NOT - News On Trend è la newsletter mensile di informazione su innovazione e tendenze in campi quali eventi, marketing alternativo, pubblicità, media, entertainment, fenomeni sociali powered by Filmmaster Group
Two news items. The first
is that there are now websites dedicated
wholly to documentaries, which can be
watched online/on demand, for free. Products
that until a few years ago used to be
neglected and were hard to distribute, have
now rightly made a comeback as the best,
most unrestricted part of TV scheduling.
This is thanks to the web, to Current, to
Sky’s themed channels and to recording and
editing technologies that have made it
possible to cut costs right down.
The second piece of news
is that a friend of NOT has told us about a
strange, disturbing film on one of these
portals, which has a wealth of hundreds of
secret tales: Nick Holt’s “Guys and Dolls”.
It is a journey into the lives and loves of
men who live with sex dolls, the extremely
expensive “real dolls” (see realdoll.com),
which they make their ideal life partners.
Patient, tolerant girlfriends with whom they
have dinner, listen to music or watch a film
before making love. Breton and the
surrealists would have loved this
documentary, as would the DADA movement,
Fellini and Topor. It has a sad finale, like
a harmonica wafting off into the fog. But
one thing’s for sure. There are millions of
stories to be seen in the world. Now they’re
just waiting to be told.
A cross between a candid
camera (not for the fainthearted), and a
brilliant marketing strategy implemented by
the car hire company Europcar.
Paris is not just the
romantic City of Lights. In recent weeks it
has also made headlines as the European city
with the most traffic.
That’s why one of the
world’s leading companies for mid and
long-term car rentals decided to send a task
force of rather heavy-handed car
“de-motivators” out into the streets.
The dynamic couldn’t be
simpler: you park, and when you get back to
your car you find it’s been totally crushed
and compressed into a cube, with a phone
number left on top. You dial the number and
get through to a call centre which defends
its actions, underlining that the
“initiative” is part of the plan to cut down
the number of vehicles on the roads, a
state-run plan aiming to discourage car use.
You are “courteously” invited to hire one
rather than buy one, and in general, given
the amount of traffic, to think about
whether you really need to own a car: are
you really sure you need one?
That’s the question that
the call centre operators ask the enraged
car-owners who, beside themselves with fury,
are unaware they’re being broadcast live on
a famous French radio station.
Only after a few minutes
is the joke revealed, and the driver
realises that the compressed cube isn’t
actually his car.
This theatrical strategy
has been enormously successful: 2.5 million
views on YouTube, thousands of tweets, posts
and web articles. Crush!
The foundation
which defends tribes that still exist
Stressed out
by daily life, perhaps you dream of escaping
to a hidden corner of the planet – but
you’re sure that humankind has spread all
over the globe and so there are no longer
uncontaminated paradises and unknown parts
of the world?
Wrong! They do
exist, and they’re protected too because,
the news is that they’re inhabited by tribes
who have managed to survive so far in
certain areas of our world.
Who is
defending tribal rights? A British
foundation that has various offices around
the world. It’s called Survival, and we’re
particularly interested by it because of its
extraordinary mission: to defend and protect
those tribes that still exist on earth, and
continue to do so in the same way and with
the same customs as their ancestors. So no
home comforts, but a life based on surviving
thanks to hunting, fishing and to the
defence that Survival offers them against
external interference. Nobody is allowed to
get close to them. The foundation neither
requests nor wants government funding
because, it says, governments are the main
violators of tribal rights; nor does it
accept money from companies that could
exploit the tribes.
Do you want to
help defend the tribes that still exist
around the world?
Survival has
an Italian office too, in Milan.
Before you go
and visit them, you could make a quick
reconnaissance flight over the areas they
live in: the first encounter with their
amazed faces, turned up to the sky, must be
incredibly moving.
Generally, in Italy a promo is an edited
sequence aimed at telling a specific story.
However, there’s currently room for
experimentation in Belgium, with an
excellent initiative from the national TV
broadcaster Prime.
In order to promote the fourth season of hit
show Mad Men, a promo has been made by
drawing on the symbolic universe of all of
the Channel’s most successful TV series.
From Californication to Weeds, from
Spartacus to Lost, from Deadwood to Dirty
Sexy Money, The Pacific, 4400 and Six Feet
Under to name but a few. Symbols have been
borrowed from the imagery of each series,
with a scene from each show recreated using
tiny plastic models of characters depicted
in typical situations.
