New Moon, the next installment of the Twilight vampire movies is due out a matter of days. As the fever pitches more information about the home used in the movie as the residence of the Cullens is breaking on the internet. Apparently the home is now up for sale, and hi res photos of the house can be seen on the realtor's web site.
Well once again the modern house is leveraged to signify that the characters who live there in the movie are cool. Yet our home builders can't seem to get that message. Truth remains stranger than fiction.
Dollhouse, the science fiction/drama/action program on the Fox network is uses a modern setting for its secret headquarters. I've not posted it up till now as it is not really a house per say. But the show has taken a turn towards promoting the show with the Modern House. Check out this promotional photo showing the cast posing in what appears to be Case Study House #22 designed by Pierre Koenig. Its hard to tell where the photo stops and the photoshop begins. This is obviously framed like the historic Julius Shulman photo, but I can't tell if the photoshop work has been done over the famous photo or a remarkable simulation.
What can we say - Joss Whedon, the show's creator and producer, certainly knows cool. When it comes time to make the program look like something cool to watch, they turn to the Modern House, or the Modern Dollhouse.
T-Mobile has been unleashing a new series of commercials since they have brought back their former spokeswoman Catherine Zeta-Jones. In the latest of this series of commercials we see Jones in the kitchen of a beautiful modern home.
So what gives. Seems that T-Mobile bailed out of the traditional settings shown in the earlier spots in this campaign. In the earlier spots the traditional home owners were portrayed as sort of foolish and awkward in the presence of the T-Mobile spokeswomen. In this ad the owners are away, but their son is home and keeps his cool long enough to put his best moves on Jones, to no avail. Well at least we know the residents of the cool modern house are much smoother operators than those flustery traditional home owners. Yup, we want to be like them, and sure Catherine, what other mobile service would somebody as cool as us use.
Extra points for anybody who can ID that house. Cool stair. Nice handrail. Miesian column made of steel angles. Concrete slab floor. Plenty of visual clues if you've seen it before. Let us know in the comments.
It is located in the hills above downtown LA, and at least for the present it is for sale. There you have it full circle - modern house used to sell soda, soda used to sell modern house. Many more photos at the above link.
This is from Audi's German web site, but hey - we're not that picky when a company wants to leverage the modern house. And in this case Audi is shameless about it. Cut and paste that modern house right into that landscape, yep they'll all be able to tell and that's ok because we all know its all about the cool jive coming off that shiny house. And in this case the house is the Loftcube prefab, an interesting German proposal for a small relocatable dwelling. Obviously when Audi wants a backdrop to make their cars look good, they know they need to add a modern house to the landscape to prop up their product. They know it, we know it. American home builders? Hello?
In this new TV spot for Dr. Pepper we see a giant house party going on in a modern house. In fact it would be almost inconceivable to imagine this commercial set in a traditional colonial for instance. The kind of partying, the culture shown would just feel incongruent with a traditional house.
So Dr. Pepper knows it - they understand that the modern house makes the scene cool. They know that their product gains image, gains desirability, by placing it in the modern house. Never said, but so widely understood. So where is the smart builder developer who is going to hitch their wagon to that image, that desire? America is already sold, and they don't even know it.
Volkswagen has been running a new series of tv ads all set in the driveway of a peculiar modern house. Aside from the talking cars being unusual the house has garage doors all the way across the front. But if you look closely behind the garage doors you'll notice that the house appears to be an iconic modern Eichler house. This is confirmed later in the spot when the car rolling down the street passes a never ending line of Eichler modern ranch houses.
So what gives? What kind of message is Volkswagen trying to send? Why not show their cars in front of ordinary McMasiony like houses since that's what most of their customers have anyway? Right? But no, instead they show their cars in front of perhaps the most iconic of modern homes, the Eichlers. Why would that be? Well, we all know that Volkswagon wants their cars to come across as smart, modern, and desirable. And so they want to place them in a setting that reinforces that. If they put them in front of an ordinary house, then their car would look, well... ordinary. So instead they put their cars in front of a house that looks cool, and that makes their cars look cool. And they rightly assume that everybody out there in TV land is going to understand that. They get the message that the car in front of the cool house is also cool. So then since we all understand that the modern house is cool, WHY CAN"T YOU GO OUT TO ANY PLACE IN THE COUNTRY WHERE HOUSES ARE BEING SOLD AND BUY A MODERN HOUSE? Because the idiots that build and sell the houses are the few people in the country that don't get it. Dopes.
A shout out to Robert McLaughlin for spotting this one.
The Twilight vampire saga is currently filming a sequel, New Moon. If you recall the vampires in the first movie have a thing for modern houses. Fan espionage on the internet reveals that a new and different modern house may be standing in for the vampire's modern home in this second Twilight movie.
T-Mobile has been running a series of commercials, all set in modern homes. This one highlights their short contracts.
Lets get the gist. We want people watching our ads to think our customers are cool, and smart. We want the viewer to want to be like them? How do we make them feel that way - well first we put the customer in the ad in a cool modern house. Wow, the viewer says - I want to be cool like they are. The viewer can do one of two things. They can run out and buy a modern house (good luck, sheesh), or they can run out and buy a T-Mobile phone. Gotcha.
This is a shorter version of the add that's been on our watch list for a few weeks. Verizon has been using this series of ads showing the down and out cable guy as he is continuously scooped by the FIOS guy for new installations.
So what does this say about the modern house? Well its simple really. Verizon wants the customer who has ditched cable and switched to FIOS to look smart, hip, and with it - in the know about the best tv service. Whats a better way to give them a smart hip vibe than to put them in a modern house. Verizon knows - the modern house is cool, and it will make their FIOS service look cool. So, if Verizon can figure this out, why can't america's home builders?
The original Mod House Media Watch covered the modern design of the house in the Incredibles animated feature. Today the great Mid-Century Modernists blog covers the same, but with many more screen captures from the movie. Go see what a super job the film makers did capturing the prototypical mid-century home. This is what life would look like if the principles caught on and we were still making houses like this today.
Previously we noted the use of the modern house in the Twilight movie. Today we strayed across more information about the actual house. It was designed by Skylab Architecture, an architecture firm from Portland Oregon, and you can see more photos of the house on their site. It is a flash site so unfortunately I can not link directly to the page, but it is identified as the Hoke Residence.
I've been really enjoying web blog Spy Vibe and thought I would share it with you. They cover the world of design as presented in the Spy movie genre, and often have fantastic coverage of past movies and the period design captured in their set design. So if you love mid-century and pop modern interiors, especially the stuff of super villians and hip undercover men then you will really enjoy this site.
The top image is from the Captain Scarlet marionette program - which often had fantastic modern design. Below the swinging playboy penthouse of Our Man Flint features coconut chairs and a Jackson Pollack on the wall.
Pop sensibilites reign in The 10th Victim below. You should at least come out of the site with a great NetFlix list!
The Watchman movie clips seem to be all over the internet these days. The clips show us that there will be a little bit of mid-century modern ranch action in this super-hero thriller. If I was a caped crusader no doubt I'd want a cool modern house for my secret identity to live in.
T-Mobile has really let roll a series of commercials set in modern homes. Check out this one, set in the living room of a mid-century modern house, fit with what looks like a Noguchi table and a Florence Knoll Sofa.
What is the message here? Why does T-Mobile always choose a modern house for the setting for their commercials? Could it be that their phone service looks cooler if the T-Mobile customers in their ads live in a modern house? Huh. So T-Mobile knows that the modern house makes their product more