Here’s a great example of internet television production and distribution. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is a 43-minute tragicomicmusical produced exclusively for Internet distribution. It stars Neil Patrick “doogie howser” Harris and tells the story of Dr. Horrible (Billy), an aspiring supervillain, Captain Hammer, his nemesis, and Penny, their mutual love interest.
The movie was written by writer/director Joss Whedon, his brothers Zack Whedon (a television writer) and Jed Whedon (a composer), and Jed’s fiancée, actress Maurissa Tancharoen. The writing team penned the musical during the WGA writers’ strike. The idea was to create something small and inexpensive, yet professionally done, in a way that would circumvent the issues that were being protested during the strike.
The results were ground breaking with 200,000 hits on the site in the first hour…so much activity that the server crashed! You can enjoy Dr Horrible’s sing-along blog at http://www.drhorrible.com/
The team at TimeZoneOne clock up a lot of air miles with clients to visit in the majestic heart of America plus both the west coast and east coast. We also spend a lot of time travelling between the USA and our pacific base. We have experienced many airline brands and have a big soft spot for Air New Zealand because of the tiny bit more leg room and for United’s Economy Plus because of the tiny bit more leg room.
Both airlines have produced some fantastic television advertising over the years but are yet to top my favorite from “the world’s favorite airline.” And to top it off, in the finest english tradition, they serve a terrific hot cup of tea! Enjoy the clip.
I am a big fan of musical theatre! I love the creative energy, the story telling, music and technology. The shows are usually big budget, big impact productions that deliver an entertaining punch! They are a celebration of the creative process and bring together the creativeness of 100s of people live each and every night. There would be no show without the creative talents of the director and the producers, the actors and singers, the musicians, the writers, the set designers, wardrobe, lighting team, sound team, marketing team, front of house and back of house teams.
I love the way 100s of people can harness their creativity, passion and experience to entertain us in a way that looks seamless and effortless each and every night. This is much like the very creative team here at TimeZoneOne. My favorite musical of all time is Mel Brook’s The Producers. The musical was so popular it was also made into a film starring the amazing Nathan Lane plus Matthew “Ferris Bueller” Broderick. The film features a cameo from Mel Brooks during the popular song “Springtime for Hitler”!
Known best for it’s Hobbits, New Zealand’s creative industry is an extremely diverse sector which currently contributes around 3.1% of the country’s GDP. Along with film making and screen production, industries include music, fashion, textiles, television, digital content and our favorite, design (to name a few).
NZ’s sporting achievements are well known worldwide and are backed up by a nation of new thinking and fresh ideas. An America’s Cup win in 1995 highlighted the country not only as a sporting nation but also as one of design and innovation with the revolutionary Virtual Eye 3D animated graphics that accompanied the television coverage. Over the years New Zealand has also become one of the world’s leading locations for super yacht construction, leading in naval architecture and interior design. Award winning vessels such as Fitzroy Yachts ‘ Salperton (which recently won Best Sailing Yacht in the 30-44 meter class at the World Super Yacht Awards ) have become the standard for high performance technology.
The day seems to have flown by, so here is a link to keep you entertained until tomorrow. It showcases talents in graphic design, web, illustration and packaging. http://www.graphic-exchange.com/
The night started off with a hustle, bustle and flurry of getting a free drink from the bar and then rushing to get a good seat. This zoner by-passed the beer queue, a sacrifice that was rewarded with a seat with a view and the ability to drive home.
The first Christchurch Pecha Kucha Night was a hit bringing together a range of artists from many disciplines (fine artists, designers, architects, sound artists, photographers and chiefs). Each artist/designer showed 20 slides of their work, each of which was shown for 20 seconds — giving a total presentation time of 6 minutes 40 seconds. The speed-racer pace forced the artist to summarize his/her work in what often resulted in comic styling.
Pecha Kucha started in Tokyo, Japan in 2003 and has since spread to more than 120 cities, including London, San Francisco, Seattle, Rotterdam, Shanghai and Berlin.
This zoner’s highlight would have to be news of a fabulous new sport about to sweep our nation and the world - Chess-Boxing , the exhausting physical and mental sport was a knock out with the audience.
Chess Boxing merges two contradicting sports of opposite disciplines, pushing their athletes to the limit, mentally as well as physically. Six lightning rounds of speed chess alternate with five rounds of boxing. In a maximum of eleven rounds, the decision will come either through K.O. or check mate. Although we did not get to see a round in progress the slides shown demanded instant awe and respect (along with side splitting laughter) for these crazy athletes.
