Things of note for the week ending Friday, July 27th, 2018.

Things of note for the week ending July 27th, 2018 (I'm taking August off so this is the last edition until September).

Did you know, if you SUBSCRIBE to the Five things on Friday newsletter, you areÂ100% guaranteed to getÂMORE STUFF (eg: a proper intro and probably some more gifs) than reading it here on whatleydude.com.

So y’know, SUBSCRIBE TODAY.

TO THE THINGS.

______________

1. THE DARK KNIGHT: TEN YEARS ON

THE DARK KNIGHT is inarguably one of the greatest superhero movies ever made. It is ten years old this month and it still holds up.

And this Village Voice article is a great look at its themes and why it still resonates so strongly today.

_____________________

2. THIS PLAYLIST IS EVERYTHING

Here in the UK we have a music album compilation/tradition known as 'NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL MUSIC' – you can date someone within the nearest year or so by what their very first edition was and this month, NTWICM hit #100.

To celebrate, the AMAZING Popjustice put together the DEFINITIVE NTWICM Spotify playlist – and it is effing phenomenal.

Go listen to some bangers RIGHT NOW.

_____________

3. LATEST VOICE ASSISTANT STATS

National Public Radio in the US dropped its latest Smart Audio Report and it has some really interesting stats on the what and why people use smart home assistants – aka smart speakers.

A few nuggets of interest include:

  • Ownership skews female and slightly older
  • For early adopters, smart speakers are now the number one way they consume audio
  • Nearly 40% of people purchase smart speakers to help them reduce screen time.

The whole report is super interesting and definitely worth 15mins of your time to consume and consider.

_____________________

4. MISTAKEN FOR STRANGERS

This week I learned about the documentary about THE NATIONAL called 'Mistaken for Strangers' – up until I went to put this into the newsletter, I thought it was new. I was going to show you the trailer and then tell you how excited I was to see it.

Turns out it isn't new at all and that you could probably find it online quite easily.

So I intend to do that this weekend.

You should do the same.

____________________

5. AN INTERESTING TREND IN VR

This week, Sega released a free update to the PS4 game 'Sega Classics'. The update brings PSVR support to the game and the actual VR experience is that of sitting in an old bedroom from the 1990s and playing the classic games you grew up playing.

Like this:

Which, while funny, is a bit weird (you can see a video of it in action here).

So there's a general trend here.

Here's Netflix VR:

And here's the BBC doing the World Cup.

You can see it, right?

I really like that VR can take you away to different places and immerse you in new and fantastic experiences. Sitting on a sofa and playing a game or watching a movie in a different environment to the one you're in is not my idea of an amazing VR experience.

I'm not sure I like it that much. So hurrah for free PSVR updates but boo to tacking on a room build to what is simply the standard app/game experience.

What do you think?

_________________

THE ESSENTIALS

This week.Â

  • Margot Robbie.
  • China.
  • Universities.

__________________

THE BONUS LINK SECTION OF BONUS BONUS LINKS

  • The painting behind Star Wars
  • 12 prototypes in eight weeks (super interesting stuff from the BBC)
  • James Gunn's brother
  • Physical media isn't dead (yet)
  • I got listed in this amazing source of brilliant newsletters. Yay.
  • The Thagomizer

Until next time…

Things of note for the week ending July 22nd, 2018.

Did you know, if you SUBSCRIBE to the Five things on Friday newsletter, you areÂ100% guaranteed to getÂMORE STUFF (eg: a proper intro and probably some more gifs) than reading it here on whatleydude.com.

So y’know, SUBSCRIBE TODAY.

TO THE THINGS.

_______________

1. THE BIG BEAUTIFUL BELUGA

LOOK AT THIS AMAZING PLANE!

The AIRBUS Beluga XL is a thing of beauty (and you're an idiot if you think otherwise) – it shouldn't even fly, but it does!

Brilliant.

Via.

2. THE 'SECRET WORLD' OF PRESS KITS

Stay with me, this isn't completely gaming related. Honest.

This piece appeared in my newsfeed last week and I opened it to read later as I thought it'd be dead interesting. It's gamer related and I was intrigued as to what kind of 'press kits' could be so secret.

I used to work in this world – a little bit – when I was at my previous agency (we made all sorts of magical kits/boxes/experiences for influencers so I can appreciate the effort that goes into them).

Imagine my surprise when I went to re-open the link to read it and it 404'd on me. 'Damn', I thought 'Those secrets must've been pretty secret!'

Thankfully, the internet rarely forgets. The Wayback Machine managed to get a snapshot of said post and you can read the original post here.

