Awful Handwriting
Ad Ramblings and Web GuffArchive for TV/Film
Surgery Live
An ambitious and characteristically daring experiment for Channel 4 this week, as a series of serious surgeries are to be broadcast live through the channel over four consecutive evenings. If their past dalliances with controversy are anything to go by they’ll score a large audience simply by tapping into our inevitable morbid curiosity – we’ve all seen surgeries performed through countless medical documentaries, so surely the only real attraction for a ‘live’ performance is to gawp just in case it goes wrong?
Regardless, I’ll be watching (for pretty much all the reasons above, too) – and perhaps joining in, since they’re justifying their live broadcast on the surface through a level of interaction brought to life through twitter and facebook. Viewers will be able to ask questions to the surgeons as they work, to gain unprecedented insight into the individual surgical processes.
Tuesday’s op might be a bit too far though – brain surgery on a conscious patient. Whoever’s volunteered to climb on the camera-slab for that one has some real balls. It’s one thing to question a professional about his work in a live environment, but to involve the person with a chunk of brain exposed? That’s a little too much ‘live’ for my liking*.
Visit Surgery Live for programme details
*I’ll still be watching (shamelessly)
Human Interface
Windows 7? Pah! This OS has got a moustache! If this isn’t nicked and turned out into a website soon, we’re missing a bucketload of tricks. Run, industry, RUN!
Let It Shine – Honda
Sweet, isn’t it? I thought so, until I watched this:
I was all ready to shout ‘Take that LED Sheep, this one’s for real!’ – until they showed it was controlled by a computer matrix. Why on earth did they cut it together with people in the edit, only to send out a making of with a decidedly non-human payoff? It’s a massive mistake if you ask me – either let the mystery of the stunt run, or let us think it was done digitally from the start. A massive collaborative idea destroyed by reality. Bad move, W+K Amsterdam. Shame.
At least LED sheep looked fake.
Duffy – Diet Coke
Yes, it’s awful. But at least I get to giggle every time I see her fly past a sign that, in my mind at least, captures the mood of the whole ad completely! Welcome to Iggy Pop’s domain. Now buy some insurance for your silly bike off his creepy glittering torso and bugger off my television.
Full ad for the cavedwelling here
It’s The Taste – PG Tips
Charming rework of a Morcambe & Wise classic for PG Tips and their already wildly popular Monkey & Al team. It’s nice to see something that could have been used a hundred times already only now getting nicked by advertising – and since Al & Monkey are themselves recycled from the yonks old/doomed ITV Digital campaigns, it seems to fit them pretty damn well!
Timesculpture – Toshiba
Everyone’s going a bit mad for this one, and for good reason – but for me, I’m much less moved by the visual than I am by the product itself, and it’s a claim that’s been far too underplayed for my liking. The 200-strong camera rig that made this little bullet-time spectacle was made entirely from Toshiba HD camcorders. That you can get at Argos. For money.
Well worth looking at the site and watching the featurette. Sod upscaling – these camcorders are broadcast standard, and that is pretty damn strong.
Bond. WTF Bond.
Apparently that totally bizarro Bond Sony HD ad that’s been running recently is completely in keeping with Quantum of Solace – it was dead nicely shot and that, but I didn’t have a shitting clue what was going on in the cinema either. One for a rewatch methinks!
