Coke Babies

And again, it's the end of the day, I'm beat and need to post something. I was going to post a fanfilm The Purchase Brothers made for Half-life. It came out last year and at that point I hadn't played the game, so while it was well made, I really didn't connect with it on a gamefilm level...really it was more of a "oh look, a groovy sci-fi film" level. So this evening I went and watched it and enjoyed the sound effects and the CGI realization of...the... CGI game vehicles. Yeah. Anywhoo, the original was part 1 and people are clammering for part 2 and being rather presumptuous. At which point I always think about a post Neil Gaimen made regarding similar feelings towards GeorgeRR Martin. 

Alongside the Half-life film, they also have a Coke film which I have posted below.  This may be an actual commercial or may be a submission for films that Coke sponsors. I'm not sure, we don't have cable so we haven't seen this commercial and my lazy google search brought up nothing except a quote from the Blues Brothers about 4 Fried Chickens and a Coke. So that was only helpful in the nostalgia department....and I also learned there's a band by the same name.

So here's the Coke film...Great title for starters. I love the parady of all the aliens come to earth "found-footage" films - district 9 primarily but also the new V and others.  Overall I think it's a clever and well-made piece....for selling soda.  All films have a message whether it's "love thy neighbor" or "don't put that in your mouth" (and District 9 has both!) but I think it's a strange train of thought that diminishes the quality of a piece simply because it's selling something I don't want. Which obviously isn't coke, I tend to want that too much.  But it leads to the whole "selling out"or "propaganda" conversations which have been done to death.  If you have a clever films about switching your bulbs to CFLs and you present it once on it's own and once sponsored by Wal-Mart (as they made this big push to go green in their stores) will it influence the way people see the video? Should it?  I don't know.   But, I'm really tired. So I'm just going to hit "publish" and go to bed.