I recently found an old photo of me from circa 1986 and thought it would be fun to recreate it. I’ve seen a few people do this online of late and thought I’d have a go.
This did, of course, mean I needed to buy a few of the Transformers missing from my collection – namely Beachcomber and Top-Spin. No hardship, I’m sure you’ll agree.
The more observant among you will notice that Continue reading Recreating a photo from 1986
This last weekend I was offered the chance to go to London to the UK premiere of Transformers Dark of the Moon to interview director Michael Bay, and star (and underwear model) Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Sadly I couldn’t make it due to work commitments (boy do I sound sad) but thankfully some guys from TheTransformers.Net were able to take my place.
In fact, they jumped at the chance of interviewing Michael and Rosie… funny that.
Anyway, the two intrepid Transformers fans travelled down to that London on Sunday to take up their spots on the blue carpet (on the press side, not the fan side) in order to interview the director of the film and the film’s leading lady… and here is the video of their exploits.
Lucky, lucky gits.
While in HMV a few weeks ago, browsing around the Blu-Ray section, I was torn between Kick Ass and Scott Pilgrim. With my love of Edgar Wright’s films I opted for Scott Pilgrim, as I hadn’t seen it, and was, in some small part, swayed by the inclusion of exclusive postcards for Scott and each of the evil exes. This small, inexpensive, addition seemed like a good idea, and I remember Metrodome doing a similar thing a few years ago with their Transformers DVDs when they included postcards of the cover illustrations.
This started me thinking. Even the tenth anniversary of the cult-classic (because that’s what the news reporter from HTV Wales called it) Cop on the Edge has been and gone, there’s always the twentieth, twenty-fifth and so on. Collectible postcards of the characters or artwork seems like a good idea… well, an idea nonetheless.
So how much can postcard printing cost? The DVD authoring was done by Eddie Keaton, so that’s all taken care off. The cover design is also done in-house (yeah, I know, it shows) so there’s really no other expense. Even the website itself is over 10 years old, so has something of a web presence already.
All that’s left is the cost of any crap that we want to throw in with it (I say crap in the most loving sense because, postcards aside, the film ain’t gonna be save by freebies).
All that remains is what to include on the postcards, and how many? Naturally there’s the iconic (or derivative, you decide) cover art itself (below). Then there’s the original flyer that was made to promote the screening, way back in September of 1998… Christ I feel old. How about character art? We still have all of the original stills somewhere… I think.
The possibilities are endless (if you consider less than ten endless).
Anyway, I’ll leave you with the trailer and the 10th Anniversary DVD cover – while I go and investigate the costs for postcard printing.
Have you ever wondered just what ‘SEO’ actually is, but were afraid to ask? Fear not, for this video, in the style of a 1950’s public service video, will tell you just what ‘SEO’ stands for, and what it can do for you.
Watch the SEO advice video on YouTube
The funny thing about this video, from a technical point of view, is that in order to get the video to look aged, with hairs in the gate and scratches, I had to export it from Adobe Premiere Pro (where it was edited) and import it into the rather basic Windows Movie Maker – which had loads of cool filters.
I feel cheap and dirty after doing that – but so long as you don’t tell anyone, I’ll be OK.
A few years ago, before the first Transformers movie came out at the cinema, I was with my youngest son in Toys R Us in Cardiff and wanted to buy some of the great new Transformers toys that were in stock. When you walked into the shop, the new one in Cardiff Bay, there was a feature wall on the right hand side of the shop with the latest toys displayed on it.
Now, they also had a great offer on – 3 for the price of 2 on ALL Transformers toys. Great stuff. I picked up a movie Optimus Prime, an Optimus mask and a Transformers Scalextric. However, when I got to the till they didn’t go through as 3 for the price of 2, they were all full price. I naturally queried this, and the manager came out to see what was up.
I was then informed that the Transformers Scalextric wasn’t included in the offer – yet it was on the feature wall with the rest of the Transformers toys. The manager questioned that, saying I must have picked it up in the Scalextric aisle, rather than from the Transformers feature wall. He was wrong, which he quickly spotted when he went to the feature wall. However, he returned with what can only be described as the smirk of someone who thinks they’ve found the proof they need to get them out of trouble. The smarmy git brought back the sign that read: All Hasbro Transformers 3 for the price of 2.