So what happened?

Having read the article, it turns out it's basically an interview between Push Square and one of PlayStation Europe's agencies. Not only does said agency reveal pretty much the entire working process as to how long they take to make these things, they ALSO casually mention a few of the others that they're working on in the future.

*shocked face*

Can you imagine the angry email from Sony screaming at their agency to GET THAT ARTICLE DOWN RIGHT NOW? I can.

Ha.

If you're in 'the industry' give it a read.

And smile and be thankful that you weren't on the receiving end of that email.

Brilliant.

3. WHAT THE BBC LEARNT FROM ITS SUMMER OF UHD SPORT

Between the World Cup and Wimbledon, the BBC had its hands full with a ton of sport to choose from. On top of that, it decided to use these two massive sporting event to stress-test its UHD capabilities, something that it has been playing with since the UHD trial went live on iPlayer last year.

James O Malley at Gizmodo was invited into the Beeb to find out how it all worked (this is a great read, btw – super interesting).

4. HOW TOY STORY 2 GOT DELETED. TWICE.ÂIf, like me, you've Stephen Johnson's book 'Where good ideas come from', then you'll know the second part of this story. The second part of the story is reasonably well known. The first part, however, that was new to me. The day that someone accidentally deleted 90% of the movie with a command error.

As ever with these kinds of stories, it's not the disaster that makes for brilliant reading - it's what they did next that makes it happen. Ed Catmull's response to it all is distinctly wow-inducing.

Go read.

5. LEARNINGS FROM RUNNING A DESIGN AGENCY FOR 11 YEARSÂ

Antony Ribot has been running his design agency for 11yrs. For its 11th anniversary, Ribot wrote a few things on what he's learnt over the years and you can learn from it too.

THE ESSENTIALS:Â

This week.Â

  • Comic-Con.
  • Related: The Cosplay Community.
  • Photojournalism.
  • Devon County Council.

Sidenote: this came up in conversation this weekend: 'Johnny Depp, John Lasseter, and James Gunn walk into a Disney Studio – which one should get fired?'

THE BONUS LINK SECTION OF BONUS BONUS LINKS
  • Are you mansplaining?
  • The Zuckerberg Interview.
  • This Trevor Noah video response to the French US Ambassador has been everywhere this week but if you haven't seen it, you should.
  • 'I am Racist'
  • 'How the BBC lost the plot' – this is a great read.
  • If you've ever played a game called 'UNCHARTED' then you've probably seen this already but, if you haven't, here's Nathan Fillion playing Nathan Drake in a phenomenally good fan movie of the above-named video game
  • Strong passive aggressive note response game (the follow up is great too) – I bet she didn't get kicked from a WhatsApp group for calling it out…
  • Reminds me of a note I had to leave once (you'll find it in the comments, after the story).

Bonus bonus section of new movie trailers.Â

  • Bohemian Rhapsody – yeah, up for this.
  • SHAZAM! (just remember some of us nerds have been saying SHAZAM for ages, not just because a film made it popular).
  • AQUAMAN – oh my God this looks TERRIBLE.
  • GLASS – YES! (if you've not seen SPLIT, do so – also: UNBREAKABLE).
  • Star Trek: Discovery S2 (not a film but I'm in for this).
  • Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Grindelwald .

On a related note to the intro of this week's newsletter, The Fantastic Beasts VR experience on the Google Play store – the full experience, not the demo that rolled out with Daydream, has had an incredible 500 downloads.

Cray cray.Â

Things of note for the week ending July 14th, 2018.

Did you know, if you SUBSCRIBE to the Five things on Friday newsletter, you areÂ100% guaranteed to getÂMORE STUFF (eg: a proper intro and probably some more gifs) than reading it here on whatleydude.com.

So y’know, SUBSCRIBE TODAY.

TO THE THINGS.

______________

1. BEAUTIFUL UGLY HEARTSÂ

This essay, 'The Beautiful, Ugly, and Possessive Hearts of Star Wars', is phenomenally good. Compulsory reading for both anyone that considers themselves a fan of Star Wars and anyone that even partly curious as to why there was [seemingly] so much hate for THE LAST JEDI.

Spoilers, obviously, for all movies within.

2. JORDAN VOGT-ROBERTS

Know that name? No? He directed the excellent KONG: SKULL ISLAND and is also slated to direct the movie adaptation of METAL GEAR SOLID. I saw KONG, loved it, and then I think within days of walking out of the cinema, I saw this image from Tom Hiddleston – and I was like, I need to know who this guy is. So like any normal person living in the 21st century, I followed him on Twitter.

