Director Scott T. Chan, founder of L.A.-based creative agency Whirled, recaps the emotional touch points of 2011 in a web film titled Google Zeitgeist 2011. The film is a powerful snapshot of the year’s highlights captured and shared via Google online tools such as Search, Google+, Maps and more. Zeitgeist, or “the spirit of the times,” is revealed through Google’s aggregation of billions of search queries received on the site this year. Whirled was also responsible for “Google Zeitgeist 2010,” which racked up nearly 3 million views on YouTube. The boutique agency was tapped once again to take the reigns for this year’s video.
Chan related, “Ultimately, I wanted this year’s video to feel much more intimate and personal. This year, more than ever before, we saw a fundamental shift in the way we actually experienced these events–now we’re living these moments in real time through social media and online video.” While stepping back and taking a look at the year as a whole, Chan saw that 2011 was a year where the world endured numerous hardships: devastating natural disasters, the loss of many dynamic and inspirational people and the downturn of the global economy. He chose to not simply highlight these moments, but also shine a glimmer of hope around them. He added, “The theme and story of the video and year, to me, is really about progress.”
The video opens with a Google search window completed with the text, “2011 was a year of–” The images shift as the search query is completed with words encapsulating the essence of the year, “adversity; crossroads; revolution; remembrance; possibility; inspiration.” The pace livens to reveal snapshots via Google searches of the devastating Japan earthquake and tsunami, the treacherous floods in Brazil. Moving on to crossroads we experience major milestones such as the capturing and killing of Osama bin Laden as announced by President Barack Obama, the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the final launch of NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis and the end of the wars in the Middle East told through US soldiers coming home to their loved ones. The year’s spirit of revolution blazes through the fierce dedication of protestors in Sudan, Tunisia, Egypt, Greece and the United States’ “occupy” movement.
Next, we revisit those who have left us in 2011 including Elizabeth Taylor, Saudi Arabia’s Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz, funny man Ryan Dunn, American football pioneer Al Davis, former First Lady Betty Ford, Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba, American radio and television writer Andy Rooney, Olympic boxing champ Joe Frazier and the legendary Steve Jobs.
Ordinary people soared to online viral celebrity status as seen through the “Homeless Man with a Golden Voice,” Rebecca Black, Chinese artist-activist Ali Weiwei and 29-year-old Sloan Churman hearing herself for the first time after a lifetime of deafness. Recently-launched Google+ provides a backdrop for the sharing of some of this year’s inspirational moments including the Royal Wedding, 2011 Women’s World Cup, Novak Djokovic’s incredible winning streak and the poignant live video feed of a 21-year-old soldier revealing to his dad for the first time that he is gay after the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
A selection of this year’s most touching and memorable snapshots, ends on a Google search window, simply reading, “We made it.”
“Mickey 17” Tops Weekend Box Office, But Profitability Is A Long Way Off
"Parasite" filmmaker Bong Joon Ho's original science fiction film "Mickey 17" opened in first place on the North American box office charts. According to studio estimates Sunday, the Robert Pattinson-led film earned $19.1 million in its first weekend in theaters, which was enough to dethrone "Captain America: Brave New World" after a three-week reign.
Overseas, "Mickey 17" has already made $34.2 million, bringing its worldwide total to $53.3 million. But profitability for the film is a long way off: It cost a reported $118 million to produce, which does not account for millions spent on marketing and promotion.
A week following the Oscars, where "Anora" filmmaker Sean Baker made an impassioned speech about the importance of the theatrical experience – for filmmakers to keep making movies for the big screens, for distributors to focus on theatrical releases and for audiences to keep going – "Mickey 17" is perhaps the perfect representation of this moment in the business, or at least an interesting case study. It's an original film from an Oscar-winning director led by a big star that was afforded a blockbuster budget and given a robust theatrical release by Warner Bros., one of the few major studios remaining. But despite all of that, and reviews that were mostly positive (79% on RottenTomatoes), audiences did not treat it as an event movie, and it may ultimately struggle to break even.
Originally set for release in March 2024, Bong Joon Ho's follow-up to the Oscar-winning "Parasite" faced several delays, which he has attributed to extenuating circumstances around the Hollywood strikes. Based on the novel "Mickey7" by Edward Ashton, Pattinson plays an expendable employee who dies on missions and is re-printed time and time again. Steven... Read More