Volkswagen Super Bowl & Verizon Commercials

Little Darth Vadar Stop the Volkswagen Car!

Clean Cut TV Commercials

Here at Clean Cut Media, we not only talk about bad influences of media, but we try to balance it out by promoting good media. We like clean movies, we like clean & awesome commercials, and are happy for the companies that promote such media. Media is part of life folks, just a matter of knowing what to consume, not to consume, and of course how much we should be consuming. Below are a few recent commercials with some buzz that are clean cut and well made.

Darth Vader Volkswagen SuperBowlVolkswagen’s Super Bowl Commercial: Darth Vader

Volkswagen did something most companies would not have thought of. Reveal their Super Bowl commercial before the Super Bowl! One may think, why? It takes away from the hype! Oh, but I see this as a good move on their part. In about 2 days, it already has 6 million views as it gets passed along virally, hogging all the attention, riding on the hype of all the anticipation. Good move Volkswagen. Also kudos on the nice, simple, clean cut commercial. The Video shows little Darth Vadar in his attempts to use the force. Watch it!

Of course the commercial says nothing about the car at all. Just trying to associate warm fuzzy feeling with the car and brand. That is the state of advertising folks!

iPhone Verizon vs AT&T Commercials

A clear shot at it’s “rival” AT&T. You have to love the simplicity of this ad, yet it indirectly emphasizes their differentiator – their reputation as the best network. It builds their reputation and continues to link the idea that Verizon’s service is clearly better than AT&Ts. It doesn’t directly attack anyone, but pokes a bit of fun, bringing out that “ooooHH” feeling we get when someone has a good witty, comeback. Or maybe it’s just me.

Meanwhile Apple laughs at all the excellent publicity they are getting as the two networks dual it out. Apple is the ultimate winner.

I also enjoyed their trailer video. Simple, Clean “cut”, and to the point:

Oh and some old clean Super Bowl commercials from last year.

What do you think about these commercials?
What did you like and not like about them?

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Improv Everywhere Star Wars Scene at New York Subway

Star Wars Improve Everywhere Scene - Leia

Promoting Good Clean Media

Here at Clean Cut Media, instead of just bemoaning and deriding degrading media, we also like to promote and share a good CLEAN ad, commercial, movie or video when we see one. Bad media is often just driven by the fact that things like violence and sex simply sells, so it’s important we support what is good and clean. Other times, we just share because we like it! These Improv Everywhere videos? It’s clean and we just like it!

Who is Improve Everywhere?

Improve Everywhere is a group that organize giant scene stealing events in public areas. Their “missions” are hilariously fun. They unfortunately aren’t always squeaky clean, but the ones they are best known for all are really fun to watch.

Below is their most recent mission “Princess Leia & Darth Vadar Star Wars Subway Scene” as well as 4 other great mission worth watching. Don’t miss out on “Frozen Grand Central” and “Food Court Musical” both are classics.

Star Wars Improve Everywhere Scene - Storm Troopers

Princess Leia & Darth Vader Star Wars Subway Scene

Princess Leia, Storm Troopers and Darth Vader invades the New York City subway car reenacting a scene from Star Wars. Since the white sliding doors were very similar to the doors from the rebel ship, they utilized multiple stations to have different characters enter into the scene. Very well done.

The buildup was great. By the time Darth Vader enters in the third station, every erupted in laughter. Especially as Darth Vader first time hit his head on the roof due to the height of his helmet.

Enjoy the video below:

Star Wars Improve Everywhere Scene - CrowdsI can forsee many more episodes being a huge hit. See the video right below these pictures.

Shot by: Matt Adams, Jason Eppink, Erik Martin
Cast: Princess Leia (Cody Lindquist), Stromtroopers (Patrick Cassels, Brian Murphy, Josh Ruben). Darth Vader (Alex Scordelis)

Grand Central - The Main Concourse - Improve Everywhere


Enjoy More Improv Everywhere Videos!

See below for some of Improv Everywhere’s top missions.

Frozen Grand Central by Improv Everywhere

Imagine walking through one of the busiest train stations in New York then suddenly you realize everyone around you is frozen still! Sounds eerie? This is exactly what happened in Grand Central New York when 207 “agents” or participants all froze at exactly 2:30PM in all sorts of different poses and scenes.

Strangers started to talk to each other trying to figure out what is going on. Others took pictures with the frozen agents.

Food Court Musical by Improv Everywhere

16 Agents create a spontaneous musical in a food court in a Los Angeles mall. The cameras were hidden throughout the scene and their voices were amplified throughout the food court via wireless microphones and the mall’s announcement system.

