Brand Made Stories: Ta-da! A video story!

Yoav Tourel

7 years ago

Hi all,

Hope you’ve been well.

Welcome to Brand Made Stories (formerly known as Friday Thing/k) – a brand storytelling canvas where I’d like to share with you smart, creative, inspiring, engaging, cool, and innovative brand stories that take my marketing breath away once a week.

I often write about my love for audio / visual storytelling, especially in relation to the cinema. It always feels to me like some kind of magic, putting me under its ‘engagement spell.’

Well, recently I came across a book that proved the realness of that sensation.

The book, entitled “Disappearing Tricks: Silent Film, Houdini and the New Magic of the Twentieth Century,” and written by Matthew Solomon, revisits the golden age of theatrical magic and silent film, revealing how professional magicians shaped the early history of cinema.

It covers everything from the cut, dissolve, change of camera position, and fact that the movement itself is based on illusion. A projection of 24 still images per second, through the likes of Georges Méliès and Houdini, used the camera to create illusions sans today’s most advanced technologies. Basically, all tricks that power the ‘ta-da’ moments in audio-visuals stories.

This year at Cannes Lions, such a magic and ‘illusion’ was awarded.

In fact, a creative technology company, The Mill, picked up the Cannes Lions Gold Innovation award for The Mill BLACKBIRD technology. The Blackbird is the first fully adjustable rig that produces photorealistic CG (computer-generated) cars – which can be shot at any time, in any location, without the need to rely on a physical car.

Simply put, their team magically shot a film, telling an entire story about a car, and demonstrated its capabilities without the actual car. Now that’s a “ta-da!”

When technology makes the story… check it out: