JUNKFILM

Good day and Happy Greatest-Holiday-On-Earth..HALLOWEEN. I will have pics from our costume party next week including my own Vlad, from the comic book, Hack/Slash. This marks the first time I am doing a comic book character since my 8th grade attempt at Lobo (from DC Comics). Since then I have been Ryoga (from Ranma 1/2), Jason (Friday the 13th), a weird hybrid of Leatherface and my own character, Ash (Evil Dead 2), Darth Vader, and more. So I am excited to see if I can pull this off.

On with the news, dammit.

In response the hugely popular “Don’t Vote” PSA where tons of famous faces graced the screen to tall you “Don’t Vote”…in order for you to go out and register to vote, a second, better crafted, funnier and Harrison Ford and Borat starring “Don’t Vote” PSA has emerged. Who has directed this 4 1/2 minute commercial? Steven Speilberg. Woot.

I love Borat in this…

Commercials, it would seem, are the new realm of short, invasive, and powerful messages for film directors. There are two commercials just released which show the true skill of the director:

1. Brett Ratner (X-Men 3, Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2, Rush Hour 3)
Title: The one commercial, and I didn’t think they could do it, that makes me NOT want to play Guitar Hero: World Tour
Formula? Throw in as many well known faces as possible and go for street cred. Kobe. Tony Hawk. Michael Phelps. and some sports celeb names A-Rod, excuse my lack of athletic knowledge. Nothing with plot or story or character development.
Did it work? Oh yeah.

2. David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Formula? Create a timeline that draws in the viewer and create a clever story telling medium in 1 minute.
Did it work? Oh yeah.

The concept of film directors doing commercials is not a new thing. It’s been around for some time…look at the BMW films, man, some of those were sick. But I this could be a fun new venture for many brilliant minds of the medium. And I think the Internet is a genius place to distribute this medium, it proves several things:

1. Many people are getting their entertainment from online.
2. Many people are getting their news and knowledge from online.
3. It’s a free or drastically cheap place to advertise and expose your art.
4. It’s a communal-type of arena. Where the theater can show to as many people who are willing to go out and buy a ticket and sit through the movie, and television can show to as many people who are too lazy to turn the channel, the Internet is a web of connections and people telling one-another to “check this out” and therefore, it’s only 1 click away.

Many films are being distributed online, check out Steal This Film 2, a wicked documentary about online media…and of course there is Michael Moore’s Slacker Uprising…and with Moore’s constant vigilance in the online game, I wonder why he hasn’t done his signature documentary about the P2P community yet.

Ah well, the future looks to be a grand place.