Walking on Nike Air

I dig the video integration and interactivity in this Nike Air microsite.

YouTube Payola

Speaking of GooTube, you might have heard that the site might start paying users for their videos. Co-founder and Chief Exec Chad Hurley says that they will definitely be heading in that direction.

He states this in a video, apparently shot at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Presumably the more views a video gets, the more money the uploader will earn. This seems fair given the number of ads now on the site. If any company can make Youtube economically viable in this way, Google can.

Now they just need to improve the search functionality on the site. I'm pretty sure Google has the inhouse skills to make that happen as well!

Human Space Invaders

I don't want to fill my blog up with YouTube videos, but you have to respect the human effort that has gone into this stop-motion animation. It's not a bad creative idea either.

I'm happy that I wasn't one of the people running from seat to seat for the length of the shoot though. I can just sit back and enjoy the the aliens.

Korean DHL kiss ad

While I'm on the theme of tv commercials, here's a funny Korean DHL ad. It's had 385,568 YouTube views in just 6 days. That makes it one of the most viewed videos of the week, not bad for an ad.

Aussie Drumstick

A new and unmistakably Australian Nestle Drumstick ad created by agency Publicis Mojo in Melbourne. It's been having a good run during some of those long, hot Australian Tennis Open days here.

Thanks to Ashadi over at Bannerblog for this one.

Curb My Enthusiasm

I just can't curb my enthusiasm for the HBO tv show Curb Your Enthusisam. This show isn't new, it debuted in 2000. Since then Larry David has written 50 episodes over 5 seasons. I haven't seen all of the seasons yet, but over the long Australia Day weekend we rented the season 3 DVD (10 episodes).

For those of you who don't know, Curb Your Enthusiasm is written by Larry David who also co-created, wrote and executive produced Seinfeld. I must admit that when I first discovered this new show, I was a bit skeptical and didn't really think that Seinfeld could be topped, but after seeing just one episode by accident late one night, I was hooked.

I think Larry David is one of the best comic writers working today and he has cemented his place in comedy history with his great writing in these two groundbreaking shows.

I think what's really interesting about Curb Your Enthusiasm is that David wrote a detailed story and plan for each episode, but the comedy in each scene in every episode is totally improvised. This makes for some hilarious, unexpected, spontaneous, sometimes disturbing and agonising comedy moments.

If you haven't seen any of the shows yet, do yourself a favour and seek the series out. The show isn't for everyone, but it certainly is for me. It's one of the best show I've seen on tv, and I don't think it's an accident that it's funded by HBO. Two of my other favourite tv shows with great writing , The Sopranos, and Six Feet Under, came out of HBO. Love the opening titles to Six Feet Under by the way.

Australia Day Snaps

January 26th is Australia Day and a public holiday in these parts. Australia Day marks the occasion of first european settlement, or colonisation. The occasion is by no means celebrated by everybody. Events usually include a Sydney Ferry race on the harbour, fireworks and various protests by aboriginal groups.

With all the outdoor activities going on around the city and harbour, both Google and Microsoft are taking the opportunity to fly over the city to snap high-res photos. Microsoft is encouraging people to form objects and shapes to be seen from above and Google is going to shoot the area in detail for Google Maps.

If you live in the target area, it might be a good opportunity to stand on your roof and say cheese, or give the one fingered salute, whatever takes your fancy.

Forget the Film

Many times I find that the film titles are better than the film itself. Here's a site from Submarine Channel that's started to feature some of the great title sequences.

Thanks to miosite for letting me know about this new resource.

Viral Video Tracker

If you like to know about the top viral videos going around like me, then here's a new tracking site. The site ranks the top 100 daily videos and keeps track of the most popular of all time.

Vidmeter tracks videos from Atom Films, Break.com, Daily Motion, Google, iFilm, Metacafe, Myspace, Revver, vSocial, Yahoo! and Youtube.

Mashin' Up with Granny Teller

Mountain Dew viral. Granny's quite funny, and at least this is not pretending not to be an ad.

Here's the previous one as well: Do your Own Adventure with Sue Teller

Welcome to the Future

This is a demonstration video of how a multi-touch driven computer screen may change the way we work and play. Didn't I see this in the film Minority Report.

...and when can I have one.

Australian Hotspot Mashup

While I'm on the summer heat theme – the bushfire season in Oz this summer looks to be a record breaker. Some of the fires have been burning for more than 7 weeks now, with no let up in sight. February is traditionally the hottest month of the year here.

Although Google maps went live for New Zealand and Australia back in May '06, Googlemapsmania tells me that Australia now has its own domain for Google Maps. Here's a new map mashup that tracks the current Australian Fire Hotspots.

Hot with the Chance of a Late Storm

It's been a real scorcher in Sydney today. The temperature nudged 40 degrees this afternoon (that's over 100 for those using the other measurement), so this sculpture by the creative sniffers at The Glue Society has been on my mind.

"Hot with the chance of a late storm" was created for the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition back in November. There is obviously an environmental message in this work, although I do wonder how environmentally friendly the production process was, not to mention the materials used. Let's just say this paradox adds to the power of this work for now.

This piece won the People's Choice prize for the year. The show is staged along Sydney's short Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk, and attracts over 400,000 visitors.

Grindhouse - Tarantino & Rodriguez

Tarantino and Rodriguez have teamed up to present Grindhouse. I'm sure you'll be hearing and seeing more about this dual project in the coming months!

A lot of the Flash microsite seems to be "coming soon" at the moment, but it looks like it's going to be worth another decent look when it's finished.

From the experience of the site, Hi–Res! in London must be working on it, although there's no reference to it on their (temporary html) company site right now. If it's not them, someone is borrowing heavily from them.

jjprojects Enters the Blogosphere

Pool: jjprojects

After long deliberation I've finally decided to plunge jjprojects into the blogosphere. Given the demands of my agency job and some of my other creative activities, I wasn't sure I'd have the time to post as frequently as I'd like, but I'll certainly do my best to make time.

After all, as a person fully involved in thinking about and creating digital media on a daily basis, I really feel it should be part of my life to keep a blog. I hope you find my future posts engaging. I plan to have fun writing them.