Splitpost: 24 hours to find a connection.

So yesterday i posted an interesting video by James W Griffiths (located in the previous post) with an interesting video filmed on a Nokia N8. Well, imagine my surprise 24 hours later when an advert pops onto the TV, and.... Wait!

If you haven't watched James W Griffiths video, do so now by clicking here. Then watch the following:



I know, I know. Yep, even the subway. In the context of this discussion, it makes Griffiths effort feel cheap. Thats no disrespect to Griffiths, what he did was brilliant, well planned and well executed, and filmed on a Nokia N8 and probably on the budget of the flight. It's very absorbing.

But why am i bringing this up?

One interesting difference is the use of narrative. Griffiths has used the relationship of two cities as the route to connection, the link is a metaphor for love and friendship that is established at the end. You feel isolated all the way through with it being from a point of view perspective allowing one to speculate where the narrative is going while at the same time allows to be engaged by the shots . Not only are the environments similar (but at the same time different), so is the timing and pacing of the movement between the shots.

The advert (I'm not promoting it by mentioning the company's name) is left in its shadow in comparison. Okay, we know it's all about the visual language, we need to know it's two single people, we need to establish their isolation independently from each other. However, the moment in which they meet has none of the awe that you find in Griffiths Splitscreen. It would appear that the advert is aimed at 25-40 year old middle class, inner-city mock suburbian types, who all have identical lives (although the message is they have an identical problem: they have no one to share there identical lives with), and dream of nothing more than finding the 'one' to go to the cafe with. And therein lies the difference between the two. One is about love, the journey you take for it, and how rewardingly sincere it is at the end. and one is about meeting someone.

The advert is the latter.