By Ken Liebeskind
NEW YORK --Online video has “reinvented the world of moving image,” said David-Michel Davies, executive director of The Webby Awards, during Monday night’s Webby Film & Video Awards presentation at New World Stages in New York City. This is the eleventh year of The International Academy of Arts and Sciences Webby Awards, but the first for film & video, which signals the arrival of the new medium.
Awards were given in a number of categories, but there wasn’t one for video advertising. However, some of the winning videos were ad related, most notably “The Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiments,” by Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, which won the Best Viral Award.
The geyser-like spewing of Diet Coke from cans containing Mentos candies was filmed by the pair in their hometown of Buckfield, ME after six months of research. The idea had been suggested by a friend. The first video was posted at Revver.com on May 31, 2006 and it was an instant success, receiving over five million hits in two months. The video was so popular that Revver sold advertising with it, to Microsoft and other major advertisers. The video was also posted at Grobe’s and Voltz’s site, www.eepybird.com.
Grobe and Voltz appear in the video, so it was shot by a friend, Mike Miclon.
After the first video played, “Mentos called right away,” Grobe said, with Coke calling last August. “The second video was sponsored by Diet Coke and Mentos, they provided materials and paid the production costs,” Grobe said.
The second video featured a chain reaction or domino effect. “One bottle triggers the next one and 250 bottles were used,” Voltz said.
The second video also featured a tag at the end, which was an ad for Diet Coke that promoted Poetry in Motion, a video contest that called for videos of “ordinary objects doing extraordinary things, which doubled traffic at Coke.com,” according to Grobe.
Mike Donnelly, The Coca-Cola Company’s director of interactive media, said Grobe and Voltz judged the contest and their video was “an inspiration for entries.” A winner was chosen last week. Donnelly also said Coke relaunched its strategy of interactive media last July to focus on consumer generated media, which is why the company reached out to Grobe and Voltz. “The timing was perfect,” he said.
The Best Actor Award at the Webbys was Ninja, star of Ask A Ninja, a series of comedy webisodes created by Los Angeles improvisational comedians Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine. When asked who the actor playing Ninja is, Nichols wouldn’t say. When asked if it was Sarine, he remained silent, but he was willing to discuss the advertising. The episodes, which play at www.askaninja.com, feature five second pre-rolls and fifteen second ads that run near the end. The series started in November, 2005 and advertising started last August. Nichols and Sarine signed a deal in January with Federated Media Publishing/Sausalito, Calif. the company that sells advertising for blogs and other websites. Ask.com bought a three month sponsorship and started running ads on May 18, Nichols said.
There’s lots of online video advertising now, but the advertising successes of these videographers suggests that independent video producers can support their work and even profit from it. Grobe and Voltz started with a revenue share from Revver and are on to bigger and better things, including a new series of videos they wouldn’t discuss at the show. Nichols and Sarine received a huge payout from Federated and a generous revenue share. There was plenty of jubilation on Monday night as the videographers and the rest of the winners celebrated their achievements.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More