Random Culture

Documentary: 8 Bit

8 Bit is an interesting new documentary about video games and their influence on art, music and more. Check out the trailer below:

Documentary: 8 Bit

8 Bit is an interesting new documentary about video games and their influence on art, music and more. Check out the trailer below:

"The Fountain" Experience

Warner Brothers has launched an "experience" website for Darren Aaronofsky's new movie, The Fountain. It's definitely not your average website experience, reminiscent of the Donnie Darko and Requiem for a Dream sites. Definitely worth checking out, if you have some time to surf around and figure out what to click on. No word on who created the site.

"The Fountain" Experience

Warner Brothers has launched an "experience" website for Darren Aaronofsky's new movie, The Fountain. It's definitely not your average website experience, reminiscent of the Donnie Darko and Requiem for a Dream sites. Definitely worth checking out, if you have some time to surf around and figure out what to click on. No word on who created the site.

M&M'S + Hieronymus Bosch

Mars has created an advergame to promote dark chocolate M&M'S. Keeping in line with the "dark" theme, the Dark M&M'S Movie Challenge puts users on a mission to guess the titles of "dark movies" as illustrated in a Hieronymus Bosch-like "dark" painting.

Link via Three Minds @ Organic.

M&M'S + Hieronymus Bosch

Mars has created an advergame to promote dark chocolate M&M'S. Keeping in line with the "dark" theme, the Dark M&M'S Movie Challenge puts users on a mission to guess the titles of "dark movies" as illustrated in a Hieronymus Bosch-like "dark" painting.

Link via Three Minds @ Organic.

NYC Film Location Mashup

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the New York City Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, iDeutsch created an interactive Yahoo! Map mashup that allows visitors to see where scenes from their favorite movies and television shows were shot in New York.

NYC Film Location Mashup

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the New York City Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, iDeutsch created an interactive Yahoo! Map mashup that allows visitors to see where scenes from their favorite movies and television shows were shot in New York.

iTunes Has Movies!

The iTunes Music Store has updated, and is now selling movies. If you remember my post at the end of August, Business Week speculated that Apple would be charging $14.99 per movie, an increase from the original $9.99 that Steve Jobs wanted to charge. Well, it looks like there was an even compromise, and new releases are selling for $12.99. Older movies are selling for $9.99. At least, that's how I think it works, although I wouldn't say "The Life Aquatic" is a new release, and it's selling for $12.99.

I've got kind of a lukewarm reaction to this. It's still not attractive for me to get a small discount on new releases, since many new releases can be bought for $19.99. But it will be interesting to see what happens with the older releases. The Long Tail in action, baby!

The weirdest thing in all of this, I think, is how Apple has branded the store. First it was the iTunes Music Store... now it's called the iTunes Store. They dropped the music, but they haven't dropped the "Tunes." Anyone think we may see iStore or iDownload any time soon?

Update: Engadget has some great info around this subject from the Steve Jobs keynote. A couple interesting facts from that presentation:

• iTunes has a market share of 88% for legal US downloads

iTunes is the 5th largest reseller of music in the US, behind Amazon, projected to surpass Amazon in January

45 million TV shows have been downloaded from iTunes since last October

Resolution of video has increased to 640x480.

iTunes Has Movies!

The iTunes Music Store has updated, and is now selling movies. If you remember my post at the end of August, Business Week speculated that Apple would be charging $14.99 per movie, an increase from the original $9.99 that Steve Jobs wanted to charge. Well, it looks like there was an even compromise, and new releases are selling for $12.99. Older movies are selling for $9.99. At least, that's how I think it works, although I wouldn't say "The Life Aquatic" is a new release, and it's selling for $12.99.

I've got kind of a lukewarm reaction to this. It's still not attractive for me to get a small discount on new releases, since many new releases can be bought for $19.99. But it will be interesting to see what happens with the older releases. The Long Tail in action, baby!

The weirdest thing in all of this, I think, is how Apple has branded the store. First it was the iTunes Music Store... now it's called the iTunes Store. They dropped the music, but they haven't dropped the "Tunes." Anyone think we may see iStore or iDownload any time soon?

Update: Engadget has some great info around this subject from the Steve Jobs keynote. A couple interesting facts from that presentation:

• iTunes has a market share of 88% for legal US downloads
• iTunes is the 5th largest reseller of music in the US, behind Amazon, projected to surpass Amazon in January
• 45 million TV shows have been downloaded from iTunes since last October
• Resolution of video has increased to 640x480.