A smart way to make a PSA on being dumb.

This PSA is entertaining and adorable, even when blood is being spilled. Most importantly, it went super viral. It’s done millions and millions of views since we first posted it.

Content Engine

Be prepared music industry, the up-and-coming folk-step group Alt-J is looking to shock the world and capture an audience by pairing their distinctly unique style of music with some unbelievable music videos.

The playwright James Aurthur Baldwin once wrote, “Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war.” With the video for the song, Breezeblocks, from Alt-J’s debut album, An Awesome Wave, he and director Ellis Bahl ponder the powerful, opposing forces of love and hate. Done on a shoestring budget of 4,000 pounds, Bahl’s dark and gritty work demonstrates that vision and storytelling combined with a fantastic song can be just as powerful as a feature-length movie.

A murder played in reverse is engrossing up to the chilling final twist. Bahl delivers a slow motion, bellicose dance of the sexes to paint a picture where the meaning is abstract, but the tone resonates. Bahl not only contemplates the nature of relationships, but also how important perspective can be to any story.

SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU’VE WATCHED THE VIDEO

Like any good thriller, Bahl’s finishing twist changes how we think about the whole, but because the story is told in reverse, the twist works two ways. Depending on the direction in which this story is told or viewed, the audiences’ interpretation of the characters’ motivations, the climax and the resolution change completely. Alt-J’s version opens with a woman, crushed dead and drowned by a breezeblock, but who is miraculously restored to life by a married man. Although they fight, he eventually chooses her over his wife, whom he locks up and walks out on. On the other hand, in forward motion, a husband discovers his wife locked up by a jealous girlfriend, whom he fights and eventually kills. In the end, Bahl purposefully leaves the narrative open to interpretation, but both Alt-J and Bahl seem to agree on the fact that love can be both literally and emotionally crushing.

– Adam Biederman, Content Engine intern

Content Engine

Incredibly, the “imaginal cells” of the caterpillar contain the latent potential for the transformation of the wriggling worm-like caterpillar into the winged and beguiling butterfly.

This is an apt and inspiring metaphor for our own potential transformation.

Within our “imaginal cells” lie the seeds for our own metamorphosis — our own personal potential is limited only by our ability to imagine it.

By embracing this truth, we can transform ourselves and reshape our destiny in any image we can envisage.

We can Be the Change we imagine.

Content Engine

“Sight” provides a glimpse into a chilling future where gaming and dating collide and the virtual and real worlds combine.

“Sight” illustrates both the amazing possibilities and the problems that come with progress. Visually, this short is phenomenal, and the embedded ocular modification it posits is a cool and believable byproduct of upcoming gadgets such as Google glasses.  While we may at first be engrossed with the world these filmmakers create and the possibilities such devices might offer us, it is important not to miss the underlying theme: “Technology can improve our lives, but at what cost?” The filmmakers, May-raz and Lazo’s, cautionary tale stresses that tech is a powerful tool, but a tool which we cannot allow to become a social crutch nor one that we should abuse.

As part of the Y generation, I’m fortunately caught between two worlds; I remember a time before the take-off of mass technology, but can still skillfully navigate the digital Mediaverse™ unlike my parents, who approach each gadget as if it were a poisonous snake. “Sight,” is very much a message for those young men and women of generation Z, who can’t imagine a non-digitally interactive world. They have grown up in a culture dominated by social media and tech dependency. Although relevant, this message is not for them alone as many of us spend most of our time with our noses buried in our smartphones, constantly checking to see if we have a new text, tweet, voicemail, email, or Facebook notification. When this happens, we ignore the real world we live in and forgo real interactions for virtual ones. With technology rapidly advancing and expanding, this story serves as a warning, to all of us, of the possible dangers that lie in store for us. Maybe, just maybe, its time for all of us to turn off our devices, reevaluate the importance of their role within our lives and open our eyes to the real world around us.

– Adam Biederman, Content Engine Intern

Content Engine

I saw TITANIC in 3D this weekend with my daughter and there’s a great scene in the middle where Leo’s penniless Jack Dawson tells the first class company he’s dining with that he’s got everything he needs right there with him: air in his lungs, a blank sheet of paper and a sense of making every day count. Everyone toasts to “making it count.”

On the Titanic, the passengers’ days–their hours––were numbered. But so our ours. The only certainty is that our time in this life is temporary, so here’s an inspirational Nike-sponsored video that celebrates making every day — and every moment — count.

Thanks to Content Creator, Perry Lang, who turned me onto it. The short has garnered more than four million views since he did.

Does this short film inspire you?

Content Engine

I encourage you to see the film as chances are you know something about Deepak Chopra or have perhaps quoted one of his inspiring spiritual observations or insights. The film was made by Deepak’s son, Gotham Chopra, a friend and creative collaborator. Gotham is an author, journalist, screenwriter, director and producer. He also runs a comic book company. In short, he’s the epitome of a multi-platform Content Creator.

There are some great themes explored in the documentary: father and son, life and death, legacy and calling, ego and drive, spirituality and humanity, detachment and family… all of which resonate on many levels in the style and tone of the piece.

The film lifts the veil, deepening our gaze into the world of Deepak while providing a gentle, personal portrait of the man who is a guru to the masses, but also the filmmaker’s father. The doc provides honest, poignant and thoughtful insights all the more resonant since the questions posed to Deepak and the concepts the film contemplates come from his own son.

Content Engine