PS4, Xbox One or OTHER!

It's been E3 this week and games news has been awash with PS4 (simple naming convention) and Xbox One (weird chronologically screwed naming convention).

But there is a much more important announcement this week - the launch of my first Kickstarter campaign. Check it out!

By the Power of Brevity

I'm a fan of brevity, I might not be the best practitioner of it in the world, but I'm a fan nonetheless.

It's of particular benefit when trying to sell an idea - no one wants to have to read three paragraphs before you tell them what the hell your idea is all about. 

Be brief, be to the point and be exciting.

Normally I apply this to words, but recently I had the splendid idea of watching the opening sequence from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, which has provided me with an excellent example of less being more in the world of moving image.

When I began my search I didn't expect was to bump into the the 4 minute version of Buck Rogers intro, in fact I had no idea it existed. It was used on the theatrical release of the pilot and you can suffer it here.

It's not all that bad, by itself, if you've not seen the TV intro. I guess the strange three minutes of women rolling around do convey some element of Buck's 500 year sleep, although I can't work out why he was so happy about being unfrozen, I guess all the rolling around got a bit boring. 

I certainly found it boring. Now have a look at the intro sequence from the TV series. It's a far superior piece of work, blasting the information to your ears as quickly and as punchy as possible. In fact, the whole thing is over in the same amount of time it takes the longer version to stop speaking.

Of course, if you don't have to explain anything then you can be even more brief. I expect the first teaser for Star Wars Episode VII will be a blank screen, then we'll hear the sound of a lightsaber powering up, just the sound, no visual, then perhaps Star Wars logo. Let's face it, that'll be worth $200 million in box office straight off the bat.