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The Wonder of Water

By Trent Gilliss | Thursday, March 20, 2008 - 3:46pm

Video snacks are the latest rage among the working proletariat nowadays. People are hungry for the sentimental, the celebratory, the enigmatically natural joy of physics, the contemplative, the comic — especially at 3 pm on a workday.

For me, one of the pure pleasures of video on the Web is discovering cinematic joy in a short commercial that I may have dismissed because of timing and the medium. But, with a set of headphones forming an aural cocoon, I can experience the magic of water balloons floating and bursting in super-slow-motion, reflect on my children and wife, and appreciate what an immensely beautiful world that presents itself. All in a Schweppes ad; can you believe it?

(via VSL)


commercial, nature, physics, spirit, video

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4 Comments

Submitted by vanderven1 on Thu, 2008-03-27 18:46

As a high school teacher, I am always looking for moments that transcend, that are what I simply call "happy-making moments," for two reasons: 1) I like to begin my English classes with quirky or thought-provoking images or quotations to focus my students and get them writing or dialoguing; 2) during the course of a school day, there are many times a teacher just needs those moments to cling to. This video is one of those happy-making moments, making me smile all the way through it. Thank you for sharing; I hadn't seen it yet.

Submitted by Trent Gilliss on Fri, 2008-03-28 13:14

"Happy-making moments" ... I like that. I've been watching some wonderful amateur filmmakers on Vimeo lately. These auteurs are making some incredibly moving pieces. I'll be posting more in the weeks ahead.

Submitted by Lorraine on Wed, 2008-04-02 03:17

Pretty ingenious commercial....

Submitted by kelli ann on Mon, 2008-04-07 21:09

i *thought* that sounded like patrick watson. nice video snack (love that term).

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