rebecca LANDO

mdfsmash:

ikeaheights:

Ikea Heights (Episode 4)

I really hope Ikea recognizes the potential for collaboration here. It would be a masterpiece of branded content if they were to play along without censoring. But I guess that’s always the dream.

I’m really interested to see if this and the Mac Store Rapper Kid are a sign of a new direction in - or branch of - viral filmmaking, or just two standalone works of consumer-minded videomaking. Whatever it is, love it while it lasts - once the big corporations realize what a powerful tool they’ve got here, I’m sure the quality/fun of these videos will tumble downhill.

But what I love best is how this is a sort of “Dogme 95” approach to filmmaking that manages to take the philosophy of the Dogme group - use what you have available - and flip its meaning completely by making the settings stores. It’s not anti-Dogme 95, because the process is still the same: grab some people, a camera, a location, and use what’s already there - except that now, what’s ‘there’ can include a whole megastore full of model rooms or a MacPro with iSight. This says a lot about the shift in our culture’s relationship with consumerism in the past almost-15 years; whether for better or worse, we’ve become much more comfortable with brands, products, and integration since the early 90s, and savvier about how symbols and products of consumerism function both in and as a part of our lives (and yes, there is a difference) - and how we can control these things, at least until the brands catch on and try to exploit these channels of communication/entertainment.

But personally, I’d rather watch more stuff like Ikea Heights and the Mac Store Rapper than Julien Donkey-Boy anyday.