What's gone viral this week

I return with my weekly look at what has taken over the web. This week we have scares, questions over crowd funding and home videos that put most parents to shame.

Lights Out

Award winning film director David F. Sandberg has created a two minute horror film which has sent Twitter into a flurry, with one poster describing it as 'traumatising'. Describing the film would spoil the story but believe me it is not for younger viewers. Although being dialogue free, it is genuinely jumpy and the director uses classic horror techniques to ramp up the tension.

If you don't like horror films, I strongly advise you don't watch this as you won't be able to switch you lights off for a very long time.

Oculus Rift gets bought

One piece of tech that has had every talking has been Oculus. The VR machine might be the step into virtual reality that the world has been looking for. After raising nearly $2.5 million dollars on KickStarter many people were extremely excited to see were this could go.

But before mass production of these fancy binoculars have even happened, the CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg swept in and paid a cool $2 billion for it. I can see why he would want to acquire this leap forward in connecting the world, Google has been acquire all various types of robotic companies and the social network needs to show it's a major player in the online game.

Now many people are question why they bothered backing Oculus in the first place if it was just going to sell out to the highest bidder. Some of the comments are pretty damning about the company have gone about there business.

• "Well, I'm kind of horrified. I'd never have backed this if I'd had an inkling this might happen. Very happy I didn't preorder the second devkit; I'm going to wait and see what competitors might pop up." — Svein Ove Aas

•  "All I can say with absolute certainty is I absolutely do not like, use, nor trust Facebook as a company. While my funds are yours fair and square, at this moment in time, I regret backing this. I sincerely hope I am wrong." — Brad'li

• "Wow I am in shock...VR was soo close... Now I feel we are back in 1993 again. What a setback. I had so much hope for this project. You really need to give us a proper explanation for this move..." — Mathias Hagstrom 

• "Wow, I misjudged you... sorry to hear I was backing Facebook in the end... thanks for that." — Tim Pettigrew 

• "I too want my $10 back. I don't want my VR experience in the Facebook mall." — Avram Eisner "Horrible... HORRIBLE decision. I want my donation back." — Mike Yoo 

• "I would have NEVER given a single cent of my money to Oculus if I had known you were going to sell out to Facebook. You sold all of us out. I hope this backfires horribly for Oculus and Facebook. I will personally discourage absolutely anyone I know from buying what was once an indie dream and is now a soulless corporate cash cow. God, I want a refund so badly." — John Wolf

This now leaves us with a dilemma about the future of crowd funding. Could this be that people will have to question the nature of why they should donate there money. Only time will tell on this one.

Light-saber boy

A dad has turned his young son into a lightsaber-wielding, telekinesis-mastering pyromaniac on YouTube. His secret? He works as an after effects artists for DreamWorks. Posting a series of 10-second videos featuring his son, seeing him shooting fire in the kitchen, causing mayhem with a lightsaber in a toy store, operating a grappling gun and even blasting off in a space rocket at a playpen. The LA-based animator put his impressive CGI skills to use for them, to the delight and in many cases jealousy of YouTube viewers.





'Til the next time
James xo

On Podcasting...

Alongside from doing this lovely blog, I also spend some time running a podcast with a close friend of mine. We call ourselves the CinemaGoers and we talk about all things movies (if you hadn't noticed I'm a pretty big film geek). We both have a love for talk radio so creating a podcast seemed like the perfect fit.

I was recently interviewed for 20 Something Bloggers about how we got involved in setting up a podcast and why we do it. You can read a snippet of it below...

Erini: Tell me a little about your current podcast (name, genre, how long you’ve been doing it, etc):
James Pimblett: My name is James Pimblett, I’m one half of the Cinemagoers podcast. The podcast is a bit of comedy and movies rolled into one. We have been doing it just over 4 months now and enjoying it very much.