HE IS BRILLIANT.

And then last week, out of nowhere, he drops this (and yet another fantastic GQ profile piece).

Read it.

3. SLAY IN YOUR LANE

Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinene are the authors of SLAY IN YOUR LANE, a new book that talks about and gives insight to the challenges that black women face throughout every facet of their lives.

VOGUE interviewed Adegoke and Ubviebinene – and it's great. Read that then order your own copy of the book.

Off you go.

EDIT: the Guardian interview is pretty good too.

4. THIS PHOTO

Three things.

1. I love this photo.

2. Next time you're looking for a picture for a deck that says 'People use mobile phones now' – try this one.

3. The Verge's take is simultaneously provocative and reductive.

5. SPIELBERG'S ODE TO A FRIEND

I won't reveal what this link is about because if you haven't seen READY PLAYER ONE then it completely spoils the surprise, not-from-the-book, and film's best set piece by a while.

If you have seen RPO, then, by all means, click away (and hey, if you don't care for spoilers, click also). It's a great overview and, if you know you director history, not at all that surprising

THE ESSENTIALS:Â

Two. OF NOTE.Â

  • Ogilvy.
  • McCann Health.

Things of note for the week ending July 6th, 2018.

Did you know, if you SUBSCRIBE to the Five things on Friday newsletter, you areÂ100% guaranteed to getÂMORE STUFF (eg: a proper intro and probably some more gifs) than reading it here on whatleydude.com.

So y’know, SUBSCRIBE TODAY.

TO THE THINGS.

______________

1. THE PITCH 100 SUPERWOMEN

It's funny how one thing leads to another.

One reply to a Tweet about standing up for women in adland and the next thing I know I'm being asked to be a mentor for this fantastic programme.

This is how I found myself last week, listening intently to other mentors who were a lot smarter than me, in a room full of amazing women, offering mentorship and guidance with some of the issues that face this increasingly empowered workforce in our industry today.

Humbling, and utterly brilliant.

But like I said, it's funny how one thing leads to another. When I made my intro to the room I, out of public-speaking-force-habit, began with 'Good morning, ladies and gentlemen' – which I caught as I finished, then self-corrected to 'Er… sorry – good morning, ladies' – cue: much laughter and general hilarity. It was all taken in good spirit too.

I tweeted the faux pas later that day and ended up in a brilliant rabbit hole of 'how to use more inclusive language at events' as well as a robust discussion whether arguing gender pronouns matter at all (see full discussion thread).

The post linked above about more inclusive language is definitely worth a read. Especially if you speak at or host/organise events.

2. ROISIN MURPHY

I picked up this brilliant profile of the above-named singer/songwriter from Jed Hallam's equally brilliant newsletter 'Love Will Save The Day'.

Read both (and subscribe to the latter).

3. ADLAND RESEARCH IGNORES HALF OF ADLAND

First thing is to read this piece over at The Drum that talks about how the UK advertising industry has allegedly lost touch with the public (the full whitepaper that supports this article can be found here).

The article makes a strong case that advertising has no idea what it's doing, is obsessed with unproven channels, and basically has a major unconscious bias problem that prevents it from maximising effectiveness with any of the work it produces.

All of these points have a grain of truth to them (with a healthy dose of 'it depends' appended to each).

There are two main problems I have with the findings.

  1. Nowhere in the conclusions talk about the role of planners when it comes to insight-led creative work.
  2. The research only interviewed media agencies but goes onto making conclusions on the entirety of adland (no creative agencies were spoken to).

There is a meaner point you could make about how a research paper about bias is biased towards the channels the media owner behind it specialises in – but as I said, that'd be mean.

Current status: discussion time with the authors.

4. IT'S COMING HOMEBig love to the team at work who pulled this out of nowhere over the past 48hrs and managed to get it into press today.

Whatever happens today, this is great.

5. THIS IS AMAZING.Â

Watch it all.

THE ESSENTIALS:Â

Three this week:Â

  • Speaking of adland (again) - I agree with this.Â
  • The President of the United States of America.
  • Music.  Â
THE BONUS LINK SECTION OF BONUS BONUS LINKS
  • Today is Pride here in London. I know this week is a bit Ogilvy heavy but I am so here for this AMAZING work: 'This Coke is a Fanta'
  • Also timely, Rory Sutherland on penalty shootouts.
  • 'It's nothing like a broken leg' is a visceral look into what it actually means to suffer from a mental health problem (vivid language means this might be a hard read for some).
  • Eat popcorn with chopsticks.
  • Painting dragons.
  • Lessons in brand architecture.