He maintained that the Transformers Scalextric was manufactured by Hornby, so wasn’t Hasbro, thus wasn’t in the offer. Having little time with my son I didn’t stay to argue the toss (unusual I know) and I left, not buying the items.
So this unhelpful moron ducked the offer by insisting that Hornby’s Transformers Scalextric wasn’t Hasbro, so wasn’t included in their carefully worded offer, yet how could it have been made if it weren’t licensed by Hasbro? This back of box shot clearly shows the Hasbro logo (on the right, above the pictures of Bumblebee and Barricade), as all Transformers products (without exception) are licensed by Hasbro – therefore, it is a Hasbro Transformers product.
How do people like that get jobs where they deal with the public?
One of the best websites to use for Internet marketing is Google’s own YouTube. By uploading videos to YouTube for your products, services or even videos that are relevant to your website you can promote your site to millions of users free of charge. Better yet, by using YouTube you can also achieve Google rankings for phrases that you would otherwise be unable to get.
For example, one of my Transformers websites uses a YouTube account to post videos from PR companies and videos I have taken myself, such as at the ‘Transformers Revenge of the Fallen’ press conference earlier this year. One of the videos uploaded to this channel was for the Transformers 2 video game, and was sent to me by Atari.
This video:
Now, that trailer has received over 17,000 views on YouTube, and in its description there is a link back to my website. It also ranks on the front page of Google for a search on ‘Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Video Game’, so anyone looking for the game will watch the video.
How has this been accomplished? This has been achieved using SEO.
This method can be replicated with practically anything. All you need to do is to create a compelling video and optimise it with the same SEO techniques you would use on your own website.
By doing this you can make YouTube work for you and increase the awareness of, and traffic to, your website.
You’ll be pleased to know that we’re back on form here with a rant right out of the top drawer of pointless rants, so sit back and relax.
Now, just what is it with sycophants? If you’re unfamiliar with the word, it means someone who hangs on every word someone else says and no matter how meaningless or stupid what they say might be, congratulates them on their genius. People who follow someone around like sheep constantly saying how great they are, feeding their ego, that’s a sycophant.
Now we’ve cleared that up, why am I so bothered? Well, when someone posts a status update on Facebook you don’t expect to have a series of people all ‘thumbing up’ your status update and commenting on it, telling you how awesome you are, unless you have just said something truly wonderful.
For example, I had a few comments on my status update last week when I made a comment to the tune of how “the BNP think that indigenous to Britain means your family have lived here since the 1960’s, and I thought Creationists were stupid”.
Fair enough, that was quite funny and offensive to Creationists and racists. Worth a few comments.
However, when people post how they’ve just been to a barbeque, you don’t expect loads of thumbs up and cries of ‘way to go Don’… yes, you’ve guessed it, it’s our old friend Don Murphy, producer of Transformers.
Some years ago Don Murphy said he’d shut my website down over on his forum, and his sycophantic followers all cackled with delight at his wielding of his mighty powers. Of course nothing happened, Don did sod all, and he promptly banned me from his forum so that his imps didn’t know the truth of his inability to act.
Not content with clogging up his own forum with his mindless comments, followed by dozens of ‘way to go Dons’, he’s now on Facebook. This wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that every status update is followed by the same procession of mindless imbeciles all falling over themselves to pamper to his ego, no matter what he writes, as the screenshot shows.
This isn’t an isolated update either. It doesn’t matter how mundane or irrelevant his comments, they’re all treated the same way as his army of sycophantic followers pander to him as though he were Dionysus and he were about to open an evening’s entertainment at the theatre.
Too highbrow a metaphor? Yeah, probably, but I’m too angry to stop now.
People, you don’t have to sell your soul to pander to this moron. Just because he says he’s had a barbeque, or he’s got some new socks, or he’s going to the cinema, you don’t have to follow it up with ‘way to go Don’. He’s not going to reward you with a moment of his time, or become your best friend forever.
Get some self respect.
Sorry I haven’t posted in a while but it’s been a busy week. Last weekend I went down to London to the Transformers Revenge of the Fallen press screening and press conference at the invite of Paramount. I watched the movie, and reviewed Transformers Revenge of the Fallen here.
It’s awesome, much better than the first film.
I also filmed the press conference and added the footage to YouTube in 5 separate videos, which you can watch here.
If you’ve seen the film, let me know what you think of it!