ES: Is this your first podcast? If not, what was?
JP: This is the first podcast we have done, I have been featured on a few. I used to work in radio and alot of the work was podcasted along side with being live on the radio so I featured on a video game podcast and other various bits of talk radio.

ES: Was there a podcast that sparked your interest in doing this? What was it about that podcast that sparked something in you?
JP: There wasn’t really a podcast that sparked the interest. I listened to a few movie podcast’s like Empire magazine and Mark Kermode on Radio Five Live and we just wanted to make something more honest that wasn’t about the pompous side of the movie industry, just for the everyday cinemagoer that could relate to going to the movies.

ES: Why do you listen to podcasts?
JP: I think podcasts are a great form of translating your thoughts and ideas and with mobile technology becoming better. Podcast’s are very easily accessible when your out and about. You can just plug in your headphones and lose yourself for an hour.

ES: Do you have a current favorite podcast? What’s something you admire about it? Who do you look up to in this field?
JP: My favourite one is Mark Kermode on Radio Five Live. Even though he can come across as a bit pompous, his use of language to describe something he loves and hates is brilliant especially if he hates it, it is excellent to listen to him. That’s what I admire most about the podcast, it challenges you not to go across the same ground and bring a fresh perspective on things, which is what we try to emulate.

ES: Why do you think podcasting is important? What makes it unique?
JP: I feel podcasting is unique it is just a more specialist version of the radio. Having the ability to effectively create your own listening material through the thousands of podcasts available is great. But you have to listen to alot to find the best podcast to relate to.

This is just a small part of the interview - you can catch it in full here. If you've been thinking about podcasting I must say it's great to just talk about your passions, give it a go!

James xo

(p.s. If anyone has any podcasting related questions then please get in touch - if you'd like a post that covers the finer points of setting up your own podcast we'll be happy to oblige!) 

What's gone viral this week

I'm back this week with my watercooler moments from the worldwide web. I've been a bit ill this week (man flu hit, took me straight out the game. Good news is I caught up on Breaking Bad. No spoilers please) so my radar for what's making waves might be a bit off but I found some of these gems for you to enjoy.

Arnold wants to crush things

The Governator bought a tank, Yes, a tank. Now, he's inviting you to donate to the charity for a chance to go to Los Angeles and crush things in the tank with him. Schwarzenegger's latest stunt is similar to his previous charity promotion, in which he posed as a heckling gym manager. A $10 donation will buy you one entry into the contest, which could end with you riding in a tank and crushing birthday cakes with the Terminator himself.

Keep you're eye out for Arnie, viral marketing is something that he has really got a swagger for at the moment and I don't see this being his only entry in future.

First Kiss

So do you remember you're first kiss? Scary? Well, at least it wasn't broadcast on the internet. Until now. 

20 strangers took part in LA filmmaker Tatia Pllieva candid look at love, romance and chemistry. In this beautifully shot video, it shows all moments of awkwardness and small talk before they go in for the finale. With over 30 million views on YouTube, we all like to see a little love on occasions.

Bird's eye view

After a particularly nasty storm, a pelican stumbled ashore at the secluded resort in Tanzania. The pelican, named Bigbird by the staff, was abandoned by his flock because he couldn't fly. Luckily for him, resort workers took him in and helped him on his way. And luckily for us, they put a GoPro camera on his beak so we could see his first flight.

I'll be back with more soon

James xo

List Love

I've been trying to make an effort to vary my online wanderings recently and I\m really glad that I have. This week I've got some great links to share! 

1. Inspiration vs Imitation, a fantastic read about the line between work that is 'inspired by' and work that is 'copied from'.
2. This great post about Business Lessons from Eating Out.
3. This article about the Designer as Author
4. An Hour of Code most days this week has been so much fun - I made a solar system!
5. And speaking of code, here's a great article about how not all things can be Wireframed.
6. I'm dying to get to Barcelona after reading Jessica's great blog!
7. How great is this journal? A Question a Day for 5 Years.
8. I love Harry Potter don't you? I especially love an excuse to look at some HP related Design. I wish the Daily Prophet actually existed!

