Avatar - A Transmedia 3D Adventure?

Avatar premiered in London over the weekend and will hit theaters here in the US next week on December 18th. I saw a 3D preview on a Panasonic 103 inch screen at DMW's and Variety's Future of Film Summit last week, it was impressive, but didn't blow me away. The latest trailer (embedded below) gives a better idea of what the film is about. 3D adds another dimension to the experience, but the story is still the most important aspect of the movie. I think Jim Cameron gets that and he is more focused on using technology to tell the story in the best possible way, or rather a "symphony of narratives" as Jeff Gomez of Starlight Runner Entertainment puts it in an interview I did with him earlier this year. It will be interesting to see if he is successful with that aspect of Avatar, and if, for example, the video game will be as good as everyone is expecting the movie to be....

Subaru and DC Shoes - What Infomercial?

Walternaeslund.com reminds me of the fact that bad ass is just… bad ass. But there is more to it. The video below shows how well integrated branded entertainment can be just... entertaining. DC Shoes' website is very much like a media hub for all things cool (I wish Subaru's website was just as good.) I'm sure that this didn't just happen, but it looks so natural when you go there, doesn't it. BTW, the video below is approaching 10 million views on YouTube alone! Spoke to My Damn Channel's Rob Barnett about branded entertainment today as well, he gets it and I think he has built a wonderful platforms for brands to do cool stuff, like the IKEA-sponsored web series Easy To Assemble that my company Viking Digital Media has done the interactive and social stuff for. Stay tuned to see more of this in the future. At DMW's and Variety's Future of Film Summit yesterday, it seems like filmmakers are increasingly open to this as well and I think all this will come together nicely in 2010 and bottom line is -more great content for viewers to enjoy.

District 9 and Visual Effects

District 9 was the last movie I saw that has amazing visual effects. It's said to represent a new generation of sci-fi movies, made with a fraction of the budget of the big Hollywood movies like Transformers, but still with really advanced visual effects. As computer animation and visual effects programs have become cheaper and cheaper and more user friendly, I can't wait to see what the movies will look like a few years from now. DMW's and Variety's Future of Film Summit will give you a glimpse of what is to come. Until then, enjoy the video below which represents the last 100 years of evolution in terms of visual effects for movies.