January, 2012

The Time: 74 BC.
The Place: Thrace. Then Rome.
The Person: Spartacus.
Occupation: Slave. Gladiator. Warrior. Hero.

Shot in brown and bronze hues, with a musical accompaniment of chanting choirs, and with key words thrown onto the screen- this short but dramatic video evokes passion for the glory that was Rome, and the seeming never-ending interest in a man who lived over 2000 years ago.

The legend that is Spartacus has come down to us through the centuries – the story of a man who took on the might of Rome and nearly brought her down. Now Ben Kane, the author of The Forgotten Legion and Hannibal:Enemy of Rome, brings to life the first part of the Spartacus story.

Stanley Kubrick’s film, Spartacus, starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis, first brought the man, and his slave revolt, to a wider audience. In more recent times, the series Spartacus: Blood and Sand has kept the name very much alive, although at the price of an almost complete departure from what little hard facts are known of Spartacus. The action scenes from the video certainly get the blood racing and promise action and drama on a grand scale.

Recalling the infamous scene in the original Spartacus movie, where those left in the defeated slave army all claim to be the man the Romans seek by standing and shouting “I’m Spartacus!”, it will be for author Ben Kane to carve out his own legend, and claim Spartacus as his own.

There is an undoubted appetite for both film and written word in the “sword and sandal” genre. Look at how well the film “Gladiator” did at the box office. Even on history and national geographic channels you will find almost endless programmes on the myths and the truth about ancient Roman games, the Coliseum, and gladiatorial combat. Consequently, the idea of having a film-like video trailer for a novel is a good one. You might even expect the video to end with “coming soon to a screen near you” rather than an illustration of a book cover. But that’s not a complaint- why can’t epic books be heralded with epic trailers?

The second part of the story will be published soon as Spartacus: Rebellion. Hopefully this too will be unveiled with a video trailer as engaging as this one!

See the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-rY76RcoZw

A second video to try to help us piece together what the heck is going on. You remember the first:

A Japanese mother scared out of her wits, in the dark, and seemingly being hunted. 28 seconds to try to analyse and look for any clues in what she says, what she does, the sounds in the background, and what’s on the wall behind her.

This second video is even shorter… a mere 10 seconds. The sound of a woman’s sob, nothing showing except this:

19 January 2012. 1400. PST- Pacific Standard Time.

That’s all there is. What does the date and time mean? Is it the launch date for a new horror film? Is it the time that the video was recorded? Or is it something more sinister, more esoteric?

Following on from the first video, this one gives us just the date and time, not much to go on. We need to know more! So yes, this is this is a media technique to keep us guessing, but it’s but an effective one. When is the next piece of the jigsaw coming out? Will it contain elucidation, even a revelation, as to what is going on?

You try working it out. But you have got so little to go on. Good luck! But you may need more than luck. A lot more. You saw the woman in the first video, shocked, frightened, distressed. You have a date. Are you part of this? Perhaps you should keep indoors where “they” say it is safe…

Here is the latest video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG_UrVG_W2Y

And here is the first: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3HsO0hZuUY

A shaky home video less than 30 second long.

A very distressed mother talking in Japanese.

An abrupt ending.

What is it all about? What does it mean?

You’re confused. You want to understand what the threat is. There is so little evidence:

The woman is a mother because she makes reference to the kids being safe.
She is in the dark, probably inside a room somewhere. She is talking in an Asian language, probably Japanese- and what she is saying has been subtitled. It’s probably not live then. She looks over her shoulder once or twice… is something coming for her? What is the symbol on the wall in the last frame? Is it cabbalistic? Or simply just a crude child’s drawing? Is there anything else to help unravel this?

The woman is distressed, but from her appearance seems unharmed… but what is it she fears? What is coming that she fears? She makes reference to “they” saying that we are safe if we stay inside… so do we assume they are the authorities and they know what’s going on?

