The Happening Experiment Sydney. Pitt St Mall

The Happening Experiment Sydney

The Evolving Digital Market

I was chatting to Mike the other day about how much the work we do at Soap has changed in the last 12-18 months. The type of work, the clients and the expanded team are all obvious ones but I was more referring to the marketplace and tools available.

For me the change has been for the better and things have gotten easier to produce good results (if not more complicated due to all the options.)

Here's a list of things in the last 12-18 months that have become part of my my daily working life.

1. Facebook/Myspace (I don't use either daily but that's all you hear people talking about)
2. Mochibot
3. Mochiads
4. ClearSpring/Gigya
5. Widgets
6. Google Reader
7. Google Analytics (OK this one we got into earlier but it's more prevalent now)
8. Google Adsense
9. Google Adwords
10. Disqus
11. Feedburner (again a little older than 18 months)
12. New blog systems (Word Press, Expressions Engine) I used Moveable Type exclusively since 2000 until recently.
13. Backpack
14. Wiki's
15. VPN's (somehow I have to use 3 now (after going years without needing one) which are all a pain in the ass to upload files though)
16. Tube Mogul
17. Technorati
18. Tumblr
19. Yahoo! Pipes
20. Vimeo

Mike would have to add Twitter to that list but I've got enough on my plate to not micro blog my life.

Some tools I wonder how we ever managed without them!

The next big thing is Flash 10. This is a huge visual update for the player. Flash 9 brought with it just AS3 which did wonders for performance but didn't add much in the way of Eye Candy. Flash 10 though is the Eye Candy step we've been waiting for. It's hard on enducing the stuff that the player can do.

It's the same WOW factor that 8 had over 7 but multiplied and I can't wait.

City of Ember

We just launched the first stage of Fox + Walden's new film City of Ember.

A big part of this initial launch is the films widget which you can see below. I've read the script which was great but after seeing the trailer I'm even more excited. It's directed by the guy who did Monster House which was a great film and this film is aiming a little older I think.

Check the widget map to see where the widget is generating power from. Someone in NZ liked it :)

There's lots more to be added (which we have to keep hush hush right now) but I'm excited to work on the project and we have a client who's pushing us to do better work too. Which is a rare thing.

Chaser's Age of Terror Variety Hour Review

I just saw Chaser's Age of Terror Variety Hour (info here and here and can't really say I was impressed.

I'll keep this brief but I should have known the "Variety Hour" meant just that. An hour. I expected more than 65 minutes from the show.

The routine was musically jam packed and at many times I could hardly understand what they were saying. The jokes felt stale or laboured and the few times they did anything enlightening were few and far between. The best part of the Chaser's show was when they ambushed people and did stunts. This was lacking from the stage show for obvious reasons. There was a good routine about online dating and one about powerpoint but hardly side splitting stuff or even explored in depth.

I went to a spoken word by Henry Rollins and that was a 3hr (OK 3 hrs was a touch too long) but I laughed more at that and he had more interesting things to say about politics (even Aussie politics).

So all I'd say is that if you are planning on seeing the show save your cash and buy their DVD set. If you already have that then don't worry. You're not missing much and go out and buy the Venture Bros DVD set. That's worth every cent.

Justice Stress Film Clip

Amazing clip from young French director Romain Gavras! Check our his previous clips here on his myspace page.

I'm going as far as saying he's the new French Spike Jonze although with less of a sense of humour and more of a chip on his shoulder. Very powerful and asks the question was this acted or shot for real. Check this page for a big debate on the clip and it's controversy.

Reminds me of watching Kids or Gummo. Justice not only have one of the best albums of last year but also 3 killer film clips to go with it and sexy cover art.

The other director I can't get enough of is Tom Kuntz. Best name too. I can;t wait to see him progress to the big screen. Another Kuntz film. I picked a few of my favs of his work here previously.

God of War Movie Poster Teaser

God of War Movie Poster Teaser, View my Flickr stream here.

I cant wait for the God of War movie. The games are so rich and original the movie will kick ass. Even Prince of Persia game i think will work

links for 2008-05-02

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