8 Ways to Sunday

Superballs invade SF in Sony’s commercial. Click for a larger version.

A commercial for Sony’s new Bravia high-definition LCD screen, filmed in San Francisco last summer, bounced 250,000 colorful rubber superballs down the city’s hilly streets and set the slow-motion chaos to a strummy acoustic ballad by Swedish-born Argentinean crooner José González. The results are truly remarkable to behold.

Filmed over two days, the commercial uses no CG effects at all — every single bouncing ball is real. The shoot involved twenty-three camera operators, compressed air cannons and earth-moving machines loaded with balls, crew members in crash helmets behind protective shields… and one take for each ball drop.

You can watch the finished product at this Sony web site. I recommend the three-minute extended version, which has some nice moments that had to be cut from the TV-length commercial. You’ll need QuickTime 7 to view the videos, and a broadband connection to see the high-quality versions without waiting forever.

Bouncy balls attack! Click to enbiggen.

While you’re on Sony’s Bravia web site, take the time to check out the following cool stuff:

• A behind the scenes featurette that shows how the commercial was shot. It’s worth seeing just to hear the thundering sound those balls made coming down the hill.
• Info about the awesome music from the commercial.
• A photo gallery of still images from the shoot (where I got these pictures). It’s mostly pretty pictures of bouncing balls, but there are a few of the aftermath as well.
• All kinds of downloads, including computer wallpapers, video for mobile phones and PSP, and a bouncing-ball screensaver.

There’s also a Flickr photoset from a crewmember that was on site with his digital camera. Some of the best from the set:

• This clothes dryer was sitting on the street when the balls came down the hill, and was actually pushed down the hill by the force of the ball-torrent.
• This comment by BlueAlgae seems to indicate that people were still finding superballs along Filbert as recently as November or December.
• A cool shot of the rubber-ball cannons.

(Props: Bibi’s Box)

Video of a Reebok commercial featuring football player Terry Tate as a “valued member of the Felcher team”: the office linebacker. Make more coffee when you drink the last cup, or face his tackley wrath!

Updates

• 3/22/2006 @ 12:45 PM — Turns out there’s a whole series of these. You can download them all from FileShack or from this forum post.

Props: (Jason Hoffman)

Ultra-conservative, FOX News-owning media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. is buying Intermix Media Inc., the parent company of MySpace. Already, alarmed conservatives who consider MySpace “a virtual candy store for pedophiles” are making preemptive calls for Murdoch to “clean it up.”

While I’ll concede that there may be more that can be done to police the site’s age restrictions, I don’t relish the thought of News Corp. putting its foot down on a thriving online community. While not a MySpace user myself, I’d hate to see neo-con censorship applied to a community that thrives on free speech and association.

Updates

This just in, from the Los Angeles Times:

The young hipsters who congregate on MySpace.com are known for posting revealing information about themselves. So when Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. announced this week that it had agreed buy the popular social networking website’s parent company for $580 million, pranksters rushed to set up phony profiles of the 74-year-old media tycoon.

In keeping with the site’s subversive tone, listed among his general interests are “World domination,” “Games, specifically Monopoly” and “Making Ted Turner squirm,” referring to his rivalry with the CNN founder.

Under musical preferences, one says, “Yes, money is music to my ears.”

“I encourage my television and radio stations to become Republican soapboxes,” another profile says, adding, “There are important benefits to fascism.”

The site is one of the most popular among teens, and spoofs are common. There are hundreds for President Bush, and such celebrities as Britney Spears are parodied.

News Corp is doing an admirable job of staying cool, at least on the surface:

News Corp. President Peter Chernin vowed to protect the uncensored site.

“If we try to impose our own sensibilities on MySpace, it would be a dopey thing to do,” he said.

News Corp. spokeswoman Teri Everett said the company was aware of the Murdoch profiles.

“But asking for their removal is something we wouldn’t consider,” she said.

Late Wednesday, more than 300 MySpace users were signed up as Murdoch friends, including “Gangsta,” “Bejeezus,” “Lady Love” and “Dr. Teeth.”

Most asked for money. A few wanted movie parts.

Play along at home with Rocketboom’s Karl Rove / CIA leak ongoing investigation drinking game. It’s fun and easy!

Just chug a beer every time White House press secretary Scott McClellan makes a reference to the “ongoing investigation” into whether Rove leaked an CIA agent’s true identity. Scott sure is adamant that he can’t talk about that investigation; too bad all the press really wants to know is whether Bush means to stand by his promise to fire any culpable members of his administration. Oh well… play along with this video and pretty soon you’ll be too drunk to care about shitty, two-faced government officials.

(Props: New Patriot, from whom I shamelessly stole that side-by-side image)

P.S. If you’re interested in other vlogs like Rocketboom, check out FireANT, an RSS video aggregator for Windows XP and Mac OS X.

From the Urban Dictionary definition of “Spike TV”:

Spike TV

A TV network, formerly known as The National Network, formerly known as the Nashville Network. They changed their focus c. 2001 to become a “guy’s” network rather than a country network. Their keystone programming includes Star Trek: The Next Generation, VIP, and various wrestling events. This covers all important guy interests (technology, hot girls, violence). Their acquisition of Exclusive syndication rights to Star Trek TNG was a major ratings boost.

“I want to make the ultimate guy’s show. It’ll have technology, sex, and violence all in one package.”
“What will you call it?”
“Android Kick-Fucking”
“Spike TV will be all over that.”