Is the 3D animation trend floundering? The stampede to make more 3D entertainment began after James Cameron’s Avatar brought in $2.7 billion. After Avatar, 3D animation was seen as a breakthrough in technology and a road to higher profits for the big screen.

Gizmodo had an interesting article recently, asking the question is 3D already dying?.

Since the high-water mark of Avatar, where 71% of the revenue came from 3D screenings, numbers for big-budget 3D movies have plummeted to less than 50%.

My take on 3D? If the technology of 3D animation adds to the story and adds to the experience of the movie, I’m all for it. But technology for the sake of technology will never work.

We are storytellers and the tools we use to spin our tales are important but never more important than the story.

Before using 3D animation, producers need to ask themselves if it adds to the movie-going experience. Otherwise, it’s a distraction.

Gasland was directed by Josh Fox and it was the Winner of the Special Jury Prize – Best US Documentary Feature at Sundance in 2010 and it also screened recently at Cannes. Fracking is not only happening all across rural areas in America, it’s spreading to Europe and Africa, too.  Property owners are tempted by very lucrative offers from big energy companies and, given today’s economy, it’s not surprising that some opt to take the money and run.

I think this is a huge deal – and I agree with Josh that this is a situation that deserves a big spotlight aimed right at it – and this documentary definitely does that. If the trailer intrigued you at all, and you want to do more, visit the Gasland website. Request a screening in your city. Make a donation. If we all just did a little, we could make a huge impact.

And that, my friends, is why I LOVE documentaries. I love watching them. I love making them. I love their inherent power to make a difference.

Not unlike most businesses, ours has undergone many changes over the course of the past several years. And our strategy has guided it at times and tried to keep up with those changes the rest of the time. This post was inspired by David Bowie a veritable master of change. Listen to the song while you read this post and you’ll see why I was inspired.

Take Two used to be known mostly in the Kansas City market for our post-production work. In order to keep up with a changing industry, we created Back Alley Films to do original film production and motion graphics design. We then created our Integrated Experience Lab to focus on emerging digital and multi-platform work: things like augmented reality, interactive design and experiential design. We’re now known as T2 + Back Alley Films and, while our client base still includes Kansas City based companies, it has expanded to include clients all over the world.

Change has been a great opportunity for us to reinvigorate our business, reinvigorate our staff and completely reexamine our business model. As a result, it has literally changed the way we do everything.

These days, from the very first moments of working with a new or prospective client, the people that we bring to the table is an eclectic group — and a strategically formed one. No longer do we rely on our new business development team — or our producers — to do all the work, instead, we bring the talent to the table. We combine the strategic and the creative thinkers – for a new age of strategic/creative thinking. That means our team, our creatives, our brand experts, our interactive and experiential design teams, our mobile technology team and our social media strategists are part of just about every project or idea, from its earliest inception.

The reality of our business – and any business, really – is that change IS the reality. And in this case, we’re finding that change is making us better at what what we do. It’s creative services — but it’s broader than what it used to be. I bet it’s happening everywhere. What about you? How are you changing the scope of the way you do business? Our generation will be defined by this. Let’s talk about it — and learn from each other.

The Kansas City Film Festival 2010 opened last week – and from the looks of the films screened and the workshops and panels offered, it has clearly come of age. This is thanks in large part to the passion of Fred Andrews. When I think about Fred — and Jerry and Tony and Patrick and Joe and all the other filmmakers I’ve known, that one word – passion – is the defining personality trait. There is no other way to make a film other than being passionate about your subject matter or passionate about making films in general.

I’m lucky enough to be in a profession that meets up with these filmmakers from time to time, usually when they are looking for funding, or equipment or color correction or special effects work or distribution help. And that’s because we have built a production infrastructure that’s all about storytelling. But it’s the kind of work that we get paid to do – by clients, brands and ad agencies. We often do television commercials and digital content for the Internet, as well as image and sales films – but we recently had the chance to move closer to the other side of storytelling – the documentary side. And what an amazing experience that was!