The next Christchurch Pecha Kucha Night is planned for late July, with this zoner planning to be a regular Pecha Kucha attendee (perhaps having taken up a new sport).
And the award we have all been waiting for….this weeks zoner of the week award is a tie going to our own maybe baby ‘Mini Murray’ who having decided to brave the Christchurch frost 2 weeks early, considerately put their grand entrance on hold so Murray could come in to work and do spectacular Crocs and Jibbitz artwork, meeting his deadline and making the design world a better place.
Mini Murray we appreciate your timing and are all looking forward to your arrival.
The second winner, Tim who seeing an opportunity to ‘make it better’ reconstructed our presentation page format so that Timezoneone designs in the future will be presented bigger and better.
Congratulations to everybody involved in the SAIC Boxed & Beautiful student recruitment package! We just won a GOLD MEDAL in the annual CASE Circle
of Excellence awards.
CASE Circle of Excellence Awards recognizes outstanding efforts in institutional advancement. This international awards program provides an opportunity to showcase innovative, exciting, and effective programs and projects.
We received a GOLD MEDALin the Visual Design in Print category.
This is further recognition of the outstanding work that comes from our creative team in New Zealand.
We have won an EFFIE Award and CASE Award – for different pieces of work – in the space of a month. GREAT WORK TEAM!
This Zoner is an avid film fan. In fact in the past 5 years I have seen over 500 movies, some good, some bad, most end up somewhere in the middle.
So with the summer blockbuster season having already kicked into gear in the U.S.A, I thought it would be a good time to share with you some of the best New Zealand films… yes there is more to kiwi film making than just Lord of Rings (at the risk of offending all you hobbit fans I won’t tell you what I think of those movies)…
Smash Palace 1981: Smash Palace stars the late great Bruno Lawrence , probably the best New Zealand actor never to achieve fame overseas. The film is a hard slog about a failing marriage but stick it out to the end as it’s worth it.
Came A Hot Friday 1984: This little flick stars the late great Billy T James (common theme here), who could be summed up as New Zealand’s answer to Bill Cosby, back when Cosby was funny. James plays the The Tainuia Kid, and becomes mixed up with bookies, dodgy bets and a Taniwha. Watch the video to see Billy T in action - COMEDY GOLD!
Footrot Flats - The Dogs Tail 1986: Based on the famous New Zealand comic strip by Murray Ball, this was New Zealand’s animated attempt at film making. Pre computer animation, it still holds up pretty well and is a humorous look at kiwi life.
In My Father’s Den 2004: This film has plenty of mystery and intrigue and will keep you guessing till the end. A good effort at trying to fit in to a more mainstream genre.
Eagle Vs. Shark 2006: Starring Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords fame, this falls in the quirky but funny category. Well worth checking out.
So get to your local video store and kick back with some popcorn. You will all be speaking kiwi in no time.
MOVIE TRIVIA: Strange but true… 2001: A Space Odyssey missed out on a Academy Award nomination for best makeup as the Academy thought the monkeys at the start of the film were real and not actors. For anyone who has seen the film this sounds like a joke, but I guess the 60’s were a crazy time and men dressed as chimps were not as common as they are today (?)
MOVIE TRIVIA: Seperated at Birth…. Recent Zoner addition Murray Grossmith quite clearly has an evil twin who justs happen to have starred in the James Bond Movie, The World Is Not Enough. Murray is still mourning the loss of Renard and is actively seeking revenge against Pierce Brosnan.
Finally, here is a little piece of New Zealand TV Magic… The Goodnight Kiwi. NZ TV used to go off air at midnight every day, and it was a special treat as a kid to be allowed to stay up and see the Goodnight Kiwi. Enjoy!
Yet again, our creative team managed to express ourselves through interpretive dance and questionable dressing. Something we seem to excel at – maybe it should even become a prerequisite for new staff. They could present their ‘weeekend persona’ to the team at interview stage!? A good test of creative skills!
This occasion was in aid of Kim’s 40th birthday and the invite did mention ’80’s dress encouraged’ so we went all out. So did Kim, she was dressed to impress in a lovely jazz-a-jetics number!Not to be confused with the more modern term ‘aerobics’. I am sure she will kill me for posting such glamorous photos of her…
Brett definately would have won ‘the most excessive use of 80’s accessories’ had there been a category for it.
