NewsReel 03/04/09

April Fools of us all!

You know what it’s like, come 01/04 and every ‘comedian’ tries to jape all and sundry with some clever trick. Ever since spaghetti was allegedly grown on trees, the media have taken All Fools Day as an opportunity to play Puck and mess with the public’s brains for heavy giggles. This year was no exception, with a few brands trying their best to dupe the masses – and so we present to you The Reel’s personal Good, Bad and Fugly from the collective:

The Good - BBC3

The Beeb, with the iPlayer and extensive online interactivity, are getting extremely good at ‘added value’ content for users, and this April Fool’s Day trick is a great example. Derived from the prevalent truth that everybody likes to make their mates look like douches, this ESP test uses clever playback tech to allow erstwhile dupees the opportunity to fool a pal into thinking they have Lion-o style sight beyond sight.



If you’re game (and you should be ‘cause it works!) check out the ‘How to’ clip above and then fool Ernie from accounts with the spoof vid here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/videohub/esptest.shtml

The Bad - Xbox

Ha ha ha, Guitar Hero’s well popular. Imagine if, ha ha ha, imagine, ha ha, imagine is there were a Guitar Hero style game for, ha ha ha, for, ha ha … it’s too funny .. ha ha, for a massive alpine horn. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha … oh.



OK, we may be being a bit too cruel here, but we’re afraid that this little yodelling number didn’t tickle our funny bones nearly as much as it should have.

The … er … WTF - Squeeze Bacon

Squeeze Bacon. Erm, that’s all that really needs to be said (apart from mentioning that a certain member of sister publication Contagious got over excited when seeing this spoof and is eagily awaiting it’s appearanve in ASDA’s aisles.



2AM fills its timeslot

The friendly peeps at 2AM - http://www.2am.co.uk/ - have been making some big changes and signings recently. After seven years in Camden Town they’re set to hang with the cool kids (i.e. us) and moving into Soho.

They’ve also had a major reshuffle of their Directors roster, including the signing of the legendary filmmaker Wim Wenders, the critically acclaimed documentary director John Dower and cult promo director Steve Glashier.

WIM WENDERS

This is the first time Wim has been represented in the UK and Europe for commercials, with the exception of GermanyProbably best know for his acclaimed films – Paris,Texas, Buena Vista Social Club, Wings of Desire – Wenders has also helmed commercials for Leica and the UN Development Fund, featuring the footballers Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo.

JOHN DOWER

John’s film making career was kicked started in 1999 by Bobbyjo winning the Grand National. With his winnings he was able to buy a digital camera and start shooting what was to become his first doc 'When Will I Be Famous?' Bought by Channel 4 he went on to make a series of landmark films for the channel such as, 'Porn in the UK', 'John's Gone to Iceland' and the cult hit 'Sneaker Freaks'.

In 2003 he completed his first feature length documentary ‘Live Forever – The Rise and Fall of BritPop’ featuring Liam and Noel Gallagher. Damon Albarn, Jarvis Cocker and Damien Hirst. It was released theatrically in Europe, Australia and Japan. His follow up feature ‘Once In A Lifetime – The Extraordinary Story of The New York Cosmos’ was picked up for distribution in the US by Miramax.

His latest feature ‘Thriller in Manila’ screened at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Jury prize and was recently shown on C4 to critical acclaim. The film documents the 1975 epic fight between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali telling the story from the now 60 year old Frazier’s point of view.

STEVE GLASHIER

Promo Director Steve Glashier signs to 2AM for commercials representation. His prolific output over the past 4 years has produced videos for CSS, Juliette and the Licks, The Rakes, and Fatboy Slim amongst others. His recent video for Jimmy the Fingers “Grace” is being hailed as a You Tube sensation. Check it out here!



Commercial time for Mr Anderson

Paul W.S. Anderson, the British-born Hollywood director, producer and writer, has joined the commercials’ roster at The Mob Film Company - www.mobfilm.com. Anderson, who is well known for hugely successful video game adaptations and explosive sci-fi movies, has already completed his first advertising production for VW Golf, through DDB, which airs at the beginning of April.

Not to be confused with the similarly monikered Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights and Magnolia), P W.S. A is renowned for his strong visual style and high-impact action, being behind such guilty pleasures as Mortal Kombat (Lambert!!), Alien vs Predator (not the worst AvP movie) and Death Race (starring The Reel’s #1 man-crush Jason Statham). Whilst his back catalogue has never really troubled the bods at BAFTA, Anderson’s style is set to work well in the commercial world – and with lines like Death Race’s ‘Okay c*cksucker. F$ck with me, and we'll see who sh%ts on the sidewalk.’, The Reel is eagerly anticipating his foray into ads.

…and finally

A well designed website really floats our collective boat here in Reel Towers, so we’ve been seriously loving the playful nature of Cravendale’s feature rich offering - http://www.milkmatters.co.uk/. Giving you the opportunity to watch the ads (wot we well love), play a slurptastic game, question a cow and even make a useful tea rota, the superlative site balances friendliness, functionality and sheer good-natured pleasure with ease. Cravendale, we raise our milky tumblers to you.