We teamed up with Inland Sea Productions and shot and edited a documentary about the downtown revitalization that has been going on all across America for the last decade. We used Kansas City as the Petri dish for the subject and started filming when the demolition of Kansas City’s empty and lifeless urban core began. The project was extensive. We shot for four years as the city was slowly rebuilding, with the Sprint Center, the Cordish Power & Light District, and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts leading the way. We brought in national experts who talked about why we, as a society, routinely began deserting our downtowns in the 1950s – and why we are focused on bringing them back to life now. It was a documentary for sure – an educational exploration on urban planning and American lifestyles.

Next American Dream differed from another Kansas City based documentary, Cowtown Ballroom – Sweet Jesus , a wonderful film made by two friends, Anthony Ladesich and Joe Heyen – in one important way. Their film was borne of their passion for music and funded by them completely. The concept for our film was borne as a business venture funded by Kansas City companies and individuals who had a vested interest in showcasing Kansas City in a nationally seen documentary. As such, the funding for the Next American Dream was an investment, a marketing investment, in the Kansas City downtown, fueled by a desire for future growth and development opportunities. And in this regard, we were more fortunate than many filmmakers, as our passion was funded from the onset.

The Kansas City Star recently featured an article about the film, which is now being aired on 108 PBS stations nationwide. This result has been far and away greater than what was originally expected and the funders of the film are thrilled by the exposure. The film is slated to be shown in September at the International Economic Development Council meeting in Columbus, Ohio, and in October at the International Downtown Association meeting in Fort Worth, Texas, which will provide even greater exposure for Kansas City than originally expected.

For us – the filmmakers, having that funding was very much a blessing, since the reality is that most documentaries – most independent films have no funding, except that which comes from the pockets and talents of the filmmakers. But, having the funding created challenges of its own – like juggling the journalistic integrity of the film with the desires of those funding it – like balancing enough national content to make it interesting to the proposed national audience, while also including enough Kansas City references to satisfy the funders. It was, most definitely, a learning experience for all of us – and one we’re very fortunate to have had.

Maybe it’s more of a romantic notion to have no funding and make your own film – with no pesky investors or studios inserting their own interests – and screwing up your vision. But I am convinced our production was filled with passion as well. Passion coupled with the learning experience of juggling satisfying financial backers and still producing a documentary that is being watched and reviewed nationally. It was a wonderful learning experience and, we hope, a great piece of work. Did you see Next American Dream? If so, we would love to know your thoughts.

All of us at T2 are very proud of the work on this reel and, hopefully, it will inspire you as it does us. Next up, stay tuned for the Visual Effects reel.

2010 MOTION DESIGN REEL from T2 + Back Alley Films on Vimeo.

This reel was a combination of great stuff that we were fortunate enough to work on during the course of the last year. It included work for Integrated Marketing Summit, Kansas City Area Development Council; VML/Wunderman for Microsoft; Giant Bob; Bernstein Rein for Time Warner; VML for Copia; KCADC for Animal Health Corridor; Reflector Agency for MGM; Trozzolo Advertising for “Don’t Be Jim” PSA; KCADC for “This American Dream”; Mueller Bressler Brown for Children’s Hospitals of Illinois; Skar Advertising for TDAmeritrade; Back Alley Films; Mueller Bressler Brown for Illinois Neurological Institute; Kansas City Art Institute; Mueller Bressler Brown for OSF St. Francis, Athletix Nation, Jump Co Advertising for Talledegah Richmond International Raceway, Kansas Speedway and Miami Homestead Racing; Relativity Media for Rogue Pictures. We appreciate the opportunity to involved with all of these incredible projects and it is our honor to share them with you.

Music credit: Prodigy – The Way it is

Anyhoo, that was the idea behind this post’s background.
I wanted to create something with a warm feel to it.
As always, your comments are appreciated.

