Google, Arcade Fire and Chris Milk have created an HTML5 music video specifically for the Chrome web browser. It’s also tailored to the individual viewer. Oh and kind of bad-ass. The most important part of this for Google is showing off HTML5, or what I like to call Flash Killer. (Flash is not quite dead, but a lot of people are trying to kill it.)
The Wilderness Downtown is on the most basic level an Arcade Fire video, but when you watch it on Google’s Chrome browser, which I use every day, individual windows with different angles and shots pop up in time with the music. The killer part is that before the video plays you input your childhood address and Google will incorporate Street View and satellite images into the video to personalize it for you. A bit gimmicky? Yeah, but with Arcade fire playing in the background you almost feel like your childhood home was cool. (Mine was cool. Sorry mom, did you think I didn’t like our home?)
Go check it out here. But to get the full effect you will have to download Chrome. Sorry.
I don’t know how many of you have played around on Chatroulette or know much about it. Essentially, it’s what it sounds like. You log in with your webcam and you are randomly assigned to other users on the site. It’s roulette. You have no idea who you’re going to get. Mostly it’s a bunch of dudes holding their junk hoping to match up with hot chicks.
So the marketing geniuses behind the new film The Last Exorcism took advantage of that and created a video of a sexy girl appearing to undress for her male chat partners. Of course it has a frightening end. Check out the video below.
Do all large cities have a movie themed diner that shows film screenings while serving diner food? Well, DC has one. I actually think we have two. I could easily research this with a Google search, but I’m not going to. You’re on your own for that.
Last night I went to one of these diners with my fiancée and some friends. The screening was none other than the Sidney Lumet classic Serpico. Al Pacino played the title character Frank Serpico, or Paco if you’re his friend. This is one of Pacino’s best performances. (The role earned him an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe win.)
Let’s just get the diner out of the way and then we’ll talk about Serpico. I love diner food. Burgers, fries, shakes. Nothing about those three things is bad, unless of course you ate at this diner. Although, the shake wasn’t too terribly awful. My stomach is still a little iffy about the whole situation.
The idea of watching a great movie while eating is very appealing to me because I’m fat and like movies. There weren’t very many people. There was one single woman and then a couple on a first date. It was an awkward first date of course. At one point the woman asked the man, “How do you feel about mental illness?” It flowed out of her mouth the same way one would ask, “How do you feel about cats?” So the pre-Serpico show was pretty amazing.
I’ve been reading about AMC’s upcoming series The Walking Dead since Comic Con. Obviously zombies are pretty popular right now. Everyone loves them, so it’s not a big surprise to see a series about zombies. An AMC series about zombies is as surprised as I get. Yesterday, AMC released the first trailer for the series (thanks to my sister for sending it to me).
It’s a very long trailer. So you really do get a sense of what the show will be about. However, you don’t need the trailer to tell you what a zombie movie will be about. The sad thing is the straight up rip off of 28 Days Later. A sheriff wakes up in a hospital after being shot to discover the world is overrun by zombies.
He’s also in search of his family, very much like BBC’s Survivors. Of course there is also a scene where he hesitates when it comes to killing a zombie kid. Basically, every good scene from any zombie movie will be pulled into this one. Will I watch it? Yes. Will I like it? That’s yet to be determined. The one thing I’m excited about is that he’s a sort of cowboy. Although he’s from Kentucky. Which is bullshit. All good cowboys come from Texas. Even FX’s Justified is about cowboy US Marshals in Kentucky. Everyone knows that real cowboys come from Texas. When did Kentucky become cool?
Anyway, watch the trailer for The Walking Dead below and tell me what you think in the comments.
I once saw Richard Dreyfuss speak. He was a cantankerous old man who spoke openly about his industry and pulled no punches. Something I respect in the Hollywood elite. When questioned by an audience member about why he took a gig on Poseidon, the atrocious remake of The Poseidon Adventure. Dreyfuss looked into the audience and with a [...]
When the AWP conference was held in New York City a few years ago, I attended a discussion panel focused on the ways an up and coming writer could make a living without going into academia. At one point during the question and answer period a young woman, apparently dissatisfied with the advice given thus [...]
Finally a teaser has made it online for I’m Still Here with Joaquin Phoenix. It’s still unclear what the point of this film is. I’m hoping, preying even, that this will be a comedy. If it does then Joaquin and Casey Affleck, who directed the film, will have pulled off a great trick. The world has been watching Joaquin [...]
Like most young men my age, yes I said young, I’m still kind of young, grew up on the action films of the 80s and 90s. The two biggest names in action were easily Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. They dominated the testosterone fueled action genre of the 80s and 90s and I loved it. LOVED IT! [...]
I don’t know about any of you, but the summer movie fair has pretty much blown. Sure there have been a few great ones. The A-Team was fun, Inception was great, while Winter’s Bone was better than any of them, but other than those, nothing has really stood out for me. I’m sure after I [...]
Google, Arcade Fire and Chris Milk have created an HTML5 music video specifically for the Chrome web browser. It’s also tailored to the individual viewer. Oh and kind of bad-ass. The most important part of this for Google is showing off HTML5, or what I like to call Flash Killer. (Flash is not quite dead, but a lot of people are trying to kill it.)
