Tilt-Shift Film

This is a fantastic example of Tilt-Shift Film. I absolutely love how the simple change in depth of field and perspective completely changes what we think we're looking at.

Augmented Reailty: New York Subway Map

I posted about the London Underground Augmented Reality App recently. Definitely a really cool and practical use of AR. Though completely useless outside of London. Well fear not people of New York - you now have the same AR luxury at your disposal. Intorducing the New York Subway Augmented Reality App...



I really am lovin' these practical AR Apps that are starting to spring up. I think it's an awesome use of technology, perhaps the most cutting edge convergence of mobile tech and data activation that anyone is developing at the moment. Most of all I get giddy at the potential for what will come next. Consider the technologies that already exist for visual displays and the level of miniaturisation that is possible with camera technology - will it be long before AR can be seamlessly, and noticeably, integrated into a pair of glasses? Think about going to a new city for the first time - just rent a pair of AR specs. Going to a museum or gallery - rent a pair of AR specs. So on and so on.

Someone just has to do it.

Bad Reporting on Silicon Republic

I have about two dozen Google Alerts that I run, and get results from everyday. Mostly client brand terms and company names, but I also run some generic alerts on industry terms. I was interested to see Zesty's recent Social Media survey referenced in the teaser for a Silicon Republic article. Nice I thought, good coverage for Niall and Lauren, I better take a look at this.

So I click through to have a read.

I was less then over enthusiastic about the article's title 'Workers waste two hours a day on social networks', and could immediately see that the author, John Kennedy, was already on track to produce a sensationalist piece of nonsense.

The article references 300 people as having participated in the survey and goes on to throw around statistics from this that it attributes to "the Irish public". The number of people who participated in the survey was 182 (though not all participants responded to all questions). As someone who has studied statistics for over 5 years through various parts of my education, I will tell you straight off that this is not a statistical sound representation of the 'Irish Public'. Neither is it a sound cross-section of the 'Irish Public'. How was the survey promoted? Who are the target audience / regular visitors to Zesty's site? Both extremely important questions that are not even considered in the article. This is a PR site that was promoted through Social Media channels. Reason stands that the participants will be Social Media users.

For those who care; to give statistically sound inferences on the entire 'Irish Public', with a confidence level of 99%, with a confidence interval of 1, it would be necessary to survey 16,575 people (based on a July 2008 Irish population figure of 4,156,119).

I would also like to point out that the survey does not delve into the reasons why people who participated in the survey were using Social Media. I took the survey and can tell you now that I definitely skewed the results. I work in Digital Marketing, I currently have several live campaigns all active in Social Media channels. I therefore spend a huge amount of time every day on Social Media channels. However, in this case, my employer should be worried if I'm not on them, not if I am.

I would like to make this very clear - I don't have a problem with the survey at all and I think it's great that Zesty took the time to do it, and freely shared the results. Fair play! Zesty themselves describe the survey as an "overview of how Irish people use social media" and nothing more. They indicate that the major stand out for them was "just how much time people were spending online", but again this is no huge revelation and is merely a reinforcement of the widely recognised fact that media consumption habits are changing (have changed) and digital is the fastest growing media.

My problem is with the completely sensational article that John Kennedy has written, and the "conclusions" that he has drawn. Very, very disappointing that Silicon Republic would happily publish this.

Smirnoff 'Moscow Mule' - The Launch Party

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of attending the Smirnoff 'Moscow Mule' Blogger Launch Event, which was loads of fun. Last night, however, was a whole other experience with the full Launch Party!

Fire Breathers, Stilt walkers, Jugglers, an amazing 'Hula Hoopist' and a great Ring Master - a really, really visually stimulating line-up of entertainers. Arveene Juthan and Dan Williams on the decks, and a special appearance from Jade Jagger - seriously good tunes too.

So the best part (baring in mind I'm a total geek)?

I love the creative behind all of this.

The outdoor went live - non-branded, slick looking creatives with a cryptic (non) call to action. The ad/visual fits in perfectly too (you'll have to wait for that - though I should have it very soon). Everything revolves around the idea of the 'extraordinary'. The guys behind this have done a great job of integrating the message across all platforms and really bringing it to life. For a drink that is so old it has been given a new lease of life, and it's a fun one!

So until I get the visual from the girls and can show you what I mean, check out this...



For those who haven't seen it, I also thought it'd be worth sharing Damien's video of Marty ('THE' Smirnoff Mule bartender - total legend btw) making a Smirnoff Mule...

Galactic Mail: FedEx vs. UPS

I spotted this over on [Geeks Are Sexy] and it blew my mind. It's a 3D short animation produced by French Animator Douglas Lassance (AsteroKid) in collaboration with Jonathan Vuillemin (Motraboy).

The piece took four months to get from storyboards to compositing, but there it took a slightly different route to the norm. The guys decided that Galactic Mail wouldn't be about generating impressive 3D renders using, what Jonathan calls, the Sigg Jones approach with proper global illumination shaded film,they concentrated on the pictures themselves and their composition, colours and overall coherence of the style.

Jonathan said, "I had this idea of making a movie with self-illuminated textures where all the shadows would be painted in already, and then combined with a “sliced” shadow system where you could really isolate how stuff are going to look when it’s in the shadow or not, nothing physically correct, but pretty controllable".

So check this out...