The sequence is the result of a well-defined
creative concept, and is dense with visual
stimuli as well as being fun to watch: a
glass of whisky, a shoot-out between cowboys,
a US dollar, two castaways on the beach,
casino chips. The whole of the short promo
presents short extracts from all of the hit
series, but it has a clear aim, which is
revealed in the final seconds of the video:
to announced the start of the brand new 4th
series of Mad Men, the show about life at a
New York advertising agency in the 1960s.
Could this be the advertising equivalent of
“all for one, one for all”?
Fashion, advertising and
magazines aren’t just made up of
photographs. More and more space is being
given over to the graphic arts and recently,
to illustration in particular. It’s no
coincidence that Prada – a maison that’s
always been very aware of the most disparate
forms of contemporary art, and capable of
interpreting them too – entrusted Phil Meech
and OMA/AMO with creating the lookbook for
the Fall/Winter 2010-2011 collection. The
former took the photos; the latter, OMA/AMO,
is the company which did the illustrations
for the graphic art in the lookbook. It’s an
international leader in art, design,
contemporary architecture, town planning and
cultural analysis. Clearly convinced of this
art form, the Tuscan fashion house made its
intentions even clearer by using
illustration for its accessories ad campaign
too. The campaign was launched with a
contest to find the three best illustrators
who could create the perfect character to
wear the brand’s new glasses. Ivo Bisignano,
Marcela Gutierrez and Andrea Tarella are the
three winners whose illustrations were
featured in the campaign, while the
photographs were shot by Steven Meisel. For
a full overview of the world of fashion
illustration, we recommend Amelia’s
Compendium of Fashion Illustration, the
compendium published by the British
Amelia’s Magazine, launched on January
28th in London.
If, like us at Not, you’re used to devouring
all kinds of magazines from around the
world, you’ll no doubt have noticed a trend
for role play and gender play in both
advertising and fashion photography. More
and more often, trend magazines are playing
with breaking down the age-old vision of
woman as an object – whether it’s sexual,
artistic or inspirational – and are
presenting an image of a woman who’s aware
of her own power, and capable of getting men
and women to do what she wants.
Inrockuptibles, Interview and
Tetu are just some examples of magazines
where you can clearly see men turned into
sexual objects in the hands of famous women,
whether young or more mature (such as
Catherine Deneuve). The latest is the
British magazine Love, which has
taken a further step forward with its cover
featuring an androgynously-styled Kate Moss
kissing Lea T, the fashion world’s latest
revelation. Indeed, Lea T was born Leandro
Cerezo to a well-known father - Brazilian
football star Toninho Cerezo. Today, aged 28
and waiting to undergo a definitive sex
change, Lea is the most wanted on the
catwalks, and is the face and muse of
Givenchy. The latest and most popular
transgender celebrity is Kayo Satoh, the
twenty-two year-old Japanese model who
recently announced live on TV that she is
actually a he: no sex change, just carefully
applied make up that enhances her “natural”,
feminine beauty. Fashion has no limits,
especially when it comes to gender.
The game between consumer goods, consumption
system and consumer is now so sophisticated
that brands are no longer content with
selling products: they sell worlds,
experiences, atmospheres, environments. In
this case, denim environments.
Jeans, as everybody agrees, are the most
democratic, versatile garment there is:
comfortable and smart for going out with
friends, they become impeccable with a
jacket and tie for a day at the office. From
today, you can even sleep in jeans too.
Indeed, the Levi’s 25hour Hotel has now
opened in Frankfurt, Germany. Guests are
welcomed by an exhibit of jeans by the
super-famous American brand in the lobby;
from thereon in, it’s a denim explosion: the
wallpaper, armchairs, bedspreads. Clearly
designed for a young, cosmopolitan, rock ’n’
roll clientele, the hotel is located near
the brand’s new German headquarters and was
designed by architect Karl Dudler; the
interior design is by Delphine Buhro and
Michael Dreher. The overriding style is
minimalism with clean, simple lines, a few
splashes of colour and a series of
references to American pop culture: every
floor is a homage to the fashion, culture
and style of a different decade, from the
Thirties to the Eighties, with the most
fitting colour palette, details, shapes and
even music, which changes from floor to
floor.
Levi's makes your "dreams come true"!
