Final Blog: Reflection

Over the past year, I have been developing a blog.  Although it stemmed from class assignments, what I really wanted to achieve was to experiment with writing about different topics.  I wanted to try and touch upon many different topics to see where my writing and interests fit more. I decided that, for my final assigned post, I would review my work so far and touch upon the topics that really stimulated me, versus posts I had to struggle to write.

            Out of the 20 posts, I have grouped them into 5 different categories.  First, there were the posts that topics were chosen for me, ’Assigned,’ and the posts that seemed random and ungrouped, ‘Misc.’ The next three were categories that seemed to develop on their own through my own interests. These are ‘Album/Film reviews,’ ‘Artist reviews,’ and ‘Tech rants.’ 

Album/Film Review:

            These few reviews I found the most fun.  I love taking a single album, or film, and analyzing it thoroughly.  When I read album reviews, I don’t like just reading whether someone likes it or not.  I prefer when a reviewer takes a step deeper into the product and explains why he/she enjoys it so much.  To me, this really surfaced in my most recent post on Ridely Scott’s Prometheusmarketing campaign.  Instead of just saying I was excited, I openly speculated about the symbolism behind the campaign.  This gives the reader something to think about while they view the media.  I try not to include any types of spoilers and only use news the movie itself has put out.

Artist Review:

            Artist reviews tend to be pretty basic.  I enjoy them, mostly, because I never have to risk spoiling anything.  It is not like a film where there are secrets and plot details I shouldn’t disclose.  With artists, I can soak up their entire career and then translate that to generate interest.  This is like my review on Steve Metcalf, bassist known as BassCausality.  I analyzed his music and, from there, chose what would generate the most interest.   These reviews are easier and more general because I want the reader to search further.

Tech Rants:

            These are far more opinion based, but overall my favorite type of posts.  Tech rants consist of me finding something technology related that compiles information that I have not found together.  For example, I wrote about the chaos that Netflix brought on when they introduced Qwickstir.  Across the Internet, I could not find one article in support of Netflix, so I wrote one.  The post focused on how the public may have over reacted and didn’t take into consideration what that would mean for future business.  Although it wasn’t as tech heavy, it was still one of my favorite posts I’ve written to date.

In the coming weeks, I will actually be removing the posts that fall into the assigned and miscellaneous categories.  The main reason is because I don’t find that these articles reflect my best writing.  These articles tended to be a bit more forced and I believe it reflects that.  The second main reason is that I need to narrow my brand focus.  If I try to write about too many things, there is more a chance of not acquiring a loyal audience.  If I stay focused in a few topics, then my writing can develop further from there.

Prometheus Uses TED to Kick-off Viral Campaign

So who’s not excited for the summer movie season?  With so many big movies coming out, there has been plenty competition fighting for the buzz.  This immediately brings me to the marketing of Ridley Scott’s upcoming film, Prometheus.  Few movies have the advantage of having a massive budget, a famous director, and the convenience of being a loosely based prequel of the Alien franchise.  That would usually sell itself, right?  Well whether it would or not, Fox isn’t taking any chances.

Many movies are just marketed with loads of previews and ad space, but with that said, Prometheus has started marketing in a quite revolutionary way.  With a June 8, 2012 release date the initial teaser trailers were released in December of 2011, as expected.  Then, on February 28, 2012 a TEDTalk was posted on the TED website. TEDTalks are usually comprised of speakers exposing new and revolutionary ideas.  The odd thing was that this talk was dated from TED 2023 and featured a speaker, who was quite obviously actor, Guy Pearce.  He tells the compelling myth of Prometheus and talks about the development of technology in the middle of a massive stadium filled with people and flying cameras.  Pearce ends the talk by saying, “My name is Peter Weyland and if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to change the world.” What Prometheus co-writer and producer, Damon Lindelof, achieved was an official use of the TED brand.  He did this by contacting Tom Rielly, a production director of TED Talks.  Rielly was immediately on board for the idea even though TED has never officially been used to promote a product. 

The reason Lindelof thought this was an appropriate strategy, comes directly from the premise of the movie.  It is a common fact that the Weyland-Yutani Corporation is the ruthless company responsible for many of the Alien sequels. That places this talk before the merger. The Weyland Corporation and its founder Peter Weyland, at this time, are making further advances in technology, such as androids and terraforming.  These ideas propose big ethical questions, which in their infancy may have seemed crazy/futuristic…sci-fi.  These are, however, exactly the type of ideas that come through TEDTalks. People who think outside of the box and use a medium to share their ideas with like-minded individuals.  These talks often involve topics like social and scientific trends.

