1. Microsoft Gets a Guy Named Mac Book
It’s no secret that Apple and Microsoft have a storied history of duking it out on TV, often cleverly sniping at each other in a series of iconic Mac vs. PC ads. But Microsoft takes their rivalry one step further in their new marketing campaign for the Surface Laptop 2—it apparently found a guy named Mackenzie Book (Mac Book, get it?) to testify that the Surface Laptop 2 is a better buy than a MacBook.
Imagine the audacity of combing the world for a single actor with the right name, just so you can arrive at the punchline “Mac Book says get a Surface Laptop” without an army of lawyers breathing down your throat!
Check out the ad below:
(Source: The Verge)
2. How VR Brought Simba to Life
The Lion King recently become Disney’s fourth billion-dollar film in 2019. The Walt Disney Studio announced that the photo-realistic remake of the 1994 animated classic will hit $1 billion dollars at the worldwide box office on Tuesday, the 19th day of its release.
The film looked so real; it fell just short of actually filming live animals. So how did they create the stunningly realistic characters?
Director of Disney’s The Lion King, Jon Favreau, explains how they created a completely digital 3D environment with 3D digital animals. “We had a full live-action film crew in VR, operating camera equipment as though it was a live-action set,” said Favreau.
The crew achieved a documentary look by limiting themselves to the camera platforms that would be available to them if they were out on location filming live animals, he explained.
Favreau explains it all here.
3. FairTube For All
Union activity is rare in the YouTube community. One of the reasons that union activity hasn’t been common among YouTube creators is that YouTube doesn’t employ them in the traditional sense. Rather, creators are YouTube’s partners and make money from ad revenue and merchandising. Traditional union demands like higher wages would be unnecessary in this context.
So why are creators unhappy?
YouTube has heavily exploited its demonetization tool in an attempt to find a happy medium, stopping short of removing controversial content and keeping creators and the public in the dark on how these types of decisions are reached.
Last Friday, the YouTubers Union joined with IG Metall to start FairTube, a campaign that advocates for greater transparency from the YouTube company and a greater voice for independent creators on the platform in decision-making. Ultimately, FairTube is a test of whether traditional union methods have a place in advocating for creator interests on a novel platform like YouTube, and it’s a sign of the platform’s continuing maturation.
(Source: Forbes)
