Michael Jackson: This Is It

June 25th 2009 will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the saddest days in music and pop history. Aged just 51 years old, Michael Jackson passed away. Forever known as the 'King of Pop', Michael lead a life of mystery and public attention. From his début with The Jackson 5 in 1964 through to the days and weeks preceding his untimely death, Michael was always a figure of wonder.

At the beginning of the year it was announced that Michael would return to the stage in a 10 date concert series at London's O2 arena. This would be Michael's first public performance since the HIStory World Tour in 1997, and was cited numerous times as one of the decade's most important musical events. Following record breaking ticket sales the initial 10 date concert was increased to 50 dates. Over one million people would be attending. Much of this may have been driven by Michael's own suggestions that it could retire after the shows; in his own words it would be his "final curtain call".

Although the concert dates have been cancelled, there is something seriously special on the horizon. A new film, This Is It, will "offer Jackson fans and music lovers worldwide a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the performer as he developed, created and rehearsed for his sold-out concerts that would have taken place beginning this summer in London's O2 Arena. Chronicling the months from April through June, 2009, the film is produced with the full support of the Estate of Michael Jackson and drawn from more than one hundred hours of behind-the-scenes footage, featuring Jackson rehearsing a number of his songs for the show."

The film is directed by Kenny Ortega, who was also Michael's creative partner, and is being produced by Randy Phillips, Kenny Ortega and Paul Gongaware. The film will only run for two weeks, with tickets going on sale on 27th September.

This is the trailer:



More information on Michael Jackson and the 'This Is It' film are available here:
www.michaeljackson.com/
www.thisisit-movie.com/


- - - Update - - -

Fans may also be interested to know that there is an opportunity to have your photo added to a Michael Jackson 'This Is It' mosaic as part of the film's promotion. By visiting the 'This Is Is' site, users can upload their image for consideration.

Convergence Culture

A number of years back, Faris Yakob, then the Digital Ninja at Naked Communications (now he is EVP Chief Technology Strategist at McCann Erickson New York), presented at the Account Planning Group Battle of Big Thinking in London. Faris put forward the idea of Transmedia Planning. Transmedia Planning draws heavily from Henry Jenkins' book Convergence Culture. In it Jenkins discusses the how culture has drastically changed with the advent of technology, in paricular communications technology and the internet.

These may be the most clued in, important pieces of thinking I've come across in relation to utilisation, development and understanding of the modern digital world. Start thinking Creative Commons licensing, digital mash-ups, user-generated content, and just about every other online/digital phenomenon that has grown out of the last decade. Think about how your consumption of media, and your ability and desire to create it, has changed even in your own lifetime. As primitive people stories are told around campfires, passed from person to person with no sense of ownership or acquisition. But with the advent of one-way mass communications such as tv, cinema and radio, these stories became the property of large corporations and publishers. The internet, and the technology that powers it and innovates it, has changed all that. Now anyone can share their story, or any story for that matter. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand that copyrights still exist but consider how even these are starting to slowly change. Consider how people like Trent Reznor or bands like Radiohead are starting to distribute their music. Consider the latest Championship Manager 2010 game, which asks you to pay whatever you feel is appropriate. This is part of convergence culture.

In the following video Jenkins gives his thoughts on convergence culture:

Augmented Reality: Nokia

I'd be the first to admit that I've been very critical of Nokia lately, but then they come out with something like this and I have to stop and reconsider.

This is the new Nokia future vision video. It's Nokia's showreel of their future innovation concepts - essentially their vision of aspects of future interaction with digital through mobile device and application. Here we see digitally-enabled glasses.



I honestly think this looks really exciting. This is the first seriously innovative application of cutting-edge digital that I've seen Nokia aim for. Instead of the usual 'stick more features on a standard phone', here we see Nokia actually moving outside the box. Of course the question now becomes, how much reality is in this?

I wrote about the innovations being made in contact lenses technology, so surely there is a better chance of seeing these glasses? Stay tuned - as soon as I hear anything I'll post about it.

Halo 3: ODST

Hopefully you've already seen the ad for Halo 3: Believe, because the guys at T.A.G. in San Francisco have created an amazing follow up film for the Halo 3 franchise. For the film T.A.G. have brought together the team behind the Believe film, with direction from Rupert Sanders and effects from Stan Winston Studios. The film sees the heroes from the game brought to life, and was shot across Eastern Europe in underground caves and at an old nuclear reactor.

Outdoor Video Projection

This is just too good not to share (for anyone that hasn't seen it - it's several months old to be honest). It was created by urbanscreen.com and is a "facade projection" installation that they produced. The piece is called 555 KUBIK - "How it would be, if a house was dreaming".

Art Director, Daniel Rossa, said " The conception of this project consistently derives from its underlying architecture - the theoretic conception and visual pattern of the Hamburg Kunsthalle. The Basic idea of narration was to dissolve and break through the strict architecture of O. M. Ungers "Galerie der Gegenwart". Resultant permeabilty of the solid facade uncovers different interpretations of conception, geometry and aesthetics expressed through graphics and movement. A situation of reflexivity evolves - describing the constitution and spacious perception of this location by means of the building itself."



Technical Director: Thorsten Bauer
3D Operator: David Starmann
Sound Design : Jonas Wiese