Could "The Rock" Change the '08 Presidential Race?

It took almost a month for it to really 'hit' but a short video on YouTube uploaded on May 27th could perhaps be the most Earth shattering online political video yet of the 2008 presidential campaign.
For more than a minute, former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel and current candidate for the democratic presidential nomination sternly stares at the camera before turning around throwing a rock into a lake and walking away.
Yes, instead of attacking his opponents or stating political hyperbole, he throws a rock in the water.
What does it all mean? Well it turns out this video wasn't produced by his campaign in the first place. Rather two 24-year-old art teachers in the bay area requested he take part, and without Lew Dobbs beating down his door (Gravel is currently running about 1 percent in the polls) he agreed, and spent a day shooting three segments.
Two of the segments are currently making the rounds on YouTube, The Fire, in which Gravel collects wood from a forest and builds a fire, and the more publicized video, The Rock. Since its release Gravel has been gaining traction on the internet, likely helped by the dozens of policy speeches that are show up next to The Rock on YouTube.
UnknownParameters had a great comment on the message board:

First the rock now a fire. His state of the union [address] would be an hour of silence followed by him taking [off] his right shoe.

Will it help Gravel win the election?
It most likely won't be enough, but this is a former senator with so little name recognition before that newscasters covering the videos have have been mis-pronouncing his name with a hard 'a' yet hardly anyone knows to correct them.
Webisodes are not a new thing to the 2008 race though. At first there was the "Let's Start a Conversation" videos from the client camp, then there was the spoof the iconic 1984 Apple ad featuring Big Sister Clinton (using the conversation videos) produced by Obama supporters. Most recently there were a series of webisodes coming from the Clinton camp leading up to a Sopranos spoof announcing their campaign song that made us wonder why, if he is such a bad actor did we ever believe Bill about the Monica thing.
But Gravel's video is something more than those. They were at best well done political ads that talk about issues directly but quickly turn people off, the best they get is a mild chuckle. Gravel's videos, even if it wasn't his intention, have branded him as the independent free spirit that he wants to be known as. They've given him tens millions of dollars of name recognition, and perhaps the first chance that he has yet had in this race.
Many reports touted his most recent debate appearance as his most impressive appearances yet, which may be--in part--due to confidence gained by a solid online conversation about his candidacy. But now the question is... where to go from here.
Building on a small group of young tech savvy fans, Gravel could create a ground swell by capitalizing on these troops and getting them to spreed his message. Use user generated content to get teens and 20-somethings with too much time to start recruiting their friends and build a base that can shake his black sheep label.
The spots are clever and intelligent and though may not be beating down doors with the issues he cares about, like tax reform and getting troops out of Iraq, but they do make people want to listen. And when was the last anyone wanted to hear what a politician had to say? These webisodes are a job well done.

The Broadsheet Goes Broadband

Now it might not be anything new to most people to hear that the venerable New York Times is putting up videos on its website to support its articles. It has in fact long been the case that small videos of reporters with a face for print journalism would recount the highlights of their story with cadence that made NPR sound like The Price is Right.
What may surprise may though, is that they have some really great original content. David Pouge, The Times famed technology columnist has a particularly exciting companion video series. This week, as part of Pouge's glowing review of Apple's iPhone, he documents how receiving an iPhone from an Apple PR flack changed his life in a webisode. He's chased down on the The Times newsroom at one point, or in another particularly funny moment when his editor, after being denied a preview of the device puts in a call the rival Wall Street Journal technology columnist, Walt Mossberg.
The videos are done very much in tong and cheek and run about three or four minutes long and have fine production values. Pouge, despite his throughly dorky selection in button downs, has great comedic timing. The pieces are equally balanced between humorous and informative.
The episodes come out regularly every week at the same time as his State of the Art column on Wednesdays.

Insightful Human Dog: Haberek Webisodic Review

In an eight part series, Human Dog Productions has created an insightful and shockingly honest documentary profile of Ben Haberek. Haberek follows a high school math teacher in metro Detroit, Mr. Haberek, as he has become disenfranchised with teaching in the weeks before summer break of his seventh teaching year. Beat down by students, parents and administrators, Haberek takes you to the front of the classroom and shows it's really like for a teacher who has poured his heart in to the job, but doesn't know if he's getting anything back.

In one of the most standout episodes, episode five, Mr. Haberek debates with a student over the benefits of private versus public school students. Is it a conspiracy? Why does the administration keep dumbing down the curriculum? Is free quality education really a right, or a responsibility?

