There has been a lot of talk on the Media Wars in Gaza between the Palestinians and Israel. Both sides have kept a careful lip on what gets transmitted out to the public. Below I’ve tried to give a snapshot of the “media war” and how Israel and Palestinians go about controlling their message to the world.
Israel claims that opening their borders for journalist would put those in the terminals in danger. The government has long banned Israeli journalist from entering Gaza because of the concerns for their safety. However they had allowed foreign reporters to enter. Thus without access, the media has no reliable source or information.
Can you believe the picture above is made with small tiny tea candles? Amazing.
A company called Electrabel, a Belgium based energy company created this TV spot to wish a Happy New Year to their customers. The light show effects are done using small tea candles transforming an underground car park the attic area of one of the production company’s (CZAR) office locations, into a night sky full of cityscapes, fireworks, stars and other beautiful images.
This video was done in Famous, Brussels by creative director Christophe Ghewy, art director Nicholas France, agency producer Lander Engels, copywriter Oliver Roland and shot by Director Raf Wathion with producer Fred Vranchken and executive producer Ruben Goots.
The video utilizes 288,000 Candles and 1,600 Photos.
See the Videos below!
Data on online video usage by ComScore continues to show YouTube dominating the video category with over 125 million monthly viewers resulting in about 1 billion views per day.
However, two well known players, Hulu and Facebook has grown significantly month to month. Overall online video was up 7% from Sept to October with nearly 28 billion videos viewed. YouTube is responsible for about a third of those views. Hulu had jumped from 583 million views in September to 855 million views in October for a 32% growth. Hulu is a joint venture by News Corp, NBC, and Disney to provide advertisement supported TV shows and movies. Facebook also showed strong gains with 25% more unique visitors bringing their visitor count to 41 million a month.
How many YouTube videos do you “think” you watch per month?
Where is the Coverage?
One social issue that doesn’t get as much coverage as it should is the sex trafficking that occurs all around the world. The sex traffic business continues to loom large yet the atrocities involved never quite see the day light. Somehow someway the industries manages to keep it hush hush.
Sex trafficking revenue of people is estimated to be between $5 billion to $9 billion dollars. Often it is misunderstood as something people do voluntarily due to money or debt issues when in actuality many girls are abducted and kidnapped from an early age and forced into prostitution by force and torture. Up to 50% are minors. Sex trafficking occurs not just in notorious countries like Cambodia, Japan, Russia and Eastern Europe but here at home in the United States.
One recent “opinions” article that speaks of the issue and is highlighted below. (Why it an opinion article? Shouldn’t this be headline world news!?)
Happy New Year!
Whether you are a regular visitor or landed on this blog for the first time, we are glad you are here as we transition into 2009! December saw records high and the launch of the Viewpoint Series. Don’t forget to bookmark this page and come back!
Month after Month – Clean Cut Traffic
Despite the holiday season where vacations and traveling leads to a drop in overall traffic volume, Clean Cut Media continues to buck the trends and break all kinds of records. A strong start of the month helped balance out the slow holiday season.
Dec Growth: Up 27% from Nov Dec Pageviews: Pageviews came to about 2,200, meaning the traffic more than doubled since October.
Past Week Top Post:Movie Review: Seven Pounds – Will Smith
This post is more than just a review, but a discussion about a very important moral topic. Can’t note the topic here because it would be a spoiler! Visit the link to read about it!
Fun Clean Cut Media Information & Statistics Below
Starring: Will Smith, Woody Harrison, Rosario Dawson Director: Gabriele Muccino (Pursuit of Happiness) Length: 2hr 3Min Released: December 19, 2008 Rated: PG-13
“If you are like most you will have one of two reactions, either leaving with your face covered with tears, or shaking your head.”
Seven Pounds stars Will Smith as IRS agent Ben Thomas. It’s a movie that is mysterious throughout keeping the viewer slightly out of the loop wondering what is going on. It is an emotional journey intended to slowly reveal the plot through subtle hints. Seven Pounds is a very slow paced film, only bearable because of Will Smith’s acting prowess. It is pretty clear that Ben, played by Will Smith, is more than he seems as he actively seeks to carefully analyze then help each person he meets.
The story unfolds as Ben makes visits to various people with different needs. Flashing his IRS badge he asks them both financial related questions as well as personal ones. He seems to be searching for something. As he is helping one of these strangers, the guy asks Ben “Why Me?” and Ben says “Because you’re a good person, even when you think no one is looking.” So he seems to be searching for “good people” to help. Why? It is very clear that Ben has a lot of emotional baggage as Seven Pounds is glittered with flashbacks which at first seem to be in the present. He is held captive by some sort of guilt or sad memory.
