The FireFox Flicks competition has been an amazing experience for Brad Vetter and myself, the two filmmakers who created “Mr. Dodo”. The contest has inspired a chain of events that would not have existed without the interest, imagination and support of Mozilla FireFox.
Vail Film Festival: On March 30th, Brad Vetter and I embarked on our inaugural Vail film festival experience. Who would have thought that the idea that is Mr. Dodo would have taken us this far? We are extremely encouraged by the promotion of Mr. Dodo as a FireFox internet phenomenon as well as its role in the viral marketing campaign. We have been documenting our whole experience and it has proved to be life changing.
“Who is Mr. Dodo anyway?” the documentary: The Dodo documentary starts with the conception of the idea and leads into our trip to Vail for the screening of Mr. Dodo before the Oscar Shorts. This competition has triggered a massive Dodo campaign and we are proud to introduce www.whoismrdodo.com. We anticipate a huge response.
A sample from whoismrdodo.com bio:
If you have heard these lyrics, then you have seen the enigma that is Mr.. Dodo. The lyrics strike fear, confusion, and awe in any onlooker. The average human is immediately struck with one pounding thought
.
Mr.. Dodo
Mr.. Dodo
wait? Who is Mr.. Dodo?
FireFox Flicks community response: There has been a remarkable response to our ad that has attracted both sides of the spectrum (those who like, those who don’t). From my perspective, I am thrilled by the fact that people are actually watching Mr. Dodo. It is gaining in popularity by the second and I embrace its polarizing effect.
All in all, this has been an incredible journey for us thanks to FireFox. We are proud to be involved in this process and are excited to see what comes of it. I applaud all of the videos and wish everyone good luck in the rest of the competition.
Stay tuned for details regarding the progress of our documentary Who is Mr. Dodo anyway?. Thank you, FireFox enthusiasts…
John Knowles
Panman Productions
www.whoismrdodo.com
Check out Brad and John’s entry now: Who is Mr. Dodo?
where is the phenominon…
What’s a phenominon…..? Is that like a filet Minon?
No offense, but my personal experience with the video has been much different. I didn’t like it or hate it. When it was over, I just closed the window and never watched it again. I certainly didn’t send it to anyone else. I’m sure you put a lot of effort in to making it and I really hope (for you) that it does become some sort of viral video (though I won’t be part of it), but just be sure that it is really having the effect you think it is before changing your lives forever. Who is Mr. Dodo? Everyone I’ve talked to says that they don’t know and they don’t care. Just my $0.02.
The first time I saw your spot, my reaction was “What the *#@!?!” but it has really grown on me. This is a great example of a piece that doesn’t hit you all at once, but instead it lingers in your head, which is very commendable.
I think I know who Mr. Dodo is…a bumbling idiot. I believe that your intent is to create the illusion of an active interest or debate around “Mr. Dodo”. However, I sincerely do not believe that this is happening or will happen. If it does then that’s great for you.
I too could come up with something that is not very clear and then watch as people tried to understand and reacted with eventual a) agreement (liking it and thinking they understand it) or b) disagreement (not liking it because it is not understandable). Although I do not deny that you put in some work to get this ad produced I sincerely do not think this ad should win. Because if it did win it would create further confusion among the intended audience around what Firefox is.
However, I do not begrudge you any success that this commercial may bring you. I hope great things come your way, and hopefully your next project is something I will be able to enjoy and understand.
Where do I even start? Inside jokes are funny to the people that created them, and no one else. Mr. Dodo huh? Would you inhale? What? You might have thought this was a funny idea, but for marketing what product? I know, maybe a cool new cigarette. Or an ad for a doctor who has a new procedure frontal lobotomies. RETARDED! I think that about covers it? Oh wait speaking of covers, how about getting your own style and not ripping off Cypress Hill? Oh wait, no shirt, no shoes, no video. CRACK HEADS!
Well one thing is for sure…Mr. Dodo does not have a girlfriend. I wish Firefox would take the video off the site. I would infact burn the origional footage and chance careers ASAP. Being at the Vail film festival must have been quite embarassing…
carrot and a stick… carrot and a stick? Who is biting???