This mission was spawned by requests from fans that thought it was so random that people just break out in song in musicals. So Improve Everywhere finally took up the call.

The best is the slow buildup where different people from the audience would join in the musical and break into song. Audience reaction was priceless especially during a couple “twists”…

The song was an original written by Scott Brown and Anthony King. Very well done. The choreography was done by Agent Tallaksen.

Song by Scott Brown and Anthony King
Arranged by Jamie Laboz

Best Game Ever by Improv Everywhere

Numerous Agents come to a random little league game and make it into a full major league baseball experience. The teams, coaches and parents have no idea what is going on. A huge crowd shows up, they setup a jumbotron, NBC Sports comes to announce the game over the PA system, and a blimp flies overhead capping this incredible experience for the children. The announcers knew the kid’s names, nicknames and the crowd was fired up throughout. Pretty sweet experience for the kids.

Apologies for the thumbnails of the crazy fans. Why they chose that thumbnail I don’t know, but the video itself is very clean. It was a fun experience for the kids involved.

Grocery Store Musical

6 undercover agents start a “spontaneous” musical in a grocery store in Queens. The musical was shot with hidden cameras and amplified through the store’s PA system.

Song by Scott Brown & Anthony King

Vote for your Favorite Scenes. Multiple Votes OK!

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New OK Go Music Video – End Love

OK Go Picture Image

So Who is OK Go?

Ok Go is a band formed back in 1998 that became famous through YouTube due to their incredibly creative music videos. In an era where music videos require lot of pizzazz and special effects, this four man band composed of Damian Kulash, Andy Ross, Time Nordwind and Dan Konopka took the online world by storm with their hilarious, low budget videos.

Why is OK Go’s video highlighted on Clean Cut Media?

Simply, because they are creative! We at Clean Cut Media, love.. wait for it.. Clean Cut Media. Rather than just critiquing all that is wrong in media, we also want to give credit to those who are able to produce clean yet creative spots. Any good examples of good advertising or good video should be recognized as a testament that not everything needs to be conform to inappropriate techniques we find in our culture.

OK Go’s New Video – End Love

Here is the latest OK Go Video. When you have time I recommend checking out all their videos. Each is uniquely creative. They’ve built their own hype and the need to be uniquely creative in each successive video – and they’ve done a good job of it! It’s refreshing to see creativity win rather than simply doing more of what everyone else does. Enjoy.

Download the OK GO MP3

Downlaod the OK GO Music Video Here

OK Go’s – “A Million Ways”

OK Go rose to fame in 2005 with their single “A Million Ways”. This video was shot in a normal backyard as the band performed a simple yet hilarious dance. It was choreographed by Kulash’s sister, Trish Sie.

OK Go’s – “Here It Goes Again”

In 2006, the band released “Here It Goes Again” which featured a unique dance on treadmills. Again their creative video went instantly viral with over one million views within the first six days. It currently has over 51 million views! Ok Go and Trish Sie won a Grammy award for the “Best Short-Form Music Video” for this hit.

OK Go cut ties with EMI & Capitol

OK Go soon cut ties with their recording label. It has been speculated that OK Go was upset that the label would not allow them to use viral means to spread their music video. They formed their own independent label called Paracadute Recordings.

OK Go – This too Shall Pass

Watch this awesome domino like video. Very, very creative. Reminds me of Honda’s old commercial. It is hard to explain, just watch it, you’ll enjoy it.

Share your thoughts in the Comment Section!

  • What are your thoughts about these videos?
  • What did you find the most creative?
  • Which video did you like the best?
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Cool Google vs. Opera Speed Test Videos

Google Chrome Speed Video Paint

Google Chrome Speed Test Videos in Slow Motion

Couple weeks ago, Google came out with a video that demonstrates the speed of it’s latest Chrome web browser. Why is it posted here on Clean Cut Media? Because we like to highlight videos that are well-made or are just simply clever. It needs to be Clean Cut of course. 🙂

In case anyone is interested. Google Chrome uses a JavaScript engines called V8 that is extremely fast. This new beta is reported to be about 35% faster than the previous. The previous in my experience is easily the faster browser out there, followed by Safari, then Firefox. I don’t even bother with Internet Explorer – it’s unbelievably slow.

Google Chrome – Speed Test Video

Opera’s Spoof

Always smart to let a competitor spend a lot of money on promotion, then piggyback off of it by making fun of it or challenging it.

Also I always tell people how hilarious it would be to suddenly slap someone with a fish. Yes!

Making Of Google Speed Test

For you film geeks. Fun stuff.