Haberek doesn't paint a politically correct picture of how teachers should think. It even leaves you wondering how a teacher could feel secure enough in their job to go on the record in such a way without some retribution.

In one of the funniest episodes, episode three, Mr. Haberek and fellow teacher Mr. Brown show how they used to patrol the restrooms for smokers, and effectively at that. But when trying to discipline the students, the administration didn't support them. Before long Mr. Haberek and Mr. Brown begin to stop even trying to catch the students. What's the point when the administration doesn't even believe them?

The final episodes flashes forward more than a year. Test scores are still bad, students still aren't paying attention, No Child Left Behind is starting to leave its mark, and to make it worse the teachers union is in a nasty battle with the district.

Haberek is distinctly just one person's story, but an important one for anyone concerned about the future of America's education.

There are eight episodes in all, including the flash forward and run about five to seven minutes each. The files are on the smaller side, but provide plenty of quality. As striking as the images are, what people are saying is the most important part. Editing is simple but effective, it has a very raw documentary feel to it that matching to tone of the context.

You can view the full series here.

It's like the Osborns but with God

Strife with biting quips about brimstone miners and Pat Robinson on God's speed dial, Mr. Deity is one of the most well put together webisotics this year. With an undersold, The Office style quality, the expertly crafted episodes focus around a slightly timid and vaguely homosexual Mr. Deity (Brian Dalton) but don't call him God, it's just a stage name.

Featuring stand out performances from the cast of four, Mr. Deity is a well thought out use of the medium. Using minimal locations and scenes lends an intimacy to the show that could be an hindrance for some but has been turned into an asset in this show. Some of the episodes are shot entirely as two person scenes in front of a white wall, but it takes nothing away from them.

Brian Dalton's protrail of the title character anchors the show with a casual yet agitated tone. At times he drifts into an ad-lib state of misdirection, but quickly corrects and pulls off some zinging one liners.

Lucy, short for Lucifer, played by Amy Rohren, portrays one sexy devil. She might consider brimstone to be a great interior decorating accent but she has a more sorted past then that. Her on again-off again boy toy happens to be Mr. Deity himself.

Mr. Deity's assistant, Larry, played by Jimbo Marshall, is a questioning man servant that grounds the absurdities of the series. He also holds one of my favorite lines of the series when he thinks Lucy is calling him while as he leaves an office supply store, "Oh! No way you she-devil!"

Sean Douglas plays, Jesse (Jesus) a fresh out of business school type kid trying to work his way up the corporate ladder who when given a chance to be partners on the Earth project jumps on board. Though after he does, he seems to pick up a grudge against crucifying, but who would blame him?

Episodes run a little over four minutes and there are currently ten posted. The site's FAQ claims they produce an episode every two weeks, though according to the fan blog, mrdeityfan.blogspot.com, the show has been on hiatus since early April as a potential deal is in the works.

Mr. Deity is webcasting at its best. There is no wonder why such creative team is getting interests from the networks, though how the show would translate into a half-hour format is unclear. The episodes - and in a way the creativity of the show - thrive on its brevity. Flushed out, the show would be a whole other kind of series, yet with what I've seen from Mr. Deity so far, I would wait with baited breath to see it on primetime.

You can find more about Mr. Deity at their Web site, or see the entire current series embedded below:

Day Zero is No Go

Heavily run ads on Fox's full episode viewer at MySpace promote a Degree for Men Deodorant sponsored prequel of 24 called Day Zero. Despite fancy Flash graphics leading into the site the four two minute websiodes, (only three of them are currently live) remind us, at best, of the dull moments of 24.

Animated with comic book styling, they follow Jack Bower as he breaks into an office trying to grab information from a computer and discovers a bomb.

It sounds as if the real actors voices are used over the animations, but their hands are tied when trying to build any real suspense in such single beat episodes. The 'previously on' flash backs take up a third of the episode and you have to laugh when Jack says "The follow event take place between 10:19 PM and 10:21 PM."

Their attempt to tie into the actually show is impressive. Though I was skeptical to see that they were being done as animated segments. Yet their style's ability to reflect the show over shadowed my hesitation relating to its lack of live action. Though, in the end, Day Zero fails the story test.

Based on the viewership from Quantcast, Day Zero also has failed the viewer ship test as well. Though released in mid-May and with the June numbers not out yet, it doesn't look like Day Zero will break out of the low tens of thousands of views.