“I Kill a Friend”: Users can choose one of five hit men to carry out their assassinations
This month’s round table discussion is about one of – if not THE – most controversial multimedia packages I have ever encountered. If you watch the trailer to the French advertising site “I Kill a Friend,” it goes something like this: “Want to kill a friend? Need to get rid of someone? Call our professional killers. All you need is a photo of the victim. ‘I kill a friend.com’: now you can kill on the internet.” Low and behold, I inserted my photo, chose one of the five killers, and watched my death unravel right in front of my eyes.
For the purpose of this discussion, I will allow you to watch my assassination in case you don’t feel comfortable uploading your own photo. Although I didn’t use my real name, I still feel extremely uneasy knowing that this video is archived and linked for the entire world to view. They do email you a link to your murder and give you the option of deleting the final video, but I always wonder with those options if it is actually being deleted because there is no way to confirm it.
My first reaction to the site was that of sheer anger after experiencing the inappropriate and gruesome content. Isn’t this promoting the use of hit men and glorifying murder? My second instinct, however, was curiosity to see who built the site and what the purpose was behind it. Regardless how I feel about the message, the innovation and interactivity of the site is evident and the components are extraordinarily well-produced. The ability to morph an uploaded picture onto a stuntman and then instantly produce a customized video is extremely impressive.
Users upload a photo and make several adjustments such as color and contrast.
I wanted to provide multiple perspectives about this site, so Andrea interviewed Michel Teicher, one of the site’s producers at Euro RSCG, to get his opinion.
The purpose of this site is to promote the French cable network 13eme Rue (owned by NBC) that runs shows about crime. Therefore, Teicher argued that this type of site was fitting for the content.
“In general, the strategy behind this interactive website has its roots in the “13eme rue†DNA. It’s a cable network that had always focused on the network of crime and police investigation. So it seems ideal to talk about this channel in this way,” he said.
Teicher continues by saying that this site was produced in good humor as a joke.
“Today violence as entertainment is everywhere: movies, video games, comics, cartoons, online gaming and so on. But here you don’t kill … you’re watching a scene that could be extracted from any blockbuster, and we took a lot of precaution in the way that we shot those scenes to always look like a real movie (it’s not done with a cell phone or an amateur camera). Every shot is perfectly filmed and edited so it doesn’t appear to look real. As our Creative Director Olivier Apers says, ‘Here we kill people for fun, but we do it seriously.’”
While I definitely agree that violence is evident in all entertainment venues, I would argue that the high quality filming and production DOES make it seem real, which is why I feel so violated. Furthermore, you can use social media to spread these assassination videos, and they promote the “Top 13″ killers on their homepage. Currently, one person has “killed” 42 people. I understand testing out the site to see what happens with each hit man (I tried two of them), but doing it 42 times is utterly disturbing.
If their goal was to raise awareness about the television network and to create buzz, they have succeeded. Teicher noted that although the site is currently only in French, they have already had more than 400,000 kills and over 10 million pageviews in a month. “We are currently working on launching it in other countries,” he added.
If you choose the woman killer, you die while going for a jog, as seen above.
In response to our question about ensuring that this site was used by a mature audience and only for entertainment purposes, Teicher said, “First of all, you don’t have to play this game if you don’t want to. We also have a pg 16 sign on the website page.”
We also asked about the behind-the-scenes production in case you are curious how they made the site:
“In terms of shooting, the first goal was to shoot all the crime scenes in the spirit of the great movies that everyone likes (the goodfellas, kill bill, Leon etc… ) We picked the perfect location for that – Romania – where the sets are amazing, very dark and strong. We shot all of the scenes in four days with our director, Nicolas Benamou from Dak Tirak productions. The casting of the killers was important, because everyone fits the part perfectly (the classy killer, the gorgeous and lethal sniper …)
Technically, the stuntman (it’s the same person in most of the sequences) had to look androgynous enough so you could put a male or a female picture inside. We took care not to see his hair on every sequence so the matching of the picture is perfect, without looking odd at the end, and that’s why he always has a hoody or a cap on. After that, all the morphing/3D aspects, as well as the website, was done internally with a technology our web team created just for this application.”
Take some time to watch my assassination and check out the site. Do you think this is a clever and well-done production for a fitting client, or a disturbing use of technology? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
NOTE: Andrea Ballocchi conducted the interview with producer Michel Teicher via email in French & English. Therefore, some interview quotes and the summary of site content are English translations of French content.
