Hey everyone, its Friday! To ease in to the weekend, we post our favorite movie scenes from YouTube. This week we look at our favorite crime story reveals. These scenes may be NSFW so please be careful if you are at work. Enjoy!

David Graver, Business Development – Chinatown

“SHE”S MY SISTER AND MY DAUGHTER!” (To be honest folks, if you haven’t seen this one yet, I don’t feel bad at all about spoiling it.)

Sean Jaques, Producer – Se7en

The ending to this film threw me for a loop. Though it’s still fun to say “What’s in the box!” every time the delivery man comes by.

Lauren Musacchia, Production Coordinator – The Life of David Gale

Kasey Morrison, Intern - Memento

Please see this if you haven’t, you will fall in love with Chris Nolan and be confused beyond belief.

Will Torbett, Editor - Clue

Though not technically an ending (of which the film has plenty), this is one of the more dramatic crime discoveries. Do check out more of Clue for some great sleuthing and some delicious curry – Tim Curry. Mmmm…

And because we love this movie so much…

Corydon Wagner, Director - Clue

One of the many possible endings…

Please post your favorite crime reveals in the comments section. Have a great weekend!

Hey everyone, its Friday! To ease in to the weekend (especially this holiday weekend), we post our favorite movie scenes from YouTube. This week we look at our favorite death scenes. These scenes may be NSFW so please be careful if you are at work. Enjoy!

Corydon Wagner, Director – The Hurt Locker

Guns, EOD suits, and explosives! Sweet!!! This guy gets messed up!

David Graver, Business Development – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

This was a tough one: American History X effects me the most, Chinatown’s death offers an answer, all the death scenes in Kill Bill make me giggle. I selected One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, however, because Chief genuinely feels he is doing what’s best. He feels morally obligated to make this killing. As a death scene, it truly confuses.

Sean Jaques, Producer – Pulp Fiction

Poor Marvin. We wish we knew you better but instead you ended up being entertaining in death. Thanks for the memories!

Kasey Morrison, Intern – Bonnie and Clyde

This ending is epic.  You want Bonnie and Clyde to get away but you know that they won’t make it.  Bonnie’s and Clyde’s slow motion and almost artful deaths are both painful and beautiful to the viewer.  It is an ending that you never forget (and one that made history!).

Will couldn’t choose any one death scene so…

Will Torbett, Editor – Montage of Death Scenes

I have a lot of deaths.

Recently I had an interesting conversation with Devon White, consultant and adviser. While I’m still learning about the fascinating work that Devon is doing in what he calls the “human operating system,” I was struck by a fascinating concept which borrows from hypnosis called “looping.” Now I do not pretend to be an expert in either hypnosis, NLP, or the budding field of neuroscience. However, the concept of looping does fascinate me as it holds some very profound connections to both advertising and psychology.

The concept roughly breaks down as such: looping is a device used in film that takes a viewer through a series of changes in locations, characters, visual movements, and ideas. This is done in order to “blast” the viewer with a plethora of emotionally and intellectually charged stimuli. The purpose of this shotgun blast of places, things, and ideas are designed to overcome the audiences’ sense of perspective. The looping of different elements in rapid succession overwhelms the mind and loosens an individual’s preconceived prejudices. Now this loosening of the viewer can strip an individual of their preconceived notions about a brand. In essence, the effect of looping brings the viewer to a neutral state. You might ask why an advertiser would want to neutralize their viewers? Simply put, once the viewer reaches this plateau of the senses he or she will accept the final and singularly delivered message from the advertiser.

The embedded clip from Microsoft’s People Ready Campaign (JWT) demonstrates this concept of looping by leading the viewer through a series of animations that depict many different perspectives. The first 30 seconds propels the viewer through a series of loops, Coca-Cola, tough environment, North American, Australia, morning, economy, home…etc… However, none of these concepts have anything to do with Microsoft’s product features. Instead, the looping of all these elements loosens the viewer through overstimulation and then ties up the final message: Microsoft enables high performance, successful people in a turbulent, but opportunity driven world. The final message is delivered at a point when the viewer has been sufficiently stripped of their previous emotional state thus leaving them sufficiently accessible to take in a new message.

To ease in to the weekend, every Friday we post our favorite movie scenes from YouTube. This week we look at our favorite action scenes. These scenes may be NSFW so please be careful if you are at work, Enjoy!

Corydon Wagner, Director – Casino Royale

“Nothing better to capture the spirit of our times than the raw, unrestrained, brute anger of the new Bond. Craig’s sense of movement and intention is nothing like previous Bonds.”