I believe that this ad’s only true intent was to spread the word about the production company that produced it. There is very little mention about Firefox the ad itself, and we can certainly see that there is absolutely no mention of Firefox on the website that the ad spotlights. The production quality is low, and the content of the ad makes absolutely no sense. The other ads on this site were produced be people that love Firefox and want to see the word of the world’s best browser spread, but this ad is simply a cheep trick to draw attention to this low caliber company. I believe that this video should be removed from the website immediately.
Hate hate hate hate hate!
Mozilla Team! You’ve got to do something!
The negative comments are just going to continue until the Team addresses the root of the hostility:
A vast majority of the visiters to this site have some sort of connection to a film that is, most likely, not being shown right now.
In fact, LESS THAN 10% OF THE FILMS ARE ENJOYING ALL THE EXPOSURE AND PRESS THAT 250 TEAMS RIGHTFULLY EARNED. Think about that for a sec. And, it is especially aggravating when a film that has the second LOWEST rating by the community (Dodo) has been front paged YET AGAIN. Not to mention the fact that it was brought along to the Vail Film Festival. In the case of Mr. Dodo, you’ve GOT to stop shoving this film that we all don’t like in our face, at least until all of our films are up.
The community is sitting here, DYING to link thier friends to thier film page (whenever it comes up), DYING to hear comments on thier hard work, and meanwhile, some 20 films are getting FAMOUS for the entire community’s efforts. It’s not fair. You know it’s not. You are running a contest that is giving unequal exposure to people who worked VERY hard to promote your product, with no promise of reward. The LEAST you can do is get the films out in a timely manner.
There are over 250 films, and 6 days before the results are supposedly announced. At the rate we are going now, there will be 45 films on the site when the winner is announced. Please take a minute to try to imagine what it feels like to believe your film is the best one submitted, then for the contest to go by, and never get ANY comments on your film! Not to mention, that the commenting, rating, and sheer exposure that the 20 films you’ve uploaded are enjoying right now is going to sharply die off the second the winner is announced; the fact we don’t know yet is what is driving users.
There are newspaper articles talking about some of the top films as if they’ve already won! There is blatant copyright infringement (“Upgrade”) going unchecked! The administration of this contest is faltering and the fairness needs to be restored.
Please take this contest more seriously. Some of us put months of our lives into this, and all we’ve got in return so far is to watch the makers of the worst commercial galavant around like mini-speilbergs.
I must say I agree 100% with Arvin. While I understand that only a sample of the submitted films will be shown, I think that those films that blantanly go against the guidelines that some of us followed very carefully should be pulled form the site. Why even entertain these if they have no chance of winning based on the fact that certain copyrights will never be granted for this commercial. Microsoft would never allow their logo for I.E. to be used in this type of commercial. Going after Safari is ridiculous when you realize that Firefox and Safari are very very similar and that Apple would never agree to this type of product bashing either.
As far as Mr. Dodo, I really am embarrassed that this film got to represent all of us at the Vail Film Festival and I refuse to believe that the audience actually liked this film that was obviously made to promote the makers and not Firefox. Of all the adss up on the site, it is the only one that placed it’s logo at the end. Newsfalsh…commercials don’t have credits.
And one last thing…why is it that the one film that seems to annoy the most users and visitors to this site was allowed to have its maker post a guest commentary on the site…it’s as if these makers have friends at the contest or that contest promoters are actually routing for this very poorly rated film. In the end this ad will not win I know it, but to have it in our face and to have these “filmmakers” act like they’ve just made the new “Godfather” is only encouraged by the push they’re getting from this site.
Yup, we’ve encouraged all of the film makers, repeatedly, to make posts for the Backstage blog. There is no bias here towards any one ad. If you want a post on the blog, you can write something up and send it to us. It’s that easy.
- A
None of us have much to say until our ads are online.
I am pretty sure that Mr. Dodo is going to win the competition. It is one of a very few ads that is completely original and forces the viewer to think. A good ad is one that does not get old and the more you view it the better it becomes. This is all very difficult to do in 30secs. Mr. Dodo does this masterfully!
I applaud the creators for there originality and hope other original commercials rise to the top of this competition as well. There are more ads to come…
Merv you took the words out of my mouth.
Merv, if you read back through the blog, you’ll see we’ve posted all kinds of behind the scenes commentary from people well before their ads were online. If you don’t want to, I can understand, but you’re wrong when you say “none of us” since there were lots of folks who wanted to get blog posts up long before they even finished making their ads, much less seeing them online.
- A
> “It’s that easy.”
I beg to differ.
I know of film makers who have sent you (read: someone over there) posts for the Backstage blog, even though their ads aren’t posted yet. It’s been nearly a week now, but I haven’t seen their guest posts on the backstage page. What gives? I question your claims that there is no bias towards any one ad. It may not be intentional, but the lack of organization and/or effort on your (read: someone over there’s) part in handling things like posting ads and blogspots in a timely fashion has certainly created an unintentional one. Do you really think there would be this much outrage in the community if there DIDN’T appear to be bias?
If you have any hopes of doing a second version of this contest (ie more free ads for you), I recommend that somebody get his or her shit together in the next few days, before it’s too late. Otherwise, you are going to find yourself with a lot fewer participants than the first time around. Of course, if you want to see more Mr. Dodo submissions, I suppose that could be a good thing.
Asa, we actually did submit a post on the 12th, which you said was being sent over to Cheryl for posting. Now I’m not trying to say there’s any sort of wrongdoing or bias; but I have to agree that things seem to be moving slowly. Though, to your credit, I realize that you were bombarded with a hundred submissions on Friday, and if you’re re-encoding everything yourselves, well I know from experiece that’s not a speedy process- so I’m not complaining too much = ). I am curious when we might see some updates, though. Because not only is it the highlight of my morning to get up and check the site for our submissions, but I love seeing all the things other people have done as well.
I understand the position of some of the other posters, but I say don’t take it too hard, everyone should realize that even though they may have put months into their individual piece, you guys only have a few weeks to put it all together. It’s a pretty big project and for what you have to deal with I think it’s going fairly smooth thus far.
But will we actually be able to view all the spots on the site before the winners are announced? I really hope so because I think its true that the number of people actually viewing the site will drop off dramaticall afterwards.
Asa, I apologize for making these assumptions of favortism. You have cleared that up for me. The frustration comes from seeing something that most people that have watched don’t like getting so much attention, but I’m guessing you already understand that. Thank you for being on top of getting us answers.
“It seems to me that, if anything, Firefox is enhancing the Benenson brothers experience”
Johny Critic
“… you can’t deny that their (Benenson brothers) internet experience has been enhanced”
Ad
hahahahahahahahhahahahahhaha
thanks, i am not sure how much of a critic you are Johny. Seems like you understand the ad quite well and love it!
lol
you guys sure are some sweet talkers…
I reiterate. No one has had much to say before their ad is posted online. There is a layer of meaning you may have missed.
Hi folks -
We’re posting the Backstage blog posts as fast as we can with the resources we have on hand. We’ll be updating the Backstage blog today with previously submitted blog posts from contest entrants.
-Paul
No offense guys, but if you said half the things you did (the comments posted) to a professional film festival (Sundance, TIFF) your submission would be launched on the last day or if at all.
Especially when you start to question the validity of the festival and the people running it. Although there is a lot of questionnable ads that have been posted with blatent copyright infridgements.
Thank god the internet can mask your repeated identity with cheesy handles/names.
I have to admit, Mr. Dodo has not grown or inspired me. It lacks a number of elements for it to carry itself. However, I respect the filmmaker enough that he made a submission and tried to get his name out there (within the confines of the rules). That’s the beauty of this contest.
The submissions should be viewed on a professional level. Like, what’s with all these personal attacks?
If I could suggest one thing, keep your mouths shut and see how your ad pans out. From what I see here, you are showing weakness with jeaoulsy and anger– that is a sure sign of failure.
I guess the FF community does not have a sense of humor. Some of these comments are ridiculous.
This commercial is amazing, and all these negative comments are just a testament to actually how great it is. This commercial’s success has caused people such harm… where does it come from. You can only guess that they are envious of the idea, and are worried about their own commercial’s lack of ohhh that dodo factor.
It is truly funny to see how deeply hurt people are. Just amazing! LOL!
25 comments. the others have almost 0.
Andrew,
I really don’t know what you are talking about. I haven’t submitted any ads; I am just a fan of firefox and lots of ads on this site.