I agree that the site is unnecessarily violent. It’s an interesting concept, and I like the sleek design and some of the animation and execution, but overall I’m not sure I see the point. I don’t think I would send a video of my assassination around to my friends, which would be the point of a viral marketing site like this. I also think it’s really creepy how the face doesn’t move as the body moves. Especially if the photo you submitted is smiling, it gives a really eerie effect. And the androgyny of the body doesn’t work well, it looks like a man’s body — not a woman.
Okay that was powerful. The intro with the characters wasn’t anything new, but watching your assassination clip hit an emotional level.
Clever or disturbing? Both. It’s certainly a commentary how far advertising will go to get our attention.
David
ES: Ok, eso fue poderoso. La introducción con los personajes no fue nada nuevo, pero ver tu asesinato me golpeó a nivel emocional.
¿Intelegente o inquietante? Ambos. Es sin duda para comentar lo lejos que la publicidad es capaz de ir para llamar tu atención.
David
sophia
Agree with Kat as far as the tech goes — the video is nice and smooth but I really wished the face moved with the rest of the video.
But beyond that, I think it’s bizarre that they’re asking you to kill a friend. I’m wondering what the logic was behind doing that versus asking you to kill a ‘bad guy’ or an enemy if they had to go the violent route, especially given that they’re advertising a crime channel.
Más allá de eso, creo que es raro que te pidan matar a un amigo. Me pregunto cuál fue la lógica de hacer eso en vez de pedirte que mates a un ‘malo’ o a un enemigo si tenÃan que tomar la ruta violente, especialmente dado que estás haciendo publidad para un canal de crimen.
M
I think it’s pretty baller. I’ve been killing my co-workers all day. And a few baby seals.
ES: Creo que es bastante fantástico . He estado matando a mis compañeros de trabajo todo el dÃa. Y algunas focas.
http://www.tracynboyer.com Tracy Boyer
@Kat It’s definitely awkward seeing my smiling face as I die! It would have been a nice touch if they could sync the body and photo head movements …
@David Glad you were also disturbed by my “death”! I think the question here is whether or not the advertising campaign went too far in hopes of attracting attention.
@Sophia I totally agree with your point how it would make more sense to assassinate a bad person rather than a friend. I think allowing a user to upload any photo, including your own, just makes the end video too personal and emotional.
ES: @Kat es definitivamente raro ver mi cara sonriente mientras muero! Hubiera sido un buen toque sincronizar los movimientos del cuerpo y la cabeza
@Sophia Estoy totalmente de acuerdo con tu punto de vista acerca de que tendrÃa más sentido asesinar a un enemigo en vez de un amigo. Creo que permitir al usuario subir cualquier foto, incluyendo la de uno, hace que el final del vÃdeo sea muy personal y emocional.
duckrabbitblog
People will do anything for money … ES: Hay gente que harÃa cualquier cosa por plata…
Meredith
Nick first sent me a link to a video he made of Mike being killed on the motorcycle. I actually didn’t realize it was Mike (and since I didn’t understand what I was watching, I also didn’t get why the face looked really flat while the other character in the movie looked more real). I only understood what it was at the end when I saw the actual photo of Mike and his name tag on his foot.
In all honesty, I thought it was kind of funny until I read your thoughts about it here. Then Nick showed me one he made with himself and that one was way more creepy to me (in the trunk of the car).
I have no desire to use the site to create anything! It’s more fun when it’s less personal, IMO.
Para ser totalmente honesta, me pareció que era más bien divertido hasta que leà lo que tu piensas aquÃ. Luego Nick me mostró uno que hizo de sà mismo y eso me pareció mucho más horroroso (en la maletera del vehÃculo).
No tengo ningún deseo de usar el sitio para crear nada! Es más entretenido cuando es menos personal.
The ‘tussin
so you’re saying you like to kill strangers eh?
ES: Entonces estás diciendo que te gusta matar a desconocidos, eh?
http://multimedialearning.com David
For the intended audience, I don’t think it went too far.
I won’t share the link with friends or family because I know it would upset them.
What would “too far” look like? Maybe if the project encouraged users to select religious or political icons or leaders. Sure, users could do that now, but the site isn’t suggesting they do it.
ES: Para la audiencia que pretendÃan, no creo que hayan ido muy lejos.
EN: I have already received several kills. I don’t know if consider myself popular or simply be afraid. It would be so good if the intelligence used to create this kind of innovative sites was used for more productive things. Not so destructive.
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