Prometheus focused on blurring the line between fiction and reality.  By getting to know their own fictional universe and determining their message, they were able to translate it into today’s existent mediums.  They recognized TED as a brand, which coincided with what the message they wanted to achieve.  The campaign only started there.  In March, at WonderCon, viewers of the trailer premiere were given Weyland Corp business cards and encouraged to call **WEYLAND.  Upon calling you are greeted by Weyland Corp’s automated voice and simultaneously receive an MMS message with a video.  The video, narrated by Prometheus star Michael Fassbender, advertises the upcoming androids to be released by Weyland Corp.  It is the total, seamless, execution of this campaign that makes it so intriguing.  When movies have the resources and ability to fully envelope their audience, they create that much more buzz and genuine interest. 

Added References:

Weyland Industries

TED Interview with Damon Lindelof

Louis C.K. – A Model for Self-Publishing

One very steady, yet not exactly main stream, market is that of stand-up comedy.  Comedian Louis CK is currently at the forefront of this with a genius, yet some times offensive, live show and hit Tv show, Louie.  It is argued that one of the reasons he keeps such a consistent quality of content is the fact that he handles most of it himself.

Louie started out mainly as a writer for shows like Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Late Show with David Letterman, and no one can forget when he wrote and directed cult classic, Pootie Tang.  Besides all of his movie writing credits, he also writes, shoots, and edits his own stand up specials. His new show, Louie, is approaching its third season, and has already had Emmy nominations for outstanding writing and best lead actor.  His most recent release was a self distributed stand-up special, also produced, written, and edited by CK.

Paying for all the expnses of production between ticket sales for the gigs and his own pocket, CK chose to distribute it only through his website.  For a small Paypal fee of $5, a user can stream or download, or both, the special twice.  Louis addresses the fact that he was advised not to distribute this way because it would be so easy to pirate, but he chose to do it anyway.

But did it work out?

If you will notice, you will see over $1 million dollars…all to him.

He successfully did a stand up special totally DIY and it paid off.  With him being such a stand up guy, CK explain what he will do with the money. 

            250k – Production of the film

            220k – Himself (guy’s gotta eat)

            250k – He’s rewarding the staff that helped him on the special with a “big fat bonus”

            250k – He is donating to charities (listed on his site)

Here’s a guy doing it all himself and not being too greedy about it.  He is acting, whether he likes it or not, as a pioneer for online distribution of this kind.  A Radiohead of standup? Either way he has hit his stride as a comedian and I look forward to any of his releases.  Here is the preview he posted for the special.

**Warning** Topics may have language and topics not appropriate for everyone.

 References:

Louis CK (Go buy the special!)

Culture Map article on special

Laugh Spin - $200,000 profit four days after special is released

Made an Example of: the U.S. Government perfectly times the shut down of Megaupload

The past few weeks, the topic of discussion has been Internet piracy.  Between SOPA, PIPA, and Wikipedia, I’m sure you have run into it. What resulted was one of the largest public protests in history.  With an Internet outcry from users, and blackouts from websites, the public successfully postponed the bills.  Just as the dust of this was settling, however, the government indicted individuals and companies who are responsible for the file-sharing site, Megaupload.  Not only that, but they immediately shut the site down and put up this nice little welcome message:

The funny thing is that most people can name, off the top of their heads, at least half a dozen sites exactly like Megaupload. Right? Not so fast.  What differs is the fact that the owners of this website made millions of dollars from it.  The owner, a cleverly named Kim Dotcom, received millions, which he spent on lavish houses and cars.  They offered a premium membership for users to receive faster upload and download speeds if they paid a fee and helped share Megaupload links over the Internet.  They received high cost ads for their site, which drove them to try and generate more users.  It was reported that this money was laundered through coding teams spanning the US, Europe, and New Zealand; only some of the money going back into the site itself.

Now my question is, even with the blatant disregard for certain laws, was the shut down of Megaupload for justice, or a scare tactic after the small defeat of SOPA/PIPA?  Megaupload has been around since 2005 and the government had a 72-page indictment when they shut the site down January 19^th.  Scheduling coincidence? Or did the government pull one of those moves where, when a child sees he won’t get his way, tattles about something that happened forever ago? Reaching with that analogy? Meh, think about it.

Either way, this leads me to a few more questions:

What will happen to sites, and seemingly legitimate services, like Dropbox?

If there is a crackdown on online cloud computing, the so called future of the Internet, how will this affect heavy hitters like Apple with their iCloud service?

References:
What's left of Megaupload.com
CNN Tech Story on Megaupload
Gizmodo on the Shutdown