Quite a Site/Sight

Thornleaf.com
I've finally started building my new website.  You may find it interesting.  Your comments and critiques are welcome.

Crossroads

An interactive art installation that pokes fun at the whole idea of us blindly following directions given by our GPS navigation units.  

crossroads (what to do) from Garvin Nolte on Vimeo.

Artist Garvin Nolte mounted 26 GPS on his windshield and dashboard, then had them simultaneously give him directions on a trip through Berlin's Neukölln district.  Hearing 26 voices is a nerve racking and bothersome experience. Each navigational device varies in timing and tone and in turn reflects the abundant advice we hear in our life, i.e. our drive. A cacophony of sounds drowns out important information and at times is completely different from one another.




Immigrant
By chance, I ran into director Jeff Linnell and was wowed by the work he and Autofuss are doing with motion control. Take a look at their most recent art project, Immigrant:

Check them out at www.autofuss.com

STOP ... MOTION ... HOT

It's been freezing in San Francisco this summer.  Here are some projects that have been heating me up:

Guy Walks Across America
Levi's video of a man trekking from the Brooklyn to the Golden Gate Bridge has been the viral sensation, with almost 2 million views since its debut two weeks ago. I think the video is so popular not just because it looks like an authentic trek across America, but because of the combination of time-lapse and stop-motion.

Conscious Minds produced with sponsorship dollars from Levi.




Vision 3D
A different stop motion technique we used in this campaign for Medtronic's launch of Vision 3D enabled us to completely circle the scene - a 360° shooting style.

This was all part of a larger campaign we created including video installations, mobile video billboards, etc.

Call me and I'll explain more about this campaign.

HOT

'I just held a press conference in a swimming pool, no joke.' That's the great PR concept for Katy Perry's presser last week in Singapore.  It certainly enabled her to stand out from everyone else. She was in her bikini at the rooftop pool as journalists were asked to strip off and dive into the pool, with many holding tape recorders in the air as they floated in the water surrounded by inflatable toys.

And here's her latest music video that could be straight out of an Abercrombie & Fitch campaign.

French director Yoann Lemoine captures her perfectly.

A Walk in the Park

I've been working on some projects up in Yosemite National Park, completion sometime in the late fall.  This follows on the re-conception of the Visitors Center and Museum we did earlier at GroupDelphi:



There's a lot of interesting work happening in parks, and when innovatively conceived and delivered, a real boost for our clients:


Walking on Air
Perhaps the most vertiginous viewing platform in the world is the Grand Canyon Skywalk.  4,000 feet above the canyon floor, it's a 70 ft. horseshoe shaped platform with a glass floor.  Spew-on-anyone-with-you scary. Designed by Mark Johnson

Check out these other cool observation decks:

dachstein skywalk

aurland lookout

the house on the rock

top of tyrol


langkawi sky bridge


Ride, Don't Walk
Scheduled to open in October of this year, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi is set to be the world’s largest indoor theme park, sitting under a roof designed in the style of a classic double-curve body shell of a Ferrari. There is energy, excitement and passion for the entire family at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi. With over 20 rides and attractions, including the world’s fastest roller coaster, Ferrari World is more than a theme park – it is the total Ferrari experience.

benoy are the architects and Jack Rouse Associates is responsible for design and execution

Explore
And here's a nice subtle spot that takes us into the park.  Eurostar’s first TV spot in 3 years premiered last week kicking off the new campaign, Exploring is beautiful.

Reflecting the spirit of exploration, the ad is designed to capture people’s imaginations as it showcases a young girl’s tenacity and inquisitiveness as she searches for animals that will talk to her.

It acts as an emotional reflection of how Eurostar would like their travellers to explore Europe. Encouraging them to go further than Paris & Brussels. So that they look beyond the norm, question what might be possible, and ultimately re-assess the way they travel to Europe.

Directed by Fallon's Juan Cabral

Ambushed!

My last few weeks in Europe were incredible - but I was amazed at how World Cup fever had taken over - especially in Berlin.  It was virtually impossible to get any of the locals to focus on the task at hand.

Marketers have been concentrating a lot of their efforts at the World Cup as well with some great successes - often ambushing the official sponsors efforts.  The successful campaigns integrated a variety of platforms:


Write the Future - Nike

Building on the 360° LED experience we created for EMS, Nike is using social media on a "massive" scale. It's draping the "Write the Future" campaign over a Johannesburg building, creating an incredible four-sided screen. "Write the Headline” allows fans around the world to root for their favorite World Cup player in a really big way.
Participants can "talk" to the player they think will ‘Write the Future’ through submissions at Facebook (facebook.com/nikefuture), Twitter (#nikefuture), QQ (a Chinese chat program), and Mxit (a South African IM app).  These messages, combined with pre-produced video, are fed to the translucent LED screens covering the building.  This stunning "pop-up billboard" is visible throughout much of the city and has served as a backdrop for many news stand-ups.
Talk about taking over the city!

The Rumpus Room handled production.


