Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris (“The Thin Blue Line”) has been interviewed by Noah Helpern for The Huffington Post. Morris reveals, “I’m doing some more ads for [Apple Computer]. I have to go back to LA to shoot more commercials. They’re building an Ames room in LA as we speak.”
HuffPost: What kind of room?
Morris: They’re these rooms, they’re built in a completely distorted way in order to create an optical illusion based on perspective. I’ve always wanted to shoot in an Ames room and now we’re going to.
HuffPost: Are they going to be the same format as the earlier ads?
Morris: It’s not clear yet. You know, I actually like doing commercials. I don’t like doing them to the exclusion of everything else, but I like doing them. The 30-second format is very hard. I sometimes call it American Haiku. And I think some of the commercials I’ve done are not so bad.
Full article here.
Morris directed Apple’s popular “Switch” campaign ads, which consisted of vignettes about real people who had abandoned PCs for Macs, including the famous or infamous, depending on your point of view, “Ellen Feiss” ad. The original “Switch” or “Real People” ads were filmed using a special camera developed by Morris, called the “Interrotron,” which uses mirrors to make interview subjects appear to be speaking to an interviewer when they are actually facing the camera. Quicktime movies of the Ellen Feiss ad and all of the other Apple “Switch” ads here.
Our favorite “Switch” ad never aired except at Macworld Expo NYC: Will “I’m a porn actor” Ferrell
[Attribution: AppleInsider]
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Forrester analysts: Apple should advertise Mac OS X Tiger on television and in movie theaters – April 29, 2005
Why doesn’t Apple advertise Mac OS X on TV? – April 12, 2005
Apple asks for new ‘Switcher’ stories – February 16, 2005
Switchers Icon Set debuts for Mac OS X; includes Ellen Feiss icon – December 26, 2002
Feissmania hits new peak; Ellen’s first interview is now online – November 21, 2002
Feissmania has no bounds – October 02, 2002
bleep
bleep bleep
let me get another hit…
Yep, those were obviously so successful.
Good news to hear. I hope they go for the throat with this next round of Mac advertising. It will be nice to see Apple once again well over 50% of PC marketshare.
I wish they would just be blunt for once instead of so creative, so the majority of dumb consumers would understand it.
MAC OS X is better than windows because …
instead of a house with a hole blown in it and the camera slowly sneaks up to a G5. People are not even seeing the OS.
Show the OS in action, and what it can do.
iLife, games, email, itunes, ipod – the simplictiy of the it all.
MDN Magic Word: Probably, as ‘They Probably Won’t.’
JJ, you are probably right. They won’t do a commercial like you have stated above and that is a good thing.
Apple’s whole philosophy has always been about doing things differently. I sure hope they don’t succumb to the standard “and you mac can do this” etc. type of commodity driven commercial. That’s what you’d expect from MS or Dell not Apple.
The most effective and memorable commercials have always been creative and succeed by creating a mystique about a product that will get people interested. Admittedly, some of Apples past commercials have been hit and miss, but you can’t deny they got it right with the latest iPod commercials. They are memorable, creative and they don’t give it all away.
Let’s hope the next round of “Switch” commercials are as effective.
Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!
“It will be nice to see Apple once again well over 50% of PC marketshare.”
Except Apple never had 50% of the marketshare. And I don’t think that I’d like Apple to have that much – there are many advantages to being the underdog.
“Show the OS in action, and what it can do. iLife, games, email, itunes, ipod – the simplictiy of the it all.”
I completely agree with everything except games… I wouldn’t show Doom 3 – people might think it’s a still-frame the FPS in that game are so bad (okay, they’re not that bad…) Still, you advertise your strong points, and Mac-gaming isn’t one of them. Period. I’m still routing for the “Buy a PowerMac, get $200 off your PS3…”.
Monkeyboy-ROFL
Apple’s whole philosophy has always been about doing things differently. I sure hope they don’t succumb to the standard “and you mac can do this” etc. type of commodity driven commercial. That’s what you’d expect from MS or Dell not Apple.
Eh, the commodity is Dell.. they brag about things like price and raw numbers. Apple has never been commodity, and frankly.. saying ‘what your computer can do’ is NOT commodity.
interestingly, Dell’s commercials have had a little more success than Apples.. check the marketshare..
The most effective and memorable commercials have always been creative and succeed by creating a mystique about a product that will get people interested
Ah yes, the Apple brand. those memorable ads which attach Apple to such greats as Einsein, Lennon and Richard Branson.
But what does that do for customers who aren’t Mac zealots.
Not much.
Instead of saying, ‘we’re worth the premium price’ maybe Apple should communicate that ‘there is no premium price’ and let the customers discover that the computer is worth twice what they paid for it..
then they become ‘apple salesmen’…
I liked the “Switch” campaign. I can’t wait to see the new commercials. I wonder what the creative is going to be.
i’d love to see the apple store clips from the wwdc used as an add. i thought it was just great.
“My name is Janie Porche, and I saved Christmas.”
Classic. LOL LOL
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This is a bold test
Italic test
<weird> Weird test </weird>
Ironically, there’s a good commercial out there now in which some teen girl says something like “if you lock me in my room, I’ll make music and load it on the ‘net and burn CDs and make covers for them…” etc. etc. It should be featuring Garageband and iLife and iWork, but it’s for Windows XP.
Since they’ll no longer be working with IBM, perhaps a re-airing of the “1984” commercial would be in order.
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I’m a big fan of Errol Morris’ films. What I didn’t like about the Switch campaign is that it reinforced some people’s belief that Macs are for idiots who can’t understand a “real” computer.
Apple tv commercials suck.
thank you captain obvious (that would be you window)…people have been saying that for a long time…
ok a different note, what is so “infamous” about ellen feiss? i read her story and it didn’t seem too out of the ordinary…i mean i hear stories like that all the time…
i guess being a college student doesnt helps, but still.
Forget Ellen Feiss, bring back Janie Porche.
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