I am a huge fan of self produced company videos. Providing a view from inside is always compelling and the consumer is expecting this type of material to be standard. Many companies spend a great deal of money on these videos and while some are well produced and do the job, I am a fan of the more off the cuff style videos. The videos that display the personality of the company as well as provide good insight on the products or services the company provides. I personally become more attached to a product, company, or personality if I can easily relate with them, which is why humor is so important in these types of videos.
While researching business cards, I found Moo, an international print house specializing in custom printing with a great sense of humor. While searching I stumbled across some videos promoting their paper stocks and their processes. These short, both under two minutes, videos provided me with compelling information why I should order cards from Moo, but also provided an entertaining display of humor via smart dialogue, catchy music, and slick motion graphics.
As you can see from the videos, they are filled with great information on the product, but also provide some insight on the personalities and humor of the company and staff. You don’t see many videos become viral that don’t have some level of humor in them. Either it be the Old Spice Campaign or 99% of the Super Bowl ads. Making people laugh is good. They aren’t laughing at you or your product.
I have some time on my hands these days while I search for a new job, so I’ll be writing about some of my opinions on Social Media. Lots of exciting things going on and it changes everyday. Stay tuned.
Sadly I have to announce that my time at Irrational Games have come to an end. I am grateful for the opportunity that Ken Levine gave me to help define and build the community from nothing. I am extremely proud of what we built as a studio in the time I was Community Manager from relaunching the Irrational Games Brand, to the achievements on IrrationalGames.com, or to the wild success of Irrational Behavior and Irrational Interviews. As a fan now I am extremely excited for BioShock Infinite and implore you to become a fan of their community if not for my sake, then for the sake of all my amazing co-workers working on the project.
As for me, I am excited for my next opportunity. I am looking for work as a Community Management aimed at the end consumer. If you know of an open position or would like to talk about community get a hold me of me. Shinyidol@gmail.com or @shinyidol on Twitter. I will be attending PAX Prime next week, so if you happen to be there come and track me down and say hello!
Sunday has turned into my prime night for television. So many good series are cropping up as well as others returning strong. Leverage continues to be a modern take on the A-Team, which is just fun to watch. The characters are fun, the heists are entertaining, and it takes place in Boston, where I am currently living, but to the well trained eye you can see that Leverage is actually filmed in Portland, Oregon a city close to my heart.
After Leverage, I had Sherlock for a couple weeks. Sadly it only lasted three episodes, even though they were 90 minutes long each. Oh BBC how you tease me.
Next is AMC’s new drama Rubicon, about a national security think tank. It is very slow, but very rewarding. A very nice compliment to watching Leverage earlier in the evening. The tone of Rubicon is serious with twisted relationships after the death of a co-worker and the mysteries that soon come to surface. The cast is strong with James Badge Dale recently on the HBO miniseries The Pacific, not to mention it has Sledge Hammer. Even with the painfully slow pace at times, it is still well worth watching.
And to close the night I have Entourage. I have been watching this show for years and I love the inside peak in Hollywood. While fictional, I get a kick out of it.
Before you get on me, I haven’t started watching Mad Men or True Blood, so back off.
After a long week at work with the launch of BioShock Infinite I have finally been able to do some laundry and catch up on some television. All caught up on Sherlock, Burn Notice, Top Chef, and Psych. I also decided to try out a new theme on the site here. I think it is a little easier to read and parse. Tell me what you think. The theme was built by the wonderful people at WooThemes.
Last year I moved from the lovely Seattle, Washington out to Boston, Massachusetts for at job at Irrational Games. Leaving Seattle behind was difficult as my entire family is in Seattle, all my friends, all the great friendships I have developed while living out there, and a great game development community, but the project was too good to pass up. And now I can publicly show everyone what exactly made me move 3,200 miles away. BioShock Infinite.
BBC launched a new version of Sherlock Holmes tonight simply called Sherlock. Taking place in the 21st century London, it takes bits and pieces of all the popular dramas on television today and places them together with the legacy and timeless characters of Holmes and Watson.
The 90 minute premiere was a blast to watch. Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes is brilliant and Martin Freeman as injured Afghanistan war vet grounds the show. While it is odd to watch a 90 minute television show, it was paced quite well. Shot very much like Law & Order here in the States, it does have a certain level of nerd factor as seen with the display of text messages on screen. It is quite charming.
I am excited for the next episodes, but sad that they are only planning three 90 minute episodes for the entire season. I’d be one to track down when Sherlock will air on your local PBS station.
So I have been running Shinyidol.com for ages now, 2004 to be exact, but my updates are somewhat scarce. Well I am making a challenge to update once a week. Yes, I think I have said this before, but I really think it is time to push the blog for good and heal humanity of its limited voice of myself. So get your reading glasses going and get ready for more posts, more content, and more coll stuff from yours truly.
Tonight HBO airs the 2nd episode of The Pacific. I loved Band of Brothers and The Pacific is pretty damn good. Last weeks episode setup some of the characters, and I hope that this weeks episode provides some more depth. You have to live HBO for having the balls to push for these long mini-series with amazing production. I’ll probably post a overall review when the entire series is over. Stay tuned.