David Graver, Business Development – Snatch

“I’m not sure I’d ever argue that Guy Ritchie is a good filmmaker. He made a great film in “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels,” then perfected his formula with “Snatch” – before making films that ceased to be worthwhile. (A one trick pony?) Snatch, however, from this very opening scene, had me eaten by the underground rhythms of unrealistic London – enjoyably so.”

Sean Jaques, Producer – Equilibrium

“Equilibrium’s plot is a Science Fiction cliché, its been done before and its been done better. But the action scenes in this movie are Matrix level cool mix of martial arts and gun play.”

Will Torbett, Editor – Metal Gear Solid 4

“To highlight the action we’ve got an impressive variety of angles with some very curious, deliberate camera movements. Watch as the camera realistically struggles to keep up with Raiden as he leaps into and out of frame, shaking and zooming as if held by some inexplicable camera operator. Rarely do we use slow motion, and the movements around the stage – the dolly in to meet Raiden after his last take down, the rotation around him as he dices kneecaps – strike a fine line between impossible artifice and commonplace film conventions.”

Kasey Morrison, Intern – Raiders of the Lost Ark

“Within the first ten minutes of the film you are already completely charmed by Harrison Ford. His anti-hero attitude makes him all the more lovable. As the floor begins to shake and the boulder comes rolling at him we hear John Williams at his best and your heart instantly races. It just gets better every time you watch it.”

What is your favorite action scene?

Technology is the lifeblood of Fifth Column. We started filming completely on digital media two years ago and if our clients didn’t expect DVDs, we’d probably get rid of them too. We use Facebook and LinkedIn to find our clients. We use YouTube and Vimeo to show off our work. We twitter, all of us, for no reason at all and we blog. But we also use a lot of web based services that have been really helpful at organizing our buisness. Here are a few:

Remember the Milk – RtM is a task/project management service that is great for keeping personal tasks as well as sharing tasks with a group. This should not only keep colleagues accountable to tasks and deadlines but also give everyone a clear idea of the full picture.

Mindmeister – Mindmeister is a Mind Map program that allows you to share with your maps with others. These are great for brainstorming.

Sugarsync – Sugarsync is mostly used to share files among multiple computers but we use it to share documents throughout the company. Its a very efficient system for sharing documents.

Dreamhost – Dreamhost hosts all of our websites. They are extremely cost effective and efficient.

Mobile Me – We used to use Microsoft Exchange to host our mail, share our contacts and sync our company calander. Bust since we almost exclusively use Macs, working with exchange was always a chore and we were glad to find an alternative on the mac side. Combined with Daylight, a CRM program that syncs our calanders and contact list, Mobile Me works to back up our contacts and give us mobile access to all of our company resources.

Google Buisness Apps – Google hosts all our company email accounts and allows us to collaborate easily and effectively on documents.

“One advantage of talking to yourself is that you know at least somebody’s listening.” -  Franklin P. Jones

After a long hiatus, the Fifth Column blog is going to be making a triumphant return this week. We have some great amazing content planned that will be available here on our blog as well as on Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook. We’ll be posting new post every day and new videos and pictures every week.

We hope that this content encourages you to not only check our site regularly but to engage in conversations with us about advertising, marketing, entertainment and social media. Tell us when you like what we are doing but also when you don’t like what we are doing. Most importantly, thanks for taking the time for seeing what we do and why we love doing it. We know your time is valuable and we endeavor to make the time you spend with us worthwhile.

Please check back often.

Malcolm Gladwell might call me “a connector.” I enjoy bringing others together. There is a thrill, a synaptical response, that I experience upon initially approaching someone or seeing two associates connect. It is a moment where absolutely anything is possible. In essence, this is fundamental to what I do. Our success hinges on collaboration: the bringing together of great minds, needs and the organization to execute. These connections yield work and art: time for us behind the camera.

Everyone deserves time and dedication, curiosity and, well, a check-in. It’s a tall feat. Cordy gave me a book to read titled “Never Eat Alone.” It reiterated a lot of the way I already behave. But it also taught me the word “ping.” To ping someone is an easy way of keeping in contact. It takes just a moment. When you’ve found a YouTube video you like, pass it along. When you have a free second in the office or at home, make a phone call. Call someone just to say hello. Call someone simply to ask how they are doing. Reach out to them, for them. If your time is limited, an email will suffice. Touch base.

Maintaining a presence in other people’s minds is a benefit to you. Sincere interest in your peers and their well being, well that is a benefit to all.