A San Francisco native, Mike is best known for his audio and video mash-ups, like his newest - the Iron Man Trilogy Remix.
Part director & part electronic music producer, Relm has introduced the world to a style of visual/audio mashups with his unauthorised remix of Iron Man 2 - a video so epic it had Iron Man director Jon Favreau personally hitting him up to make a legit 30sec TV commercial based on the same style. How cool is that.
Here's a remix Mike put together covering the whole Iron Man Trilogy.
This fresh and inspiring style would work so well in on-air promos, standing out and providing some real ad-break entertainment. Mike's set the bar pretty high though.
Using examples of the latest 'Pacific Rim' and 'Fast and the Furious 6' trailers, Scott Mendelson of Forbes.com discusses how each of the latest trailer spots do nothing to contribute to their respective movie campaigns.
"Do we really need two full-length trailers (of FF6) that advertise the same movie in mostly the same fashion for the same demographics, with the only differences being which action sequences and plot reveals are divulged in each spot?"
The point he is making is that for each trailer to add value to the campaign it should attempt to sell to a different audience than the last.
"That Fast and Furious 6 trailer is merely a replay of the first trailer, with no attempt to sell the film to different demographics."
While this is a valid point (the same thing is often said for TV promos), it is also worth taking a second to questions its merits, as this isn't a one size fits all concept.
For example, say the trailer editors created a new Fast and the Furious spot to appeal heavily to mothers 40+, tapping into the elements of the film that appealed to them (if there are any). If this happened, the core demographic of men 16-24 would discard the movie faster than a hot dropped pie, and no matter what other promotional material they saw, it would all be tainted with the brush of that mothers 40+ spot.
Now what if it wasn't such a large demographic leap, and the spot instead targeted women 16-24? Same age bracket, different sex. The damage probably wouldn't be so bad, but would the outcome be any better? Do you not just end up with a spot that taints the mans perspective of the film, and another that taints the woman's? Isn't the 16-24 male demographic big enough on its own for this film to be a success? After all, it's not exactly niche.
Demographic carving can work, and Mendelson's position makes sense in certain circumstances, especially for broad appeal programs like Masterchef, Survivor and My Kitchen Rules. These programs are cleverly constructed to contain something for everyone.
Does it hold weight for programming that is unashamedly targeted to a specific demographic though? Does a film like Fast and the Furious 6 need to appeal to both my mother and my brother?
This is a tactic that is definitely worth considering - just be wary you don't end up alienating your core demo in the attempt to win over a few new viewers.
Vimeo user Willie Witte has made a friggin' cool video utilising still frames and a clever edit.
I can see this being a great visual driver in a voice over heavy TV promo where information is being shared with the viewer. Imagine a promo about the worlds 10 greatest cities. The narrator rattles off facts about how much of an undertaking it was to construct these cities, and how they changed the world etc.. Supporting each voice over line are facts illustrated on the pages dropping.
The hands then drop the last piece of paper, but stay on screen, the voice over endline is something like "and to think it all started with these".
Charles Duncombe
