mindblob

My Favourite Things...

...are fresh, simple things of life, driving me back to the genuine "human frequency" I believe in. This makes me think that the very best things are always yet to come. Anytime, anywhere. Like eyes closed with a smile on your face.

What are your favourite things?

 

Rockin' the Yeti - (the making-of)

Hunting the Yeti from Billy the Kilt on Vimeo.

Before we can show you the end result, here is the making-of our Yeti hunt in Norway. This film was filmed and edited by art director Cédric Minot (great job, Ced!). And yes, there are some sneak peeks of the Yeti. - Memo : pictures also available here.

  

Feel the Fourth... of the ROFL Watching bot

Well, I think it is probably the first time I'm posting a "silly joke" here, but this one definitely made me ROFL and I just couldn't resist quickly posting it. Guess what, according to GIZMODO, today is "Star Wars Day" and here is the reason why. Whatever. I take this as an opportunity to wish you all the force... Don't we all get it out of a good laugh from time to time?

BUT THERE's MORE... after sharing this ROFL link on Twitter I got spotted and followed by a "ROFL Watcher bot". Wow! Life is a neverending learning process. OK now, in other -good old BSG- words, it's time to engage the FTL drive, get OFF this rock, and get back to work. ; )
    

THE first -and only- picture of the Yeti !

Okay now, this... is the only picture I could take of the Yeti. Okay, I was far away, used my iPhone and so it's far from perfect too, but hopefully our PRO mountain team could get closer and... yes, they filmed it! We are currently editing the film and a thrilling making-of. I will share it with you here as soon as our client approves the edit. Can't wait. In the meantime, you can see all the pictures of our cool -and I mean cold, really- adventure on my Flickr page or in the slideshow here under. For those of you who could think it is a fake, well it's not. I took this picture myself, with an iPhone v1 and just "reframed" it for the blog. Original is here.


  

Stay tuned, more coming soon...

  

Yeti Hunting in Norway

Image posted by Loren Coleman on CryptoMundo.

  

If you are following me on Twitter, you might have noticed that I've been sending a series of #yeti hash tags, documenting our latest agency adventure... the Yeti hunt. Antoine Servais (copywriter - @Arkzel) and Cédric Minot (art director - @BillyTheKilt) have created a very nice TVC story for one of our clients. Well, the only challenge being, naturally... to find the Yeti. History or mythology? Well, it's about time to find out. ; )

So TRS, a dynamic Belgian film production company and their talented director Jan Boon  (see his work on TRS site) brought us a very challenging way to make this film happen. Go Yeti hunting around Turtagrø mountains, 400km north of Oslo, in Norway.

On the way there, I thought about documenting this quest on Twitter to bring a little "live" dimension to this work adventure. I'll be posting Twitter updates here and Twitpics there. And naturally, we'd love to have your feedback on this...

  

Any views on how we could find the Yeti?  

 

 

Story-telling v.2009

 
Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny by Tomas Nilsson.
 

A well known story under a very 2009 video narrative format. Interesting to see how talent... is blooming everywhere. How the codes of story-telling evolve (not only in film and video). How important it is to consider people and what they have to say. How in 2009 they have the opportunity to say it anyway. How the simplest things can touch. How the most complicated sometimes don't. Honoring Tomas Nilsson who drives a boat like "Danger Diabolik" and Karen Abad who loves Dinosaurs and filmed this little poetic gem with a $120 HD camcorder.

(HT to Jurgen and Antoine for pointing these to my eyes).

After The Rain ☂ by Karen Abad loves Dinosaurs..
 

Creative genius VS the obvious

Here is a touching talk by Elizabeth Gilbert (author of "Eat, Pray, Love") on the creative genius and the importance of its perception. Should we see a person as "being" the rare genius or as "having" a genius moment? Well, the answer of this question -if there is one- is worth spending 19 minutes listening to Elisabeth's out-of-the-ordinary story.

