Week Links 1

Here we go, my first concentrated effort at more frequent micro-posts to fill the gaps between the lengthier regular ones. As I mention previously, the first of these will be Week Links (yes, it’s a pun, deal with it).
Week Links is a collection of some of my favourite links from around the web that I stumbled upon during the past week. You may already be familiar with some of them, but I think they’re worth checking out if you haven’t already.

Jeffery Katzenberg Predicts the Current State of the Film Industry

This 1991 Walt Disney Studios internal memo written by then animation head Jeffery Katzenberg gives a surprisingly accurate description of the current state of the film industry. The success of Tim Burton’s Batman left all the studios chasing blockbusters and spending way to much to do so, meaning that even moderate success was viewed as a failure and resulting in a slew of sequels and “safe” films, exactly what we’re seeing now.

Hawaii Five-0’s Obnoxious Product Placement

Terrible, obnoxious product placement

In the middle of a regular episode of CBS’ Hawaii Five-0 the show felt the need to spend almost a full minute on this Subway ad. Sure, other show have blatant product placement as well, notably Chuck, also for Subway, but the difference is context. H5-0 tries to pass this off as just a natural part of the episode, insulting its viewers’ intelligence (I realize I may be giving this show’s audience more credit than they deserve), while Chuck runs its placements in a tongue-in-cheek, self deprecating style.

15 TV Theme Songs in Less Than 2 Minutes

A fairly impressive compilation

These guys decided to not only mash together fifteen television theme songs, but also recreate portions of their opening sequences and present the two side by side. How many can you name?

The Bark Side

Never heard John Williams quite like this

Technically this is a teaser for a commercial, which just sounds ridiculous. The commercial in question, however, is Volkswagen’s Super Bowl commercial. After last year’s terrific Star Wars spot, and the creativity shown here, I can’t wait to see what they have in store.

The New DC Comics Logo

As it has done many times before, DC Comics has changed their logo. I’m not entirely sold on the new version. I think it will look great in front of their films and videogames, where the peeling D can be animated, I don’t think it works as well in print. This is especially true if they plan to use it in places without the DC Comics caption underneath. It think that the entire message of the piece is lost if the viewer doesn’t already know they are looking at art meant to represent DC.

Never Ending Problem

The last one for today is a look at a Peanuts comic strip from January 17th, 1979. This seemed particularly relevant this week, with all the talk of SOPA and PIPA in the US. It seems music piracy was a problem even back then.

Sleep well,

DTE