Play the Future
Nike has adapted the campaign to various venues all around the globe.  For instance in Spain's Nike stores, shoppers can interact and play digital pinball games on flat screens.  The interactive experience is similar to what we created for Medtronic's booth.

Produced by DoubleYou in Spain.


Oh Africa - Pepsi
Even though Coke was the official sponsor, they were ambushed by Pepsi who managed to have their beverage served at the Fifa-sanctioned fan fest in Durban - supposedly due to a "delivery error."
And check out this great spot that went viral. Great soundtrack, cute kids, big-name players including Messi, Henri, Lampard, Kaká, and Drogba.  It definitely feels authentic (without needing vuvuzelas).

Orange - Bavaria Beer
The best ambush is probably Bavaria Beer of Holland. Official sponsor Budweiser spent millions, but all the attention has gone elsewhere.  And Fifa's heavy-handed reaction has kept this brewery front and center.  They couldn't have dreamed of a better result.  The story:
36 women who were removed from the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg during the Holland-Denmark World Cup match. The group arrived at the match dressed as Danish supporters, but soon stripped off their red and white gear to reveal orange mini-dresses marketed by the Dutch brewery Bavaria.

The dress has become very popular in the Netherlands and caused a minor “beer war” even before the start of the World Cup. Sylvia van der Vaart, wife of Dutch soccer star Rafael, played a prominent role in the Bavaria campaign – rather embarrassingly for rival Dutch brewer Heineken, the sponsor of the Dutch national team.

And now Holland is in the finals on Sunday - everyone will be wearing Orange.

Virtually There

Face-to-Face interactions are getting more interesting as we complement reality with new technology.  Some of the concepts I've been proposing for the last year, part of my "virtua-city", are finally coming to fruition.


Before getting to those however, I wanted to let you know that I'm looking for the right agent/rep to get my story out.  


So let's get Real:


Augmented Reality : Domestic Robocop

The basic idea of augmented reality is to superimpose graphics, audio, and other sensory enhancements over a real-world environment in real time. Sounds pretty simple.  To date these systems display graphics for only one point of view. Next-generation augmented-reality systems will display graphics for each viewer's perspective.  One such example is this video produced by Keiichi Matsuda, a student at the Barlett School of Architecture in London. The video was created for his final year Masters in Architecture, as "part of a larger project about the social and architectural consequences of new media and augmented reality." Imagine the possibilities for B-to-B or B-to-C displays.

Virtually Face-to-Face
Using Cisco TelePresence, CEO John Chambers, who was live on the Bangalore stage, ‘beamed up’ Martin De Beer, the Senior Vice President of emerging Technologies, and Chuck Stucki the General Manager of TelePresence, live from San Jose, California. Chambers was then able to have a ‘face to face’ discussion with De Beer and Stucki on the future of Cisco TelePresence, demonstrating first hand the potential capabilities of the system in front of the live audience.




FaceTime
Imagine the possibilities for face-to-face communication using the new iPhone's capabilities. It will only add to our recent use of the iPhone to allow doctors to communicate with each other and talkback to the corporation.

Don't worry about the technical stuff - we make that happen for the creative concept.

Video in Europe

It's been a busy few months since my last post.  I hope yours has been as interesting.  And thanks for all of your interest.
I'll be continuing with European projects this summer and have extra shoot days available.  Some recent interesting installations in Europe:


Dublin Fogwall
While we've been doing video projection on fogwalls in North America for a while now, this is a first for Ireland.  The core premise was a pop-up venue on Grafton Street in Dublin, Ireland to promote the new BMW 5 series.  Subtle, but very striking.


scullymedia provided on-site logistics.


Envision: Step into the Sensory Box


An experience-based video mapping installation by Alcatel-Lucent for their customers at the Mobile World Congress. An example of simplicity in form with dimensional color to create the sublime.The public was invited into a cubical space using multiple highend LED projectors, each mapping a different set of animations and projecting onto various surface depths to give the amazing effects.
It is programmed and designed by studio superbien


The Cube
Those of you who made it to Coachella probably experienced this mind-boggling meta-mapping production for Dj Etienne de Crecy.  It's basically transparent LED video fabric wrapped around the scaffolding. Then wonderfully designed video to fit the shape.



Production and installation by exyzt


Floating Man
While connecting through the airport this summer, you may come across a man sitting on what looks to be an invisible chair.  KLM is launching its new Economy Comfort zone with greater legroom and recline.



Magician ramana uses a trick borrowed from Indian yogis.


Contact me and I'll show you how it's done.

Living Large

Subtle is often effective, but sometimes being very large can truly engage the audience.  From video to live to installations to museums, these are the type of projects that get me going.  You can see samples of my work as I flesh out my website - www. thornleaf.com.

Kuroshio Sea
The main tank of the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium called the 'Kuroshio Sea' is breath-taking with the world's second largest acrylic glass panel.  Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.  The appearance is dazzling and the window is so clear that each year millions of visitors can believe, for a moment, that they have stepped into a magical underwater world.  And this video by Jon Rawlinson, with music provided by Barcelona, is stunning all on its own.  Watch it in HD and zoom out to full screen if you can.

Go to http://www.kaiyouhaku.com/en/ for more.


Mediatecture
At BMW, we're the fish in the tank, floating by each other as we gaze at the beautiful cars.  We are surrounded by a complete, ever-changing environment created with LED screens behind glass.  With three-dimensional moving images, the space is visually expanded, and the exhibited cars are virtually “set in motion”.  In the reactive mode, the pattern of illumination changes according to the presence of visitors.



The BMW Museum is a joint project of ART+COM (spatial media design, interactive installations) and Atelier Brückner (architecture, exhibition design).


Night Lights
Even bigger and more interactive is this playful expereince of the Auckland Ferry Building.  The installation goes beyond merely projection on buildings and allow viewers to become performers, by taking their body movements and amplifying them 5 stories tall. 

There are 3 different types of interaction - body interaction on the two stages, hand interaction above a light table, and phone interaction with the tracking of waving phones. There are 6 scenes, cycled every hour for the public.

Check out InsideOut Productions for more at http://iop.co.nz




Some nice inspirations for our next projects.

What's Moving

The Detroit Auto Show just opened and the interaction and media certainly isn't as exuberant (and creative?) as what we were doing there before the depression. See samples of my automotive work as I flesh out my website - www.thornleaf.com.  But there is some brand new and very interesting automotive marketing happening over in Europe.
Ford has created a giant interactive plasma ball as the focus (get it?) of their microsite promoting the new Ford Focus.
The video and flash created by Lumiere Studios (www.lumierestudios.co.uk/) are stunning.

Interact with the site at www.discoverfordfocus.co.uk  Touch the words above the timeline.

MiniCooper had a great guerilla campaign on the day after Christmas.  They placed empty boxes at garbage collection points implying people had unwrapped a Mini Cooper.  The boxes also conveyed the monthly lease cost of 99 Euros.  It definitely got passersby's interest and attention.

UbachsWisbrun / JWT were the creative.

And Mercedes Benz successfully translated their print campaign to video.  They have been promoting Brake Assist Plus as the first technology that reads the road.  In the print campaign, they communicated this with a page of words that are blurred out, so that the reader sees what really matters: a child. a ball, or a dog:

And here's how the campaign carried over to video - a brilliant use of text:

Sehsucht literally brought the words to life: http://www.sehsucht.de/page/work/

Send me your interesting ideas as well.

News and Music I'm Enjoying

The big news is that I've resigned from my old agency to get back to directing and creating. Call me and let's talk.

Diane Birch is a hot singer who has a very soulful sound.  Her song "Nothing But a Miracle" takes me back to Dusty Springfield & Laura Nyro.
www.dianebirch.com

In addition to her CD, I also like the the acoustic version from the guest apartment:

By the way (especially Salinger), www.baeble.com is a great place to watch live concerts.

Other music I'm enjoying is composer/pianist Coto Pincheira who has a great jazz/afrocarribbean band.  He's just released his first album, The Modern Sound Project. Keyboard Magazine calls him the best unsigned artist.  Check him out at www.cotopincheira.com

And how about Billy Philadelphia?  I used to listen to him at the Albatross in San Francisco and greatly enjoy his Hoagy Carmichael Musical.
www.billyphiladelphia.com

Mesmerizing Flagship Video piece

Unveiled our video installations in the flagship Apple stores this morning. Here at Delphi Productions, we pulled this off in just a few weeks. They were installed in the SF Bay Area overnight Tuesday. New York is just up and two more installations premiering across North America and Europe in the coming days. Worked with a great team at Apple to pull this off. Uniquely driving the piece only from Macs. Already drawing crowds on the sidewalks. Hope nobody starts hallucinating and falls into the "app hole". Check it out in person when you can in Palo Alto and in San Francisco Call me at Delphi to learn more: 510 749 6890

Won Top Prize - 2009 Communicator Awards

Just won the awards of excellence, the highest at the Communicator Awards for two videos: Glass Vision 3D Got some exciting news coming up later in the week - standby.

Event Marketing Summit

Had a great show in Chicago. Some very interesting conversations with Paul Salinger, head of Marketing @ Oracle on virtual events. www.salingerhotline.blogspot.com and http://twitter.com/psalinger I'll post some highlights from him next. Also enjoyed the conversation with Jeremy Gutsche of trendhunter.com on creativity. Ended up casting myself as "The Creative Director" in the kick-off video on a giant 90ft. screen. Small egos.

Our pre-Oscar Event

We had a lot of fun creating and producing one of the biggest pre-Oscar events on Friday night. All the stars came out for this good cause. And they looked marvelous. From Slumdog's Anil Kapoor to Dita von Teese, it was fun to make our client and the VIPs shine. This was Montblanc's Signature for Good gala at the Paramount Studios. The charity initiative is for the UNICEF literacy campaign. We've been working on it for months and to the audience it was flawless. Thanks for the toast, Joan. Go to http://www.signatureforgood.com to see more

A fun video we created

This is a fun video opening we recently created to announce some new games.