I believe strongly in collaboration – both internally and externally (though that can sometimes be challenging in a competitive market).   Inside T2 +Back Alley Films, our groups and skill sets are integrating more and more in every job we do.

The Kauffman Grand Opening work this past September was a perfect example of that – with four internal groups – interactive & Experiential combined with motion graphics and animation, editorial and Smoke finishing, and Back Alley for the production and shooting with the Weiss camera – working together to make it happen.   No single group could have achieved what we did on that project without the creative input and skill sets of the other groups.

This is essentially why eCamp started; a group of people in the production and post production industry got together and decided that we could only benefit from sharing what we know. We each come from a different market, but the same industry and so, without feeling the need to be competitive, we are able to talk frankly about what has worked for us and what hasn’t — the challenges we face, and our best operational practices. This has been particularly helpful these past few years – as our industry was struggling with the recession and technology advances that were significantly changing the nature of our business.   It has been interesting to see how each business is evolving to meet the needs of the changing world we are all experiencing.  It was also interesting to note that most of us  had called on other companies within the group this past year  – to collaborate on a project or two.

A definite perk.

I was thrilled to introduce my colleagues to a local genius right here in KC – who was our guest speaker.  Stefan Mumaw is the author of several books about the creative process – but he focused on his latest, Chasing the Monster Idea, which explored the difference between good ideas and great ideas, and how to deploy the great ones. Several in the group plan to book Stefan to speak in their own markets.  Finally, we ended our time together by a work showcase – where each company got 10 minutes to show their best work.  It’s always my favorite part.

Thanks to the eCampers for a great weekend.  And those of you who couldn’t make it this time, we missed you.  Next time – in Columbus, Ohio.  See you all there!

The T2 crew was proud to host our second successful installation here at Hex – Hollow – on the first Friday of this month. Take a look…

You may be curious as to why we opened up our doors as a gallery. First of all, we love the Kansas City artist community, and as a creative enterprise we want to foster and encourage art appreciation in our city. We think First Fridays are a great way to celebrate creativity in this town, and are thrilled to participate.

But on a deeper level – we want to create a platform for digital media. Obviously, it’s the medium we love. Whether it’s short films, interactive design or animation, we are crazy about digital design. And so we want to provide an outlet for it.

Garrett Fuselier, our interactive designer who helped launch the gallery, has this to say:

“We are giving a voice to a time-based medium – a space for work that is not static. By doing this, we can change the experience of how people view digital work. We’re taking it offline and bringing it into a physical space.”

Beyond changing the viewing experience, we also hope to celebrate digital artists everywhere, giving attention to work that deserves to be recognized. Since our grand opening in September, we have showcased two motion-based pieces with video and animation. The first show, Diaporamas, featured artist Sara Ludy. Hollow featured two artists, Max Hattler and Kiron Hussain.

In the coming months, we hope to showcase local, national, and perhaps even international talent in this arena. For this next show we plan on showcasing interactivity so that pieces can react to their audience instead of people just reacting to the pieces. You won’t want to miss it.

Be sure to stop by Hex on November 4! We’d love to see you at our next exhibit.

P.S. Do you have any digital artists/work that you love? Are you a digital artist yourself and would like to show your work at the Hex Gallery? Leave us a note in the comments. We want to bring you work that speaks to you!

This year, there are a few opportunities to get your film geek on at Fringe—a couple individual projects will be airing throughout the week, and larger organizations will feature multiple film showings.

The Art Institutes International of Kansas City is showcasing several short films created by students in the Digital Filmmaking & Video Production program. The photography, film, and mixed media pieces will be screened daily at The Wine Gallery (1911 McGee), absolutely free (with your Fringe Festival button of course) for the rest of the Festival—go see what these budding filmmakers are creating!

And the Independent Filmmaker’s Coalition of Kansas City has three more night showings of its own “Best of IFC Short Films,” featuring the best films produced by members in the past several years. At least twenty different IFC members will be showing their films, so you’re bound to get an eclectic, exciting variety throughout the evening. The films are showing Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evening at Fringe Central (1730 Broadway), and admission is $10 with your Fringe button.

So get your artsy on and check out these film screenings! We at t2 love supporting local filmmakers and artists of all kinds, so go on, check out all there is to offer this week at the Fringe website. And if you’re truly inspired by what you see, attend the weekly IFC meeting at the Westport Coffee House, every Wednesday at 7:30 pm. Maybe you’ll see your own name up on the screen next year!

In real terms, it is a system to apply realistic movement and physical attributes in animation.

According to Motion Boutique’s website, “Newton interprets each 2D layer as a rigid body in a real environment. Once simulation is completed, animation is recreated in After Effects with standard keyframes.”

Motion Boutique released a video with demos to give onlookers a quick glance of what Newton can do. It mostly shows some text effects and flying beads, but nonetheless, it’s unique and happening in After Effects.

There has been no word so far on how much Newton will cost or when it will be released, but by subscribing to Motion Boutique’s newsletter, you can stay informed on pricing and release dates.

We here at T2 + Back Alley Films see Newton as a big game-changer in the graphics world.

And believe it or not, they are all excited to come to Kansas City next September when T2+Back Alley Films will host the group. Boston, San Francisco…Kansas City? Why not?

In our book, infographics are not only cool, but a great design strategy. Clients and prospective clients can often process information easier when it’s presented to them visually, in addition to or in place of text.

While this infographic touches on a topic that may not seem all that important, it doesn’t take long to dig down and see that lack of sleep is a big deal – and contributing to lots of … well you get the rest.