So many things take all their meaning from the way we decide to see them. Always great to allow a little short-circuit within our brain synapses every once in a while, and then eventually... re-think the obvious. Or maybe the other way around: the obvious is maybe closer and simpler to understand when "listening to our heart", than it might seem to be when trying to "see it through our brains".

I liked the idea of running fast... in order to catch the genius.  Makes me think about Forrest Gump, running faster and smashing the obvious to our eyes: - "I may not be a smart man... but I know what love is".

HT to Nishad for this mind challenging link.

   

Big boys... big toys

 

I remember getting caught by a silly quote while watching what one might see as a silly film as well : "Golden Eye". OK, as a James Bond fan, I don't care about the silliness of the film but rather see it as a fairly good piece of entertainment. This said... in the film there is a sequence where 007 (Pierce Brosnan) is having an argument with Defense Minister Dimitri Mishkin (Tchéky Karyo) while Natalya Fyodorovna Simonova (Izabella Scorupco) is quietly watching them. Suddenly, she interrupts the 2 men and says :

"Stop it! You act like... boys with toys!"

Well, believe me or not, this unexpected allegory made me laugh and these words stayed in my mind ever since. So, simply, true. Sometimes men supposed to be, act, behave as adults show themselves off, like (big) little kids. Their toys? Well, could be anything, from dart guns to real guns, the sky being the limit (Mmmm... can't think of any limit, actually!).

The video illustrated above is a good example of "fun adult play". Naturally, and again, we could be wondering if this is a real story... and if they really did it. Usually, I like things to be quite clear, but this film was surprisingly not pulling the trigger for me. Why? Because it is entertaining, fun to watch and creatively insightful. So whatever, I like it as it is. Even if some questions remain... like who's behind? Vodafone? Blackberry? And of course... the  now super great classic: "So what? ...and then what's next?". This last question being exactly where the focus should be in order to make it really "different" or impactful.

   

The Modern Techno Fairy

"Magic is everywhere, for whoever is open to see it" - unknown.

  

Every once in a while I like to be short-circuited in my day-to-day life by unexpected and extra-ordinary encounters. Whether re-discovering the simple wonders of nature, exploring new emotional landscapes (like Björk would say) or meeting talented earthlings, I know now how these fresh vibrations are indispensable, as they feed my human soul.

Yesterday a colleague who knows I like weird electronic devices and instruments, sent a little link to my mailbox (thanks Pete!). What I found there was indeed full of wonders. Little Boots is an odd, absolutely lovely Artist with a capital "A". The first video I saw (featured above) immediately punched my curiosity so that I simply couldn't resist checking a few side links out. One other "home recording" particularly touched me.

Although I had already seen demos of the Yamaha Tenori-On, this one added a delicious human vibration touch to the transistors, electronic circuits and flashing leds. Amazing... to be able to both compose a song live on such an instrument and sing -being perfectly in tone- while looking so relaxed at the same time. Fabulous, well to my eyes it is... I noticed that folks at Yamaha are referring to Little Boots on their site with a news story (in other words "text"...) pointing that she was listed on BBC radio one famous "Sound of... 2009". Now, wait a minute... they do point out other artists using the Tenori-On in a very boring (well, at least it is to me) way.

My 2 cents... -and I admit that this thought is probably being quite subjective- I believe that a video like Little Boots' is definitely something Yamaha shouldn't miss. They probably saw it, but I think they should do something about it. It is a LOT more insightful and filled with a LOT (many) more emotions than a corporate "look at this new fantastic instrument" kind of message.

What's your take on this?

   

Ghost-Blog Blah Blah

  - Particularly beautiful picture uploaded by bealluc -

OMG! It's been such a long time since my last post. This blog feels dusty and I can hear the wind blowing between the posts. Those of you -the most faithful, obviously- who have been reading and following this blog for quite a while know it. It is not the first time. I... I... I am often kidnapped by offline aliens who forbid me to think, read, comment and write content... and even sometimes to tweet! Oh boy what a loop!

OK OK... Here... officially, publicly and again, I do apologize and welcome you back on this platform that I seriously plan to reactivate. Starting: NOW! - Blah... Blah... - [to be continued].