Here are five inspiring and different styles of YouTube interactive campaigns.

Using only video for interaction

Using YouTube annotations as links

Other good campaigns using annotations as links;

Using the YouTube Timeline

Other good videos using the timeline;

Using YouTube Annotations as revealers.

Disguise a YouTube page using Flash

Other cool brand channels campaigns;

The Desperados Experience

The Expendables

Check out all the stuff by Patrick Boivin he has made some really creative games using the youtube interactive features.

The library labeled as a “Biography” but it feels more like fiction. What this book really is is an oral storytelling account of the Siberian Urkas captivating criminal code. Lilin’s authors note states that certain episodes are imaginative recreation., Nevertheless, his exposition of the traditional Siberian Urkas community is one of the best crime reads out there.

I specially liked Lilin’s narration of elder Urka criminals life stories, there is one in particular that stuck with me, about a cold blooded killer nicknamed Plum. Here is the gist of it;
Plum was not born into the criminal underworld he was the son of a scientist and a teacher. When the Soviets came to power his father was believed to have connections with american and european spies, deemed a traitor he was condemned to a camp along with his wife and two children, Plum age twelve and Plum’s sister age three. Plum’s father was beaten and did not survive the train ride to camp. In a senseless interrogation Plum’s mother was ordered to strip naked along with her children out in the snow. The guards tell Plum that they will break all ten of his fingers one by one unless his mother breaks Plum’s little sister pinkie finger. The guards had gone through six of his fingers when he begged his mother in pain. She smashed her daughter to death and tried to kill Plum too but she was stopped by the guards and then beaten to death. Plum was left to die, he would eat the snow hoping to die faster. Some prisoners took him in and nourish him back to life. He grew up to be an avid killer responsible for the death of thousands of cops. On his batter hand there is a tattoo of a skull wearing a police hat and reads I will avenge you.
The torture element in this story is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. Lilin dedicated about six pages to this Plum story, that should be a clear indicator of the fullness and fast paced writing of this 440 page book, just that one story alone could be the base of a good movie.

The whole book has high cinematic value, I constantly found myself recreating scenes in my head, finding the best way to visually tell the story. It would take a masterful script writer to make it a good movie because I fear that Nicolai Lilin’s life story alone wouldn’t hold up on screen and I don’t know about branching out for every character to tell their story. It works in the book but with so many characters, the absence of a love interest, (He barley writes about his love life, at one point in the story he talks about a girl, promises to tell their story later on in the book but never delivers.)  and no clear story climax for the main character I doubt it would be a fine movie, I believe it could be great if a lot of artistic liberties were to be taken with Lilin’s story.

All and all Siberian Education is a uncharted, different and entertaining take on what we believed to be the stereotypical mafia.

For the past two weeks there has been a huge controversy over the release of US classified documents that describe in detail the State’s Department viewpoint and analysis of world countries and world leaders where the U.S has an embassy. This documentary produced by Bosse Lindquist and Jesper Huer gives an insight look of the organization, its origins, founding members and the relevance of journalism freedom. It also covers the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrikes and alleged rape charges of the Wiki Leaks editor in chief Julian Assange.

Watch this documentary regardless of your point of view, it depicts a fantastic assessment of the whole matter in question.

WikiRebels English version embed from SVT’s website; (no Longer available)
Embed from Youtube:

Although the movie dedicates a great chunk of time to character development as in most European movies, it has a fast and engaging plot seamlessly combing European and North American styles of story telling.
Amazing well crafted bold set ups , impressive cinematography, some of the best performances I’ve seen and a remarkable soundtrack make the good thief a great Heist movie for anyone looking for entertainment and a treasure for anyone aspiring to make good movies.

Check out the trailer;

“We initiated operations at dawn yesterday in an strategic area where the very heart of Farc accentuates” Colombia’s Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera announced at a press conference in Colombia this morning. he then said that the operation resulted in “death during combat” of Mono Jojoy.  Link to video from CityTv Colombia

The operation was approved on Monday night by Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos and  carried out on Wednesday September 22nd when over 40 Colombian air force units and about 400 military serviceman swarm the Farc camp in the Macarena region. Between 20 to 30 Farc guerrilla members were killed. Officials believe that other top Frac commanders are among the deceased but are yet to be identified.

“The symbol of terror in Colombia has fallen” Said President Santos who is in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly. “This is the operation Bienvenida a las Farc (Welcome Farc). We announced it after the terrorist attacks that FARC carried out in this past days, and this is it.”

I support the initiative from the people at http://www.1billionhungry.org calling upon Governments to make their top priority to eliminate hunger. According to their site “Enough food is produced in the world today for everyone to be properly nourished and lead a healthy and productive life” There is no reason for a billion people to go hungry. Sign the petition.

On a different note, there is an  interesting marketing idea used in this campaign that allows users to track their activism impact, making  it a very efficient way to attain user generated advertising.

The way it works  is very simple,  once you’ve browse the site and realized that you want to take action and help stop world hunger, you sign the petition. The website then automatically creates a unique key with your user name that allows you to keep track of the impact you have over the people you tell. This very simple set up prompts “passive users” to take further action by e mailing, twitting, etc… their unique name.

I would really like to see other organizations adopt this kind of personalized  “Activism tracking” idea, even take it further with a personal page in their site and maybe create  facebook tracking application. I know I would love to have the numbers for my favorite activism organization; http://na.oceana.org/

Screen Shots:

Jeremy Irons Rules!

Hoping to bank on the very delayed Canadian launch of apple’s I Phone 4, Research in Motion (BlackBerry) increased their advertising efforts in Toronto. Featuring new black and white ads dedicated entirely to their exclusive Blackberry instant messaging Application BBM.

I saw the print advertising in a subway train on my way to doing some green-screen interviews for a client and since I had the portable screen with me I shot some footage to compose later. Because it was a splurge of the moment video I forgot to shoot some additional video that would have made everything look a lot better and easier to edit but thats the best way to learn for next time!  So… check this very short new concept video based in this ads for BBM.

RIM covered with ads the entire Bloor and Yonge Subway platform, Toronto’s Busiest subway station serving more that 350,000 people a day.

Production:

Actress; Ana Maria Cano.
Production Assistance; Luz Gabriela Alvarez and Jimmy Battaglia.
Concept and Production; Andres Felipe

So… Welcome to my site! I am a Writer / Director, Living and working in Toronto, Canada who loves to explore, exploit and experiment with new media. I am also an avid editor and motion graphics designer so expect some tutorials in the near future.

Andres.