Little People in the City: The Street Art of
Slinkachu.
This is the title of an interesting
photographic book that, frame by frame,
describes a little, big street art and
photography project entitled The Little
People Project.
Perspectives are skewed and indeed the way
in which we inhabit the city is almost
turned on its head. No more grand gestures,
large works or big uses. Let’s celebrate our
cities on a small scale; let’s live in the
spaces we visit daily through the use of
tiny plastic people, interacting with urban
architecture scaled down especially for them.
“Little people” have been abandoned in
various places around the world for several
years.
Italy was chosen as one of the locations for
these little people left in the street, one
of the cities being Le Grottaglie, in Puglia
– the backdrop for one of the most beautiful
shots in the book. We recommend buying it:
having pored over it page after page, we’re
sure you’ll learn how to see your own city
from a different perspective. Small, and
perhaps more beautiful for it. Zoom in!
New things are in the air for the Filmmaster
Group website, which today has a new look,
designed and created especially to be used
through the “Mobile” platform. Always in
step with the times, Filmmaster has once
again proven how it is in touch with the
tastes and needs of a modern audience and,
above all, is aware of just how many people
live and work using the new modes of
communication. This way, the content
produced by the group will be always
accessible to anyone at any time, in real
time: films by directors such as Paolo
Genovese, Luca Lucini, Ramses or Jason
Harrington; the most evocative locations;
reels of the big live shows produced by the
group such as Mexico’s Bicentenary
celebrations or the opening and closing
ceremonies of the Turin 2006 Olympics.
Filmmaster Group “Mobile” is a project
created by Gag Web Agency, the group’s
division which specialises in digital
communication. This debut will soon be
followed by other new developments: indeed,
the next step will be establishing a
presence in web communities and social
networks.
Since 1986, the
Special Event Awards has been the US prize
honouring the world’s best events. This year,
300 events were selected across 34
categories, from around the world. But
there’s more: this year, at the Gala
Ceremony for the Special Event Awards 2011,
held in Pheonix, USA, the 2010 Venice
Carnival was awarded Most Outstanding
Spectacle.
And so the Venice Carnival is back on top as
the world’s most famous carnival, thanks to
the format Sensation: 6 sensi per 6
sestrieri, devised by Marco Balich, created
by Venezia Marketing & Eventi and produced
by K-events. The objective, which has
certainly been reached, was to re-launch the
event.
Indeed, with this new format the carnival
has become an extraordinary multi-sensory
experience thanks to the mixture of art,
music, magic and colours suspended in time
and space, with some 340 events spread over
11 days.
Well done!
After Filmmaster MEA
(Middle East&Africa), the group is once
again seeking to strengthen its
international presence, with a new office.
Given Filmmaster’s
excellent results in 2010, the Italian
production company has decided to open up a
new office in Madrid, Spain.
Roberto Serna is taking
over the general management of the new
office, while Lorenzo Cefis, Filmmaster
Partner and Executive Producer, will be
guiding the office as Chief Executive
Officer Filmmaster Madrid, with Giorgio
Marino as President.
Renowned directors such
as Luca Lucini, Jason Harrington, John
Immesoete, Mehdi Norowzian have already
signed exclusive contracts with the newly
opened Filmmaster Madrid.
Cefis says, “We believe
in the wealth of creativity, talent and
resources that the Spanish market is able to
offer, and especially in the creation of a
bridge between the two countries”. He adds,
“The addition of British director Tony Kaye
to Filmmaster’s exclusive stable of
directors is important for both Italy and
Spain”.
Filmmaster president
Giorgio Marino also commented, explaining
the motivations behind this new challenge:
“The new opening in Spain is due to the
excellent results achieved by the parent
company. In 2010, the Italian company
recorded a 30% increase in turnover. We’re
aiming for further financial growth in 2011,
continuing with our strategy of investing in
new talents, new projects and new markets”.
Filmmaster’s qualitative offering just got
better with the addition, to the group’s
already-well-stocked stable of directors, of
two major names in international directing:
Marco Gentile and Jason Harrington. The
former, who began working in film and music
in Milan at a very young age, had already
worked with Filmmaster Clip, making various
music videos for artists such as Tiziano
Ferro, Verdena, Negramaro, Subsonica and
Elisa. An advertising, music video and
documentary director, he now works between
Milan, London, and Paris, bolstered by the
Silver Lion he won at the 2010 Cannes Lions
International Film Festival for his “Life
and Roll” advert for Rolling Stone Magazine.
