Superbowl Ads

Seeing as A) The Steelers weren't playing, and B) I'm in a communications school, watching the superbowl this year was mostly an exercise in watching the ads for me. (Although, after that first amazing touchdown, it was pretty sad to see the Bears lose it.)

Since I already have to pick my favorite Superbowl ads to discuss in my TRF class tomorrow, and since iFilm has pretty much all of them available online, I figured I might as well post my favorites here. CBS also posted all of the ads, and in somewhat better quality, but I'm having trouble getting many of them to load. Probably just swamped with traffic. So without further ado, and in no particular order, my favorite ads from Superbowl XLI...

Bud Light: Language Course with Carlos Mencia
Come on, it's funny. Even if you hate Carlos, it's still funny.


GM: Robot
I felt so sorry for the little guy!


Coca-Cola: Happiness Factory
Very imaginative, to say the least. Apparently there's also an extended version of this that was shown in movie theaters.


Bud Light: Rock Paper Scissors
The first commercial that grabbed the attention of the people I was in the room with, and said "The Superbowl Ads have started!" Clever.


I also liked the "Grand Theft Auto" Coca-Cola ad, but I've seen that one in theaters (and also on TV I think), so it wasn't new to me. The Bud Light crabs stealing and worshipping the beer was funny, and the Dalmation was cute, but I think my list had enough Bud Light ones already!

Honestly, no blow-you-away amazing ones this year, but I thought it was pretty good overall for Superbowl ads. (The "sexed-up GoDaddy" bit is starting to get a little old though...)

Switching Majors

Alright, this is the "big thing" coming up that I hinted at on this blog about a month ago. Some people I have already told, but I didn't want to shout it from on high until it was approved and "for sure." Well, I just got the confirmation e-mail (finally!) so here it is:

I'm switching majors from Film (in the School of Visual and Performing Arts) to Television-Radio-Film (in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications).

This is effective, well, now basically. I have an informational meeting monday afternoon, then I'll be frantically rearranging my schedule. (Why didn't they have the meeting earlier than the day before classes start? I have no idea...)

I spent a lot of time thinking over this decision last semester, and while some people (family & high school friends) might not see much difference between the two majors, anyone in VPA or Newhouse definitely does (and probably has some misconceptions about the other, as I did).

Oddly enough, this didn't have as much to do with the Film program's "Sparticus" letter incident as one might think. Rather, it was primarily about me doing some soul-searching about where I wanted to be going, and the ridiculously broad range of my interest in "media". Suffice to say, while both programs obviously have their faults, I'm fairly confident in my decision. (Not 100% confident of course - I'm way too big a worrywart for that to be possible...)

I apologize if this caught you by surprise - I know I didn't tell a whole lot of people at the end of last semester, but as I said, I didn't want to make a huge deal about it until it was definite. (I didn't know it would take this long for it to become definite...)

To my friends in VPA: I'm not dropping off the face of the earth! I'm still at S.U., I'm still friends with you guys. Heck, I'm still in the directing class this semester! (probably going to turn all that time with Deb et. al. into a Theater minor) And if I'm not swamped with my own stuff, I'm still up for helping out on people's shoots. (Heck, since TRF is all video, I might relish a chance to keep working with 16 mm from time to time!)

To my friends in Newhouse: Well, looks like you'll be seeing a bit more of me! (And probably hearing a lot of questions regarding scheduling and whatnot...)

Peeking Out From The Madness

"Busy" is an entirely inadequate word. Between my monster of a final film, two upcoming finals (and a non-final test), trying to bang out "Fur Elise" on the piano, co-writing a script about a priest giving a eulogy at the wrong funeral, and making a final decision on a possible switch of majors (more on that later... hint in the tags), I've got something of a full plate at the moment. Oh, and in less than two weeks the semester will be over and I'll be home for Christmas.

Aaaaah!

Yet, I'm poking my head above the waves for just a second to give a few teaser pics of said monstrous final film. Aren't I nice? Taking time out to give info to the (non-existent) readers of this blog? That's why I'm doing this. For (the non-existent) you. Not because I'm procrastinating at 2:30 in the morning or anything. That would be silly.

The samples, specially chosen to look cool, of course: