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NY – A Storm Story Without Words

Dave Neelsen — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:12:23 +0000

Okay, I’m a little late to the party on this gem of a short film by Filmmaker Jamie Stuart. He’s receiving national attention for this short film he made about the recent East Coast blizzard. Stuart shot “Idiot with a Tripod” on December 26th in New York. In this three minute film, Stuart is able to wonderfully capture the post-Christmas snowstorm.

Made as an homage, directly inspired by Dziga Vertov’s 1929 silent classic “Man With a Movie Camera,” it was shot and edited in a little over a 24 hour period. And, by later that following day, December 27th, links to the film were being passed around on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Strategically sent to film critic Roger Ebert making him one of the first to see “Idiot with a Tripod.” Ebert thinks the film should win an Academy Award for best live-action short subject. Enjoy …

It’s certainly impressive the way Stuart is able to tell a story without any words and pulls it together with an excellent choice of music. There are no spoken words, no graphics, not even any natural sound, yet the viewer sees a story through the images on the screen. We are able to follow the progression as the storm impacts life in New York. Nice work!

Here is a link to Vertov’s original 1929 silent classic “Man With a Movie Camera,” should you wish to watch.

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Mad Men’s Don Draper Would Be Dead Well Before The Online Video Era, Says Show Creator

Dave Neelsen — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:57:15 +0000

Love this column by Grant Crowell over at REELSEO. If you enjoy Mad Men as much as we do at StoryFirst, you’ll love this read as well!

By Grant Crowell at REELSEO …
I was the first reporter to gleam this information from Matt Weiner, creator of the critically acclaimed TV show Mad Men at the 2010 NAB Show in Las Vegas, as part of the 2nd day opening session titled “In Conversation With: Matthew Weiner.” Read about what Matt says are the parallels, and differences, with the 1960’s Madison Avenue age depicted in the popular show, to 2010’s “online video age.”

Yes, I admit it… MAD MEN is a show I’ve watched on a near-religious basis, since being introduced to it during the beginning of its 2nd season on television (and rented all the back episodes on Netflix since). I’ve even watched all of the video parodies of the show online. You probably already know about the SNL clips, and the Sesame Street and Simpsons parodies, but I actually find the Mad Women parody to be my fav.

For the rest of this great read, click here.

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Keep Walking

Dave Neelsen — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:16:41 +0000

Looking for a well executed example of great storytelling that’s fun, engaging, and just plain works – over 103,000 views and spreading fast as of this posting – watch “The Man Who Walked Around The World”. It’s a five-minute commercial/short film for Johnnie Walker, in which actor Robert Carlyle (“Trainspotting”) briskly walks along a path in the Scottish Highlands and tells an entertaining monologue about the history of Johnnie Walker, picking up and discarding props (a peaked cap, a bottle of whisky) as he goes. What’s incredible is that it’s all done in a single take, with Carlyle showing perfect timing as he walks along, never muffing a line and always arriving at the next prop at the exact right moment. It’s an amazing piece of acting, and although he never breaks a sweat on-camera, you can bet that Carlyle needed a wee dram after he was finished.

This Johnnie Walker example is a great example of what’s possible with web video, though rest assured web video is not just for big hitters like JW. Web video can level the playing field, in fact when telling your story in a way that connects with your audience, it can give you an advantage over the your big hitter competitors. It’s affordable, fun engaging and dynamic just as you business is.

As reported in the MarketingSherpa 2009 Marketing with Video Report, “putting video on websites has been a huge success. That’s what our sample of marketers that put video on their own websites said about how it is working out for them. Their response was extremely positive. And these marketers gave us hundreds of great examples touching on dozens of ways in which adding video to their site has had a positive impact on sales, lead generation, use of site, and improved customer relations.

So if you haven’t added video to your website that tells your story, “keep walking” in that direction. Maybe walk fast. In the meantime enjoy the show … with a wee dram of JW if you wish!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnSIp76CvUI

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