  • 2700 frames per second
  • Pyrotechnics Expert
  • Ballistics Expert

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Youtube Statistics – 2 Billion Views Per Day [Infographic]

Youtube Views Per Day Statistics

YouTube has surpassed 2 billion views per day. Check out this cool little YouTube infographic that summarizes some of the astounding numbers.

YouTube Highlights

YouTube History:
February 2005 – Founders register YouTube domain name.
April 23, 2005 – First video uploaded
May 2005 – Beta Launch of YouTube
June 2005 – YouTube embeds enabled
December 2005 – Official Launch – 8 million videos watched a day
July 2006 100 million video views per day
October 2006 – Google acquisition of YouTube – $1.65 billion
June 2007 – YouTube mobile site launched
December 2008 – 720p HD launched
May 2009 – 20 hours of video uploaded every minute
October 2009 1 Billion views per day
November 2009 – 1080p full-HD launched
May 2010 YouTube exceeds 2 billion views per day

Other Interesting YouTube Facts & Statistics

19 seconds – The length of first video uploaded
1.96 million – Number of times the first video has been played
185.39 million – the number of times the most popular video on YouTube, Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” has been played

2 billion views = double the prime-time audience of all 3 major US Broadcast networks combined
24 hours of video uploaded every minute
Average person spends 15 minutes a day on YouTube
More video is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than all 3 major US networks created in 60 years.

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YouTube Infographic

  • Share with us your thoughts on the astounding stats in the comments section!

Share your thoughts on the YouTube Statistics!

  • What statistics is the most surprising or the most astounding?
  • How many videos do you think you watch per week?
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The Short Film List – Distraxion, Signs, Black Holes & Kiwis

Short Film - Distraxion, The Black Hole, Kiwi

Short Videos & Short Films

All the recent posts have been about heavy topics, so here is a breather both for the artists out there as well as the casual video viewer. I’ve put together links to a few well made (and of course Clean Cut) short videos & short films. I’ve only included ones you may have not seen. So no pixar shorts!

Short videos are very difficult to create because the producer needs to sum up a quick story within a very short time frame usually around 1:30-2 minutes. Short films can range anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 minutes. To develop a story, create the right mood and have character development in such a short period takes much planning and creativity. Below are some of the excellent short films & videos I’ve ran across in the past.

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E3 – Microsoft Natal & Star Wars Video

3 Latest Viral Videos Floating around the Web

I am not one to be promoting video games. I personally believe video games, though can be fun activities in groups, usually ends up as a huge time sink. This isn’t an issue just with children and teenagers, but adults. In the modern era, even adults spend hours on end playing video games rather than living life in the real world. This is especially a concern for young children who spend so much time in front of the tube that it hinders their general interpersonal development.

I mean, a kid shot his parents over Halo 3 a while ago. I am not claiming the game caused him to do it, but if he wasn’t so obsessed with playing the game, it probably would not have never happened! Games are very addicting.

Having said that, I appreciates graphics, CG, and creativity. The following few videos are trailers and previews that came out of the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo or “E3” conference. It has been making it’s rounds in the internet world.

What is Microsoft Natal?

Heard any buzz yet? The first of these is a trailer by Microsoft in regards to new concept technology they are currently developing. With the success of the Wii and it’s movement sensing controller, Microsoft decided to take it further by proclaiming “no controller!”. Basically what they dubbed “Natal” will be able to detect your entire body movements and use your actions for the game. Imagine playing a fighting game actually swinging fists and legs. Imagine racing with an imaginary steering wheel. That is what Natal is trying to do. See the video.

E3 – Microsoft Natal Trailer Video

The next two videos are preview shots of upcoming games Star Wars and Final Fantasy XIV. These previews show mostly CG Rendering and Visual Graphic effects. The graphics are simply spectacular. The battle scene depicted in Star Wars between the Jedi Knights and the Seth empire is truly epic, grander than any of the movies released so far.

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Love Story Meets Viva La Vida by Jon Schimdt – Beautiful Music

For those new to Clean Cut Media, here we like to post not only the latest news and commentary on media influence and social issues, but also post wonderful pieces of art and media that are clean and well done. Occasionally we also post videos that went viral so we could be a source in which to keep up with the latest viral video.

See this beautiful piece of music below. If you appreciate music, it will knock your socks off. Such a beautiful things to hear.

Love Story (Taylor Swift) Meets Viva La Vida (Coldplay)

Piano: Jon Schimdt
Cellist: Steven Nelson (cellist)

This arrangement was created by Jon Schimdt’s for his daughter. His daughter loved the song “Love Story” by Taylor Swift especially a particular transition in the song. Jon Schimdt thought it would transition really well with Viva La Vida by Coldplay so he created this arrangement.

Oren Lavie – Her Morning Elegance

From the album “The Opposite Side of the Sea”, released in March 2009. This song is titled “Her Morning Elegance”. This video is a very artistic use of stop motion utilizing a bed as the frame and bed items as the everyday object. Just play the video below and see what I mean.

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Viral Videos: Beatbox Battle World Championships – Julia & Daichi

Time for another round of Viral Videos. Keeping tabs on what is the new “it” video everyone has seen.

Beatbox Battle World Championships Wild Card Entries

Who’s the greatest beatboxer in the world? Each year there is an annual competition called the Beatbox Battle World Championships. This year it is held in Berlin, Germany on May 28th. Beatbox Contestants all over the world come together to lay down some human generated beats.

Several videos of wild card candidates have been going viral across the web. The wild card winner was Julia Dales, a 17 year old from Canada. Her video entry is shown below. HOWEVER, my vote goes for a guy who didn’t even crack the top 5 but has gained considerable support from the youtube and internet community. His name is Daichi a 18 year old from Japan. Check out his beats below. Just ridiculous.

World Championship Beat boxing Wild Card Results
1st Place: Julia Dales
2nd Place: Primitiv
3rd Place: D-9
4th Place: Lytos
5th Place: The Beatbox Hitman

Daichi – 17 year old Japanese on TV Show – Amazing Beatboxing Skills

Daichi gets my vote for the best wild card entry. As someone who grew up on hip hop and have a personal interest in beat boxing, I found his beat boxing crisp, clear and versatile. Also he ends with what seems to be a signature sound. It was cleaner than Julia and you have to love his sounds and scratches.

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No, Mr. President: John Piper’s Response to President Obama on Abortion

John Piper gave a message called “The Baby in My Womb Leaped for Joy” January 25, 2009. In this message he speaks highly of Obama, but disagrees sharply in regards to the issue of abortion. In a section of his message he speaks about the 36th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. President Barack Obama released the statement:

We are reminded that this decision not only protects women’s health and reproductive freedom but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters.
– Barack Obama

John Piper gives his response to this quote. His response was taken and made into a typography video. It is a very well made video. This video has gone viral this past week with over 60,000 views in the last few days.

No, Mr. President: John Piper’s Response to President Obama on Abortion

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Mac vs PC Elimination Apple Commercials: Product Not Lifestyle

Here at Clean Cut Media, we show a critical eye to TV Commercials, TV Shows and Movies in regards to the level of unnecessary mature themes such as sexual innuendos and crass jokes , even in children movies. We also touch upon how media tends to paint a particular way of life or a particular image that can give the wrong kind of picture of reality and what is considered the norm.

Product Centric vs Lifestyle Centric TV Commercials

Mac vs PC Elimination TV Commercial Spot
Mac vs PC Elimination TV Commercial Spot

However we aren’t all just about the end of media and desire to live in a log cabin somewhere in the middle of forest where we can be free from the evil that is the world. I personally work in the marketing world and also produce videos, art among other media centric work in my free time. So here at Clean Cut Media we regularly post videos, advertising, commercials, art and anything else we can get a hand on as examples of media creatively done with class.  Below are two examples of a well made commercial that does an excellent job highlighting the features or advantageous of a product. This is in comparison with the habit of companies that produce commercials with the sole intent, not to sell the product, but a lifestyle or associate their product to some good feeling or experience. Is the latter ethical? That is a judgment call depending on the message of the commercial itself, but we have to appreciate the commercials that does sell the product for the value it itself.

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Did you Know Statistics & Southwest Rapping Flight Attendant Video

Latest Viral Video: These aren’t all that recent, but still worth a quick look.

Did you Know Video?

This “Did you know” video covers some of the latest statistics in regards to the growth of the information age and the incredible speed of globalization. The video starts with some incredible statistics on the growing population of China and India, then starts to touch upon how quickly our world is changing in terms of information, careers, and the way we communicate. Check out some of these statistics covered in the video

  • 1 in 8 Couples met Online
  • The Top 10 Jobs in Demand in 2010 will have not existed in 2004.
  • Students starting 4 year technical degree – half of what they learn in their 1st year of study will be oudated by their third year of study.
  • If Myspace was a country it would be the 5th largest country in the world (terms of members)
  • In 2006 there was  2.7 billion searches on Google. Last year? 31 Million
  • The US is only ranked 19th in terms of broadband penetration

This well made video covers a lot of very interesting modern statistics. I am certain you will find it very interesting. It really shows how quickly our culture is becoming global and technologically dependent.

  • What statistic did you find the most interesting?

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