And Finally...

If you watch anything today, watch this brilliant and hilarious Ted Talk about Creative Education, it's a must see.

Svea xo

Choosing my One Little Word

So I thought I should drop in and explain why I chose the word Challenge for my One Little Word project.

As recommended I spent a lot of time brainstorming ideas. But once I got going, I was really surprised at how many came out of the process. For the record, other words that made it onto the shortlist were:   

Brave

Balance

Inspire

Positive

Action

Peace

Choice

In the end, Challenge seemed to be the best fit for me as it's the one that resonates most with my life at the moment for many reasons. I wanted my word to take on several meanings.For example, I want to challenge myself to try some new things this year, I want to face up to the challenges that are coming my way, and I want to have the courage to challenge situations that aren't working for me. I think there's plenty of scope to let this word inhabit my year. 

I'm trying really hard to let this word in, as I'm naturally a fairly quiet person it's a big thing for me to step out of my comfort zone. I made a conscious effort to settle on a word that implied some kind of action on my part. I mean, I could have plumped for 'Peace' but I knew I'd use it as an excuse to step backwards. This way, I'll be rising to the Challenge (see what I did there?!) of the One Little Word project. 

I'm still in the process of gathering all my materials to set up my book. I'm excited to get started and to start building an album for the year. Already I've been feeling more inclined to raise my game and to do more of my own work outside of the day job - something I've not really done in a long time. 

I can't wait to share the beginning of my album with you! More updates soon!

Svea xo  

Getting started with Adobe Muse

We're currently undertaking a project using Adobe's latest website builder, Muse. This great piece of software lets you focus on design over code, which is a nice advantage if your coding skills aren't up to scratch.

Working with Muse offers a great story telling arch that I haven't seen in software before and offers an interesting way to show content. So before you get started with your site, I've found a couple of resources that will help with designing it.

Video Tutorials
If you're unsure about a certain technique and want to find out how to do it yourself, then Joseph Angelo Todaro might just be able to help. His detailed Adobe Muse resource videos talk you through a number of features, including parallel scrolling, increasing your workflow and so much more. A really big help to take you through the finer details. You can find him here.

Resources
After some icons or fonts? Then speckyboy.com is for you. This online design magazine contains an endless list of resources that you can pull and integrate into your design. They say if it's free, it's too good to be true. For once this is not the case, some of the freebies on offer can boost any site you're working on.

Inspiration
So you've got your videos in place and fonts are good to go. You ask what should I build? If you get designers block (not to sure if that's the term) you can find yourself some inspiration over on Adobe Muse's site of the day feature. With websites from around the globe, if explores amazing design ideas from simple one page sites to intricately built multi-page sites, everything you need to get the cogs working.

So there's just a handful of things to get you working up something beautiful. What you waiting for?

If you're using Muse at the moment, show us what you've been working on and we'll be happy to share your designs

James xo

ONE LITTLE WORD

Hello everyone! Can you believe that we're in March already?! 2014 has really gotten off to a flying start, I'm so happy that Spring is almost here.
This month I'm introducing a new feature to the blog. I recently signed up to Ali Edwards' 'One Little Word' workshop and so I thought I'd share the results here. One Little Word guides you through the year by completing a series of prompts about your chosen word for the year. For example, for 2014 I've chosen the word Challenge (I'll explain more about the decision making behind my word later).

For this whole year I'll be inviting the word Challenge into my life. Along the way I'll be following Ali's prompts to create a Project Life style album. I'm so excited to get started with this project and I'm really looking forward to sharing my album and process with you all.

However in true Svea style, I'm a little late to the party (Read: I don't have all of my supplies together yet). I'll be sharing photos of my album as it comes together as well as bits of the work I'm producing for it. Look out for my post about my word and how I came to choose it in the next few days.

Looking forward to sharing this journey with you!

Svea xo