Lovely By Surprise and The Neverything. Corporate Shill, But Quality Corporate Shill.
Ah, Mr. Spielberg ... would the world be a different place if the short sighted folk at M&Ms had said yes? Possibly, but ever since Reece's Pieces stepped into the void and made a fortune thanks to Spielberg's sugar hungry little alien product placement has been a basic fact of life. In this post-TIVO, bit-torrent enabled era it is becoming increasingly so, producers filling the economic gaps left be decreased ad revenues by renting out space for products in their films. Yes, it can be tedious but when done well - hello, BMW films - you actually get a weird sort of synergy out of it ...
Enter Lovely By Surprise and The Neverything. Two interlocked series of online short films building up to a theatrical feature, the shorts are 'presented' by Lincoln Mercury. I see none of their actual products in the shorts themselves but the corporate investment is obvious and up front. Car sales aside, though, the shorts - written and directed by Kirt Gunn - are really quite good. They're a bit glossy, a bit mainstream, but there's a definite Woody Allen / Coen Brothers / Kurt Vonneut Jr. influence in the pieces and that's got to count as a good thing.
Lovely By Surprise tells the story of an author slowly losing her grip on reality as she struggles with her creations and a serious case of writer's block. The Neverwhere is the story of her creations, jockey-short clad brothers living on a boat in the middle of the desert and subsisting on a diet of milk and breakfast cereal - both of which are curiously un-branded - and one of whom is becoming aware of his created status. It's fun stuff and well put together.
Check the respective websites for access to trailers and a series of short films. I believe both sites are currently up to five shorts each.
