As a kid, I would pore over Beatles album covers and lyrics looking for clues about Paul McCartney's untimely death and his look-alike replacement Billy Shears. Were these the world's first Easter eggs?
Last week, we released our first online video, I'm Not Feeling Lucky. If you haven't seen it yet, take a look.
Our video contains many Easter eggs so I thought I'd point them out to enhance your enjoyment (purists might argue that this list consists of trivia, not true Easter eggs):
00:01: The film opens with the number 5 subway train pulling into the Bowling Green subway station. This stop was one block from our old office. We were worried about shooting video in the subway post-9/11 so it's the only outdoor shot in the film taken without a tripod. It's also the only shot (other than the blooper at the end of the credits) in which we used the original sound. We added every other sound during post-production with the original sound removed.
00:09: One New York Plaza is an office building located at the corner of Water Street and Broad Street. We did not work there. We worked a few blocks away at 80 Broad Street. By necessity, this film contains a lot of exposition, but here at least we were able to use a visual to convey information — the location of the law office. When we first tried to film this building, a security guard chased us away. I had to drive down on a Saturday to get the shots, which explains the absence of any traffic. This footage ended up working with the story since a lawyer might use a Saturday to set up a new office.
00:18: Yes, that's me (uncredited). But it's not my voice. Dan Osborne is a professional voice actor. I didn't think we were going to film that day because the forecast called for rain and we needed sunlight so I didn't dress up, but the casual dress actually worked well with the story-line of setting up a new law firm.
00:22: Co-director and editor Jennifer Katz came up with this idea of placing you within the lawyer's head looking around his new office. We shot it using a low tech method — I held and moved the the camera around while Jennifer swiveled my chair.
00:23: This is Sara Skiff's desk in our old office. Sara is a neat freak so we had to work hard to clutter up her desk. Not even that dictionary originally resided on her desk. However, you can spot two of her personal belongings — her wedding photo (which works with the script) and her coffee mug (the embossed "Sara" is thankfully not showing). Note the calendar — July 2006. Also in this frame is a blueprint for office space. That was for our new office space, but the deal fell through at the last minute (we did eventually move last month).
00:27: This shot contains an homage to Seth Godin's Purple Cow, one of the few business books that changed my perspective. The prerelease version of the book came in a purple milk carton. On the whiteboard you can see a flower. That was drawn by Jenn Kish, our assistant production manager. Jenn, a college senior, is Sara's sister. We always enjoyed having Jenn spend a day in our old office not just because she's a lovely person, but it gave us an excuse to order a pizza from Adrienne's. Jenn always declared it "the best pizza." It is and it's the only thing we miss about the financial district.
00:37: TechnoLawyer is a paperless operation and this shot proves the point. This Kinko's pad is easily 6 years old yet it's still full!
00:43: This reference to Brandy Library is a true Easter egg — that's the trendy TriBeCa bar where we held our BlawgWorld 2006 launch party.
00:48: If you listen carefully, you can hear someone hailing a taxi — a nod to all the taxis I took home from our old office. Now that I walk to and from work, I'm saving a bundle.
00:51: Ironically, we captured these screen movies in Safari on a Mac using Snapz Pro — ironic because there isn't much time-billing or case management software available for Macs. But hey, it's a movie — artistic license. Incidentally, Jennifer did an incredible job adding the keyboard and mouse click sounds at the exact right spots during this sequence.
01:28: While we hired a professional filmmaker (Jennifer) and professional voice actors (Dan Osborne and Shannon Murphy), the song I'm Not Feeling Lucky was written and performed by my then 16 year old cousin Michael Squillante. I told him: Please write a guitar-heavy song with a killer hook 40 seconds long in which the only lyrics are "I'm Not Feeling Lucky." He delivered big time — that's him singing and playing all the instruments. Check out his MySpace page, and download I'm Not Feeling Lucky in MP3 format.
01:28: Just in case it's not clear (though I hope it is), this "dream sequence" so to speak takes you inside Google's server farm. The pool is the server farm, my cousin Nicholas Squillante is the Google search algorithm, and the frisbee is the lawyer's search. Got it? Nick and I have played catch the frisbee while jumping into the pool for years (him jumping, me throwing) so I decided to memorialize this game as a metaphor for failed Google searches (if anyone from Nick's school is reading this, he usually catches the frisbee).
01:31: What's a film without a slip-up. As you can see, the lawyer is not wearing a wedding band despite being married. Oops. I guess he's old school.
02:23: I hope this scene makes you chuckle. Of course, the only search that works is the one which takes him to you know where. Incidentally, did you know that fewer than 1% of Google searches use the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button yet it has become part of Internet lore — so much so that Google has vowed to keep it forever.
02:37: We captured this footage in late July, which explains why the most recent time-billing software review found is dated July 20, 2006. This same search today pulls up a review dated December 7, 2006. Cool.
02:42: The lawyer clicks on Caren Schwartz's Post Review: QuickBooks for Legal Billing. Caren is one of our most prolific contributors so it's only fitting to highlight one of her Posts in the video. Over the years, she has contributed 42 Posts, beginning on September 14, 2000. We'll publish number 43 this Thursday in Answers to Questions.
02:45: We like Shannon's voice so much that we hired her to record the greeting for our new phone system.
03:00: Here we get to the whole point of the video If you agree, please point the powers that be at your bar association (or paralegal association) to this video. Thank you.
03:08: I filmed this footage with no particular use in mind. Only later did I realize it would perfectly suit the closing credits.
03:40: Share. Remix. Enjoy. We really mean it. Feel free to embed this video on your own site or use any component (such as the song) in your own video projects. All we ask is that you provide attribution in the form of a link.
03:45: If you skipped the closing credits, you missed a very funny blooper. In the original script, Google was supposed to be relaxing in a hot tub after a long day of running searches. One more search (the frisbee) was supposed to land in front of him after which he would open one eye disapprovingly. Instead, this blooper resulted, which turned out better than the script ...
So there you have it — a behind the scenes look at I'm Not Feeling Lucky. Now you can watch the video again in a whole new light.
About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.