Meanwhile, Jason Harrington started out as a
graphic designer at the BBC, before moving
to New York, where he gained experience as a
director. His work has been recognised by
major international advertising festivals
including British D& D, BDA Awards, Chicago
International Television and Film Festival,
the Mobius Advertising Awards and the
International Monitor Awards. So, two very
different personalities but both of immense
value, as Ada Bonvini, Filmmaster CEO,
stated: “For us, these new exclusives are a
launching pad; Filmmaster has always been a
hothouse for new talent. Today more than
ever before, our objective is to continue in
this direction”.
Arte Fiera 2011 has just finished in
Bologna, with plenty of historic pieces and
young promise alike. As usual, the fair
published the annual report on art market
trends, with the names to look out for in
the two-year period 2011-2012. We are
delighted but not at all surprised,
convinced as we are of his talent, to see
that Valerio Berruti is among them. Valerio
Berruti needs no introduction: the very high
quality of his work, his constant commitment
and on-going stylistic research, the critics’
praise and multitude of national and
international awards speak for themselves.
His success at the Venice Bienniale has
given this artist a boost. His images are
essential, and rework the themes of
affection, daily life and family ties. The
organisers believe that the work of Berruti
(and of the other artists in the Arte Fiera
report, including Matteo Basilè, Roberto
Cuoghi and The Masbedos) have earned
themselves a key position in the art system,
and are an excellent investment for buyers.
This is nothing new for us at Not, who
commissioned Berruti to do the cover of
issue 32 in October 2008. Sometimes it’s
good to be able to say, “we told you so”…
She studied as a digital
artist and worked as a filmmaker for
independent high quality tv
productions in Italy. After a
long period in Los Angeles, at twenty-three
she decided to come back to Italy and write
the novel, “Thus Spoke Mickey Mouse”,
published by Ediesse. The novel, which
obviously recounts the adventures of an
Italian girl in Los Angeles, was immediately
included by the critics in the “pulp
generation” cultural movement. She worked
several years in cinema and Tv. Since 2003
she is collaborating with New York artist
Kristin Jones at “Tevereterno” project,
creating installations in the City of Rome.
She also participated along with Kristin and
Kiki Smith, to the "River to River" Festival
in New York. In 2010 she won Magmart
Videoart Festival (Video Under Volcano) with
the videoperformance CRY ME. She recently
partecipated with videos and performance art
in several events: Exhibition of
contemporary Art "Il Narciso", along with
Giovanni Albanese and others; MOVES10 (Movement
on-screen) UK; CURRENTS2010, showcase of
videoart, USA; LOWLIVES2, happening of
performance art in streaming on the Net,
promoted by various venues in USA such as
the Museum El Barrio NY; "Aperitivo d'Arte"
personal Art Exhibition, curated by Umberto
Scrocca & Achille Bonito Oliva; "Festa
dell'Architettura di Roma", new media Art
happening at the "performing media lounge"
by Carlo Infante (Pelanda, Macro Future);
New Media Art Festival e CologneOFF, Germany;
Crosstalk Video Art Festivaly; ART SHAKE
Fest, Exhibition at the contemporary Art
galleries Mondo Bizzarro & Hybrida
Contemporanea, Rome; "Substance", Exhibition
curated by Art historian Lorenzo Canova; "Videoholica
2010" Videoart Festival, Varna, Bulgaria.
She is presently working on an opera called
“Western Meat Market”, made of different
performance pieces which blend together
body-art and interaction design. She loves
performance and body art connected to
interaction design and live media, so she
decided to run a festival in Rome, TEN,
which is the only performance art festival
of this kind in Italy.
The
Alphabet is a short film, viewable online,
that grabbed our attention. It was created
by Alessandro Novelli, who defines it as a
“spelling video”, because every letter of
the alphabet provides inspiration for
playing with names and font styles.
It’s a
fun, extremely creative experiment that
combines cel animation, motion and sfx. All
topped off with silent movie-style music!
The contents and the contents of this
digital magazine are the result of revision
by the editors of NOT.
Each image is the source. We reserve the right to accept
any further reporting. Where the source is not indicated, the authorship of the image is
attributable to the editor.
Photos are taken from the site sxc.hu