As a designer, if you can create a killer visualization, you are definitely showing that you have some serious skill.

But don’t forget designing infographics is an art - and in order to do it well, be sure you’re getting enough sleep.

This was the first time that Pepsi and Doritos partnered for an event and Crash the Super Bowl was a huge success. Not only did the contest garner a record number of fan submissions, it also generated an unprecedented number of consumer votes. Just goes to show the power of the consumer and how the creative landscape has changed. Not only do consumers want to watch great spots, they want to be a part of the process of not only creating them, but also selecting the winners.

Brad Bosley, a 28 year-old Leawood, Kansas native is the creative talent behind Pepsi MAX’s “Love Hurts” Super Bowl spot. He wrote and directed the spot for about $800 and took home 5th place in the competition. That was no small feat, considering there were more than 5,600 entrants, representing the most ever in a single year of competition.

The winning ads (in alphabetical order) were:

• “First Date” (Pepsi MAX) by Nick Simotas
• “House Sitting” (Doritos) by Tynesha Williams
• “Love Hurts” (Pepsi MAX) by Brad Bosley
• “Pug Attack” (Doritos) by JR Burningham
• “The Best Part” (Doritos) by Tyler Dixon
• “Torpedo Cooler” (Pepsi MAX) by Brendan Hayward

It’s also no small feat that out of the top 5 most popular ads identified by USA Today’s AdMeter, that two were spots created by consumers.

It was great to hear Brad interviewed on KCTV5 this morning and share that the inspiration for his spot was his grandparents. He said that his grandmother had always been somewhat aggressive with his grandfather, and known to kick him under the table if he tried to eat something that wasn’t good for him. I’d say Brad figured out a great way to not only honor and memorialize his grandparents, but to make one heck of an impression in front of millions of viewers the world over.

Here are the ads ranked in the Top 10 by USA Today’s AdMeter and the full list is available here.

Heller’s piece explored the 1954 George Cukor film “It Should Happen to You” starring Judy Holliday and Jack Lemmon. The film’s main character was Gladys Glover (played by Holliday). Much like the Kim Kardashians and Paris Hiltons and Perez Hiltons of today, Gladys was a nobody who wanted to be somebody. And she was determined to get it, come hell or high water. And, the fact that she was loaded and not afraid to spend money didn’t hurt her in her quest for fame.

To accomplish her goal of ‘being somebody’ Gladys rented an empty billboard in NYC’s Times Square. A manufacturing company who wanted the space was surprised when she turned out to be a tough negotiator. Six billboards later – billboards bearing nothing but her name – Gladys had what she wanted. Attention. And just like the ‘somebodys’ of today, she milked it for all it was worth.

Heller calls it the beginning of the ‘me’ generation. That may well be the case. But I think it’s also a pretty good example of the old adage: Advertising works. It can even make a nobody a somebody. And it never ceases to amaze me how many businesses forget this simple adage. Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they will come. Advertising – of some form or another, is just about always an important component of any successful strategy.

In case you can’t remember all these experiential design beauties and others (that happens this time of year), the campaigns identified by Creativity Magazine as the cream of the crop featured this great body of work:

The Old Spice campaign, which was not only brilliant, but relied on consumer generated video and social media to hit it out of the park–interactive experiential design at it’s most basic level;

The Pepsi Refresh campaign, which again relied on social to support its cause-focused effort;

Domino’s Pizza, which relied on consumer input and social media channels to help improve its brand and turn the corner following a disastrous event;

Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco and their tremendous online effort that included leveraging Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, web craziness and some traditional advertising to focus eyeballs on the star’s return to TV on a different station.

Space Chimp, the World Wildlife Fund Australia’s compelling environmental message , produced in collaboration with musician Ben Lee;

Nike’s experiential design campaign for the World Cup, which included user-generated content integrated into the digital outdoor production, interactive film and a healthy dose of social media to spur awareness and participation;

Jay-Z’s promotion of his new book, “Decoded,” that was again an interactive, experiential design piece, literally bringing the book to life for fans in a myriad of different locations. This campaign produced by Droga5, also included an online element sponsored by Bing, that allowed fans who couldn’t physically participate in the outdoor extravaganzas the chance to do so online.

Mitsubishi’s virtual test drive harnessed technology for their Live Drive, the first of its kind by an automaker, and an obvious nod to the experiential design decade we have entered;

Dare Labs’ Remote Palette is nothing short of brilliant in the realm of app development and its popularity was spurred along by web video and social channels.

And finally, the release of Arcade Fire’s Wilderness Downtown campaign was an example of collaborative genius that combined music video production for the band’s “We Used to Wait” song, with Google Earth and created a musical experiential design piece.

The interesting thing about all of these campaigns is that they typify the massive changes in the world of advertising that are leaning so heavily in the direction of experiential design. Notice how many include consumer-generated content and/or provide an opportunity for interactivity with consumers? And how many rely on a variety of social channels to help spread awareness. And how experiential design is being tapped again and again to allow consumers to be a part of a campaign, not just passively watch from the sidelines?

As a digital media and creative services agency, the success of these campaigns is nothing less than pure delight for us. It confirms that we made the right move in expanding our brand beyond production and post-production into the fresh (and fun) new area of experiential design. This kind of substantive transformation has not been easy these past few years – new jobs and new people replacing the old model – lots of change can be stressful for sure. So it’s nice to end the year with news like this that lets us know that we are in a good position as we start 2011. Here’s wishing all of us in this battered industry a prosperous new year!