Overall the movie was well made, but as the quote above says (taken by a comment by user reviewer), you are either going to leave the theater crying or shaking your head. I happen to be the latter, despite the fact I am known to be very “emotional” when it comes to emphasizing with characters. Mainly because very early on in the movie it became crystal clear what the ending was going to be. It came too fast and too early. But then again I am the analyzer type that figures out plots pretty quickly to begin with. But what made me shake my head was not the plot, but the controversy that is the ending… it is definitely worth discussing from many different levels, especially from a moral standpoint.
Let me be clear. I am no expert in Politics. I just post articles that has to do with how media molds our perception, which unfortunately has a lot to do with politics and social issues. Below I’ve added excerpts from an article in regards our national financial problems and who is to blame. This article abhors the “fact” that liberal media continues to help build on the perception that congress is working hard to paint. That our financial crisis is all due to greedy CEOs and irresponsible spending, keeping our focus away from the fact that lot of the problems stem from government laws and programs that Congress enacted not too long ago.
Do I agree with it? Don’t ask me, I just want to promote logical thinking and allow people to make sound judgments beyond just believing and soaking in everything they see and hear in media. I do think the article is very one sided and borderlines on being a rant, but that makes the article somewhat interesting to read.
If you have some counter arguments or a link to article that supports or goes against this matter, feel free to leave a comment.
Below are some excerpts regarding Proposition 8: The Musical, written by “Hairspray” composer Marc Shaiman. Already viewed by over 2 million people online. Many people might think this piece is funny or a great “social issue” piece. But what often gets overlooked is how much these kind of videos distort the truth and are extremely intolerant.
Some will look at it and say “of course I know it’s bias” and just laugh it off, but media has such a powerful effect on the way we think and how we view things that enough exposure to such material can mold our perceptions. You can have parents who urge you to keep yourself pure, but as you watch more and more TV shows where sleeping around seems to exciting, fun and without consequences, when the time comes it is much easier to go with it. The old “everyone else is doing it” played out in real life. When you live in simple suburbia but watch movies of gangsters and mafia characters defend their egos and pride by oppressing others or physically getting in the face of others, what does that do to your perception of what is manly and right when your dignity is on the line.
The Bible is one of the oldest and best selling books in human history. What people may not know is that it is a book full of historically reliable and verified information utilized by archaeologist and historians around the world. But of course the Bible is most well known for being the the Word of Christianity, full of past events that covers everything from man’s purpose, the state of humanity, God’s interaction with men, and the gospels covering the life of Jesus.
However the Bible is quite a big book, and those who are not familiar with it may feel it is too daunting to try to read through it all. “Bible Illuminated: The Book” is the latest attempt to bring the Bible into a more contemporary and modern build.
Apple’s newest ad for their ipod games was a little different, in a good way. Their agency, TBWA/Media Arts Lab, created an ad on Yahoo where the actions of the Iphone impacts all the different elements on the Yahoo page.
What happens when you take the a great TV Commercial idea and add athletes? A wonderful TV Commercial with, you guessed it, athletes. Companies take great care to only use the most clean cut of athletes to promote their brand.
Mastercard “Priceless” Commercial: Peyton Manning
Below is one such example of using Peyton Manning, the quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts, in one of the most creative campaigns in TV history – the priceless Mastercard series. Following that is two very well made TV series by the NBA.
Viewpoint Series
Readers of this blog are familiar with the “Creativity” posts that show interesting (and clean) videos, advertisements, prints and the like. I will also be starting the “Viewpoint” set, which will post good articles that show a completely different perspective than what culture would tell us to be the norm or even to be right. Many of the articles in Clean Cut Media discuss how media shapes and impacts our culture and our worldview. In relation to that goal, I believe reading posts that discuss different viewpoints will help broaden our perspective and give us a way to step back and evaluate our culturally defined norms more objectively. Whether you agree or disagree with the viewpoints is up to you.
Viewpoint: Women & Modesty
Article below is a response to a question by a Christian man who wants to discuss with his girlfriend about how the way she dresses is actually making him have lustful thoughts. In our generally promiscuous, show all, sex driven type of culture, the perspective you see below in the response, will jump out immediately as something different, if not radical. Christianity is a very others driven, centered around loving God and loving people and you see that in the way they heavily consider the impact of dressing immodest and it’s impact on men. Article is below. Enjoy!
Data on online video usage by ComScore continues to show YouTube dominating the video category with over 125 million monthly viewers resulting in about 1 billion views per day.
