A while back, we engaged in a small debate about the term “interactive”—especially as it relates to video and other entertainment content. Well, today, Arcade Fire dropped another mind-blowing interactive music video—their third, if you’re keeping count (See Black Mirror and Neon Bible). The first two gave users the ability to manipulate sound and video… this one, however, just takes you back to the place you grew up.
I won’t spoil the details (mainly because you need to experience it for yourself), but you can read more about how director Chris Milk pulled it off at the Google Chrome Experiment page. Yeah… the whole thing was built in HTML5. Notice. Served.
What’s the easiest way to get a band label? Hard work? Kissing up? Paying people off? False.
The easiest way is to film your band and throw it up on YouTube and let the free world vote on how good or “ungood” you are. That was the idea behind freecreditscoreband.com. Virginia-based Martin Agency came to us to help bring the idea to life, so that bands across the nation could subject themselves to the scrutiny of each other, and have their family vote for them as much as they could.
A few samples:
Turns out Darth Vader used to be really into GWAR, and also good financial knowledge, allowing him to high-kick his way into fame:
When our friends at PepsiCo (in connection with our other friends at Undercurrent) contacted us about an interactive installation piece for their Senior Management Meeting, we knew two things: 1) We didn’t have much time; and 2) We wanted to build something beautiful and intuitive. I suppose we also knew something else: We could do it.
In just a few short weeks, PepsiCo asked us to help them visualize some of the social conversations happening around the PepsiCo brand. What we delivered was a simple, elegant multi-touch installation—packed with information. During the multi-day conference, PepsiCo executives could walk up to the 60-inch screen and use their hands to navigate the virtual space. In addition to the conversational excerpts, execs could also dive into a single conversation to read the full text. A Twitter panel also illustrated the real-time conversation.
We’re not too humble to say that our installation was among the most popular in the venue. With a business-minded focus on online conversations about nutrition and the environment and a fun factor that bordered on futuristic awesomeness (A 60-inch touchscreen! Grab the jetpacks!), this installation is set to evolve. Stay tuned!
After a couple months of hard work, the PDX crew was proud to put the finishing touches on a beautiful, immersive, brand-focused site for Newcastle Brown Ale (big shouts to our friends at Vitrorobertson and TWC). As the site went live, we were reminded of something we had almost forgotten (but not quite): Our very own Patrick Marzullo (aka Tricky, Trickster, Scrap of Man) is featured quite prominently just below the Opening Acts hotspot on the Record Store page.
You see, the hired talent just wasn’t up to our rigorous standards. We needed someone who could look at records and swig beer like a champion… and, well, Patrick rose to the occasion. Check out the entire Newcastle experience HERE. And check out the entire Patrick Marzullo experience HERE.
Today’s Site of the Day on FWA is none other than the recently unleashed LEGOCLICK.com, designed and developed by the dudes and lady-dudes of Struck/Axiom in association with Pereira & O’Dell. (If you haven’t seen it yet, you should check it out.) To mark the occasion, we’d like to share a technical peak behind the curtain of one of the more popular features of the site – removing a block of content.
Like any good children of the 80s, we love LEGOs. So when our friends at Pereira & O’Dell hollered at us with a couple LEGO projects (the LEGO Photo iPhone app and LEGO CL!CK site), we didn’t hesitate. Coming into the studio to work/play with LEGOs all day—physically and virtually—has been ridiculously inspiring.
Now that the results of a few (okay, more than a few) late nights are alive and kicking on the Interweb, we’re predictably giddy about the positive response. LEGO Photo is the #5 Free App in the iTunes Store as of today. Good (and incredibly smart) people from Fast Company, Mashable, KRonikle (the Kidrobot blog!), app.itize.us and WIRED have all had nice things to say about the projects.
So. Download the app. Get inspired on the site. And… please upload your LEGO-fied photos to the Flickr group we just discovered. You can see some of the early results of the collection here:
Today at noon, the folks behind Avatar released something they’re calling an Interactive Trailer. Intrigued by the the word “interactive,” I downloaded and installed the Adobe Air application. There’s no doubt that the movie looks amazing (and it should, James Cameron has spent practically the whole decade obsessing over every detail), but I’m a bit confused about what, exactly, makes this trailer “interactive.”
I suppose we all have our own thoughts about what “interactive” means. Quite simply, I think it means that the user’s action should create a unique and variable experience—and I don’t believe that’s the result of the Avatar Interactive Trailer. Everyone has the same basic experience: Watch the trailer then click a thumbnail to watch additional video content. The user doesn’t actually interact with the video, just around it, above it or below it.
After fiddling with it for 20 minutes or so, I don’t get it. I don’t see how this application is any different from a standard movie website that offers a series of videos. So, I have questions: Why build this as an Adobe Air application? What does “interactive” mean these days? Does just clicking to watch additional content constitute an “interactive” user experience?
In this case, ”interactive” just seems like the wrong label—especially when it comes to video content. The bar has already been set high by truly interactive video pieces like Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible and Cold War Kids’ I’ve Seen Enough. And the Avatar Interactive Trailer certainly doesn’t live up to that standard.
During today’s Twitter outage, something completely obvious hit me upside the head: Twitter is legit. Given the TIME magazine cover story and the Ashton vs. CNN showdown to 1 million (not to mention Kyality’s recent jump
onto the USS Tweetie), I should’ve seen this coming a long time ago. So why did it take a 2-hour outage to spark the lightbulb over my head? Because I finally realized that everyone freaking out about the failure is actually a good thing for Twitter.
You see, the outage was a sign that we’ve crossed over from “What’s Twitter?” to “HOLY CRAP, TWITTER IS DOWN! HOW WILL I EVER GET THROUGH THE DAY?!!” It’s a step that shouldn’t be overlooked. People freak out when Google goes down, when the cable TV goes out during Gossip Girl and when the wireless router forces us to get up off the couch and restart it. We don’t freak out when MySpace goes dark for an hour or two. We don’t freak out when Rhapsody is out for a half a day. We don’t even freak out when the mailman doesn’t show up for a day or two.
The bottom line is this: Outages and crashes show us what people value. If people freak out when something you’ve built goes down for a couple hours… then you’re probably doing something right. (But you’d also better fix the problem. Right. Now.)
struck will be continuing to exploit young underprivileged creatives this summer and beyond! above is a set of ads that we just released last week to promote our internship program. there are no specific dates attached to your time here and you will be paid. we’re looking for everyone from interactive designers and developers to print designers and especially writers.
the copy reads “Agencies are hard to get into. That’s where we come in. Writers, print designers, interactive developers and designers send your book to internships@struckcreative.comWrong Turn 3 divx
will never be the same. Struck partnering with Goodby Silverstein & Partners, has created an unheard of site taker over for the new Nintendo Wii game ExciteBots™: Trick Racing. Instead of just creating the standard expandable banner. We have created an interactive racing game that allows users to race around various nick sites unlocking videos, and finally unlocking the ExciteBots™: Trick Racing screen saver at the finish line.
