success: in the game you are a dad who takes a bicycle ride with his son. It is a very violent game as those two people usually tend to crash onto something with many blood pouring and all those things. If you are into violent games you will find it very funny.

And Mr. Pew Die Pie, from Sweden, has found it so funny that he is borrowing his voice to make videos with game plays while he talks; the result are conversations between dad & son while they crash and crash with stuff on the game. It’s really funny, and Pew Die Pie has managed to get more than 4,000,000 views on one of his videos.

The video I’m talking about (Youtube) is here, and if you want to play the game, the best way is to search for ‘Happy Wheels’ on a search engine.

L’Odysée de Cartier

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It’s time to talk today about this short film made by Cartier brand: L’Odysée de Cartier. This is not a fashion site but it’s an animation one!

The fact is that this short film, released a couple months ago, featuring a fantastic journey of the World known brand icon, has rocked Youtube with more than 10 million views in the first month of being aired. I must admit many of the views might have been pushed by true advertising but anyway, 10 million visits are many visits, aren’t they? The film is full of beautiful scenes made with 3D animation; I suppose the budget of the film hasn’t been low, and I’ve also heard that they have been working on it for three years!

Nowadays internet is not a place for luxury, everybody’s talking and giving his/her opinion on it, but this is truly the best approach a luxury brand could have made to generate buzz and value on the net. Congratulations! And I almost forgot! In case you want to watch the video, link to the Youtube page here.

Hatsune Miku, rewriting the rules of marketing

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I’m living out of this World. There is something I’ve discovered yesterday, and now everything makes sense. It’s the PC software called Miku Miku Dance (MMD).

With it, you can make 3D Hatsune Miku custom videos and put some music behind so she can dance, walk, talk, or whatever you want her to do. It’s not very difficult to use and you can import movements and stuff from the net in case you get stuck with it. Then you can export AVI files and make videos with your favorite video editor, like Windows Movie Maker (comes for free by default on any Windows platform). Here’s the link to the official page (English).

With this tool, Hatsune Miku creators and marketeers have assured that they will have a big amount of fans creating stuff and uploading it to Youtube, for instance. What’s the final effect? Hatsune Miku everywhere, and the rules of marketing changed.

Hatsune Miku has perfectly understood the upcoming changes in content distribution, thanks to the internet, and has used it on her advantage. Instead of prohibiting fans to create fan arts (like the old school), she is currently encouraging fans to make videos of herself! As long as they are not commercial and offensive to the brand, YOU ARE ALLOWED TO UPLOAD ANYTHING YOU LIKE HATSUNE MIKU RELATED. This is a main change from the old school, where it was forbidden to use the character without permission. The result, as I have said above, is that Hatsune Miku is everywhere, and the fan effect is multiplying. Not only they allow you to do so, THEY ARE CREATING TOOLS FOR YOU TO DO IT, like MMD.

My computer is a bit old, and doesn’t work very well with 3D technologies, but yes! I’ve made my first Miku Miku Dance video with a song of my own: MMD – Hatsune Miku – The Whistle Song (link to Youtube video). What do you think of it?