You may draw similarities with the infamous Blair Witch Project scene illuminated with a battery torch where the woman talks to the camera from inside the tent. But this very short, very gripping ing video here achives its aim. It tantalises, but unnerves; something is wrong, but what? We yearn to know more- a few more clues. Search the video, frame-by-frame, second-by-second to see if there’s anything you’ve missed.

How do you take things forward? You don’t want to leave things here, unexplained…

Have a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3HsO0hZuUY

Will there be more??….

What happened to the woman at the end?

Prime Minister David Cameron assured the critics of London Olympics that the event would definitely boost Britain’s economy by £1 billion!

Mr. Cameron points out that this amount is guaranteed when 200 company chiefs and executives from Google to Goldman Sachs arrive on the eve of the games for the big business conference.

Mr. Cameron spoke about the economic potential of the Olympics in London during a Cabinet meeting on January 9 in Olympic Park to mark 200 days to the Games.

The Prime Minister said “I want the message to go out loud and clear, from tourism to business, sport to investment, we are determined to maximise the benefits of 2012 for the whole country.”

The details of contracts for new venues such as handball arena, aquatics centre and ArcerlorOrbit Tower were revealed during the meeting.

The games are expected to create 254 full-time jobs and the officials hope that the venues will be put to profitable use for mass weddings and corporate activities.

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Some would say this was a match made in (doggy) heaven, as the veteran nodding canine, Churchill, teams up with the ever-popular actor, Martin Clunes, for a series of videos for the Churchill Insurance Company.

Martin Clunes rose to popularity as a Man Behaving Badly with Harry Enfield, and then Neil Morrisey in the 1990’s ITV sitcom.

But he has a more recent connection that stands him in good stead for doing a double-act with Churchill. In a recent ITV two-parter documentary, Clunes goes off on a world-wide adventure to discover how close the domestic dog is to its ancestor the wild wolf. The Doc Martin star took a fascinating, wry and witty look at why we are prepared to share our homes with dogs who are genetically still 99.8 per cent like wolves! Oh Yes!

In this first video in the series, Churchill the dog and Martin team up for a ride on a motorbike and sidecar. More Wallace and Gromit than Two Fat Ladies or Last of the Summer Wine, our three-wheeled crusaders drive through an idyllic village providing instant help to a number of locals, including a man who’s lost his kitten, Mitsy, and a handyman painting a fence! A nice touch is that Clunes says at the conclusion “Oh yes”- normally Churchill’s tag-line!

From this:

to this:

It’s a fast-paced inventive mini-adventure with “I need a hero” as the driving sound-track and sets a high standard for the rest of the series to attain. The adverts feature a new “animatronic” Churchill dog partnering with Clunes as they come to the rescue of the accident-prone residents in a sleepy village on their Triumph combination. The 60-second clip, which carries the new tagline, “For great personal service, chat to Churchill”, launched on 26 December and will run through until April 2012.

Clunes is among a privileged number of actors who decided not to take theatrical agents’ standard advice- “Never work with children or animals”!
Previously, Churchill ads featured disbelieving members of the public hearing about Churchill’s encounters with celebrities, including Rolf “can you guess what it is” Harris, Roy Walker, Melanie Sykes and Ricky Hatton.
In these series of adverts Clunes is on-screen at least as often as Churchill, if not more. Why? Marketing Director Amanda Walker said the ads aimed to demonstrate trust in the brand through the relationship between Clunes and the dog:

“ is in every frame of the ad, so rather than Churchill interacting with lots of celebrities, there is one key relationship.”

The comments so far are all favourable, and there seems to be a number of people trying to identify the village used in the shoot. If the road signs in the advert are anything to go by, the location can’t be too far from Axminster in the South West of England. But that may be just to throw non-animatronic dogs off the scent!

See the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&v=VM3BMR2kVRA

If you can’t wait to see the latest adventures screened on the television, then you can subscribe to his YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/thechurchilldog) or follow him on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/thechurchilldog).