If you were paying attention to the commercials during this past weekend’s football fun, you may have noticed a new commercial for Google Chrome, one that shows massive amounts of support for The Johnny Cash Project. Like most Google commercials, this one is also hard to ignore.
Before we delve into what the project entails, and Google Chrome’s role, here’s the commercial in question:
Come for the Cash, stay for the glimpses of Google+.
As for the Johnny Cash project, the idea is pretty damn cool. Cash’s last studio recording was “Ain’t No Grave,” and the project is asking web users to contribute frames to a fan-made video for the song in question. According to the statistics, over 250,000 people from over 170 different countries contributed to the project, and this is what they’ve come up with.
The video, besides featuring a finished product, also features interview snippets of frame contributors. The final product, much like the song itself is haunting, but it’s also an incredible song and the crowd sourced video is filled with the same kind of quality:
Besides the Google Chrome commercial, Google has also created a Google Chrome theme dedicated to the Johnny Cash Project, and it makes use of frame #583, which was contributed by Fin Cramb. Concerning the video and its individual frames, here’s a description of how the video was made directly from the site:
The Johnny Cash Project is a global collective art project, and we would love for you to participate. Through this website, we invite you to share your vision of Johnny Cash, as he lives on in your mind’s eye. Working with a single image as a template, and using a custom drawing tool, you’ll create a unique and personal portrait of Johnny. Your work will then be combined with art from participants around the world, and integrated into a collective whole: a music video for “Ain’t No Grave”, rising from a sea of one-of-a-kind portraits.
From this writer’s perspective, not including the Haitian earthquake/map recreation, this is one of the more impressive uses of crowd sourcing I’ve seen. Granted, the final product will essentially be just a music video, but then again, we’re not talking about just any artist here. Because of the subject, Johnny Cash, the medium transcends mere music entertainment.
Instead, it becomes a touching memorial for one of the most gifted musicians to grace the American music scene.