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Equally as exciting as the creation of the video, is the fact that Microsoft and X-Box teamed up with Stand Up to Cancer and agreed to sponsor a media campaign to help spread this message. They agreed to donate content space on Xbox LIVE games for the month of February 2010, in attempt to engage their LIVE community in the fight against cancer. The month is drawing to a close, and it will be interesting to learn, from a statistical standpoint, how effective this campaign was. It’s hard to imagine that other viewers weren’t as captivated – and as compelled to grab their credit cards and donate – as I was.

The message is clear – It’s up to you, and me, and every single one of us under the sun to stand up to cancer. No matter who we are, no matter what we do, no matter what our life circumstances. If we stand up to it, together, we can make a difference.

Accelerate. Collaborate. Give. That’s their message. Love it! Watch the video for yourself and let us know what you think.

Bernstein, Barkley and VML clearly dominated in the sheer number of awards they each received. And it was great that not just one of them dominated — but that they all fared well. I was happy for each of them for different reasons. Clearly, BR has had its challenges this past year, so I was particularly happy to see them win Best of Show this year. And it was heartwarming to see Matt Anthony at VML win Advertising Professional of the Year – and, though health challenges prevented him from accepting, Jon Cook’s report on his improving condition brought the entire room to their feet.

And, though it may be a bit self serving, I loved it that SHS won Best of Broadcast for a public service spot created for an on-line campaign for Water.org. The L’Desh Fresh campaign was created and written by SHS — and then directed and edited by T2_Back Alley artist,  Pete Meyer. Pete is the absolute epitome of the commitment we have at T2 and Back Alley of joining forces by bringing together a broad spectrum of creative talent –and merging the production and post production processes.

Also exciting was the fact that there were many non-agency winners for what might have been the first time ever this year. Lots of photography, design, animation and music houses made the evening, garnering some terrific awards. Talented folks like rw/2, Berg, Willoughby and Bazillion. And we were thrilled to join those ranks and win some awards that don’t traditionally go to non-agencies as well. It’s most notable that all these small shops were not only winning awards, but many of the awards typified a new trend of companies working and collaborating together on projects.

rw/2 took home an amazing number of Addys for House of Fly 53 and MADD — both integrated campaigns that spanned print, motion for broadcast and online platforms. House of Fly 53 included an interactive short film that they produced with Back Alley Films, edited with T2, and produced the music/sound mix through Bazillion.

MADD included both a broadcast and online spot produced by Back Alley, edited by T2 and scored by Bazillion. As internationally acclaimed still photographers, the Wade Bros. have crossed over to “motion” and joined the other multi-talented artists on the Back Alley roster. It’s a roster of directors, designers, photographers, writers, editors, documentary film makers and viral content pros — all who speak to a new age of advertising that includes integrated and viral campaigns on multiple platforms.

This year’s Addys might well speak loudest of all to changing roles, changing structures and a tighter connection between talent and technology — in an industry that is clearly changing. And, speaking of talent, I looked across the T2-Back Alley tables last night — at Carson and Cody and Michael and Garrett and Claudia — and Pete and Tyler and Nicole and Nick and all the rest of the team — and I realized that I felt hopeful again. And it’s certainly a welcome feeling.

I was certainly proud of the 7 Addy cubes we carried out last night – and the 6 more that were entered by other agency and non-agency partners . . . but what really made me most proud was this group of amazingly talented, diverse and passionate people. And though these people no doubt gathered last night to celebrate their work, they also gathered to celebrate each other and revel in notion that we all are motivated — on a daily basis — by our innate desire to create. Maybe that was what everyone else in the room was feeling too.

In talking to our writers about how they would write about us to optimize for search engines – we had to take a hard look at who we are – or maybe in our case, just who we had become over this past turbulent year. We also had to remind ourselves to quit talking about us – and start thinking about the benefit we provide to our customers. What makes us relevant to them. What’s the value add? It’s the lecture we give all of our customers. Stop talking about you – and talk about how you matter to them. Now we had to drink our own Kool-Aid – and it wasn’t all that sweet.

So, we started the process by rambling about what we do – and what makes us stand out from others who do what we do. For instance, we said, T2 is a post production company that has unusual talent and emphasis in visual design and story-telling. Our guys are masters at mixing live action with design and animation – and re-purposing that content to achieve multiple exposure on multiple media platforms. Oh yeah, and T2 started a new Experience Lab – which is all about creating an experience, which purposefully, we have designed to  live on through word of mouth marketing.

Then we tried to define our other division, Back Alley Films. We said it was formed for the live action part referenced above. We wanted to be able to do the whole thing from concept to finish – because that gives us more control over the creative product so we know it will be effective – and it saves time and money. But it’s also true that Back Alley has grown beyond just that – into this ragtag team of multi-talented artists that are writers and directors and musicians and documentarians and photographers and viral message experts.

Bottom line, the message we ultimately charged our writers with communicating, was that when the BAF artists team up with the T2 designers and editors, we have a creative powerhouse of talent and expertise in storytelling – mixed with a broad knowledge of how to go to market – with traditional media, on-line media, experiential and viral platforms.

So, what does all that mean to our customers, they asked? The all important question.

It all boils down to this, we said. Video content can show up anywhere today – on any platform – television, on-line, mobile devices, billboards, buses – you name it. But “effective” video content and successful media distribution is what matters to our customers. They don’t care about the “art” of what we do — or how many “awards” we have won. We care about that.

They care about whether we can do what we do successfully, and save them time and money along the way. They care about how much we know about marketing in today’s complex media environment. It matters to them that we have the creativity and talent to produce an engaging message – but they also care about whether we know how to drive people to it – and then compel them to pass it on. Everyone cares about viral marketing these days. It’s fast and its cheap – but its not that easy to achieve. So, our customers want to know that we know that we have had success in creating viral campaigns.

So, if video content is king in 2010 – is marketing and distribution knowledge the value add? Is it really that simple? Does seeing our work matter at all – or is it really the case studies of the work that are relevant to the customer? The debate goes on. Weigh in.

– Michael Ong

Footnote: Lately, there has been much discussions about how to improve T2 and Back Alley Films’ ranking in search engine results. It seems like there’s a list of cardinal rules one should not break, if one wishes to enter the pearly gates of Google or Bing. And unlike the Ten Commandments which were engraved eternally onto a couple of stone tablets, the search engines algorithm changes constantly, making it even more difficult to be pious. Since T2 and Back Alley Films are in the production and post production business, we are a visual design and storytelling company. It only makes sense for us to go with a very visual rich and dynamic site, to showcase our commercial productions, motion graphics and experiential design works. And naturally chose to design our site in Flash.

Anyone who was geeky enough to watch the streaming keynote of Steve Jobs unveiling Apple’s much hyped iPad, probably heard the almost audible cyber-gasps when the “missing plugin icon” appeared on the NYTimes.com page — a sure sign of NO to Flash.

I dug a little deeper and found out that apparently Google and Apple engineers are both working on standardizing HTML5, which is supposedly the new and improved programming language that reduces the need for proprietary plugin-based rich internet applications. Of course, Adobe (the developer of Flash) is the biggest opponent to it. In this case, will Google’s little eight-legged freak, Googlebot, ever make an extra effort to be friendlier to Flash sites?

All the geek talk aside, T2 has a beautifully designed and dynamic site, which won us the very prestigious FWA Site-of-the -Day title (September 17, 2009), but our all-Flash site is not at all arachno-friendly. Does the importance of SEO force many sites to sacrifice the design and dynamic impact of the ones built in Flash? How do we balance between maintaining the dynamic visual impact, which is the core of our business, and achieving higher ranking?