10e20 Blog

I heard about this neat viral thing that Verizon was doing where you could create your own movie starring yourself on the Internet. This seemed pretty cool to me and I figured I’d give it a try. I had a blast last summer with the Scissor Sisters music video going around that you could insert yourself into. (don’t try it because it doesn’t seem to work anymore)

At first I thought that it would be a cut out of my head on top of some moving parts, but then I saw that these movies take about 24 hours to generate.

So why is Verizon doing this? Well luckily they answer that question right on their website:

“The Power of Verizon Broadband”. I am about to be entertained in ways that I’ve never dreamed possible. Totally cool. Seems like fun. I will definitely give it a shot.

Step 1 - Plot. The premise of the movie is that you are an action hero who saves the world from some impending doom. You get to pick who you do battle with. I chose “E=MC SCARED!”, a mad scientist who plans to take over the world.

Step 2 - Upload Your Photo. At this point I am getting excited. They give good instructions. You basically need a photo of yourself looking straight ahead with your hair off of your face. Having just gotten 1400 wedding pictures back from our photographer I luckily had one.

Step 3 - Map points on your face. With each step I am actually getting a little more invested.

Step 4 - Select your body. They let you choose male, female, slim, or athletic. I chose to be a slim female.

Step 5 - Select your personality. Quirky, newlywed into fashion and marathon running? Nah, they basically give you the choice of Femme Fatale, Girly Girl, and Cute, Brainy Type. I went with Femme Fatale, A Hero to Die For. It’s my movie right?

The longest part of this process is the time you spend customizing your character.

From here you get to “direct” your movie. There are choices like soundtrack, your enemy’s vehicle for the opening chase scene, lines at the end, and the title of the movie.

So after you are done with all of this customizing you get to invite your friends to the “premier”of your movie. I put me and Chris in, sat back and waited for my movie premier. All in all I would say this process took me about 15-20 minutes. Finding the picture was the most time consuming part.

About a minute later I get an email that says this:

We’re sorry but there was a problem with the photo that you uploaded to create a unique face for your Action Hero Character. We were unable to use that photo to render the face on your character.

Thank you for experiencing the power of Verizon Broadband.

At Verizon, we believe that broadband can entertain you in ways that you never dreamed possible, and this is our way of proving it.

Explore the broadband power of the Verizon network at VerizonSurround (http://surround.verizon.net)

This email was sent to you by Verizon at your request.

Your privacy is important to Verizon. You may review Verizon’s online privacy policy at www22.verizon.com/privacy.

This is an auto-generated email. Please do not respond to this message. For customer service issues, please visit us online at www.verizon.com for more information.

There is one line about this email that disturbs me. “At Verizon, we believe that broadband can entertain you in ways that you never dreamed possible, and this is our way of proving it.” I don’t feel all that entertained, and just a little frustrated. I mean it’s not like my happiness hinges on whether a free movie creator works or not, but I know that nothing has been proven to me. At the very least they could have dropped the photo part and moved on and created the movie with the other selections I’d made. Great idea, great design, poor execution.

Here’s the link to try it for yourself - hopefully you’ll have better luck then I did.  If you are able to complete it, please drop the link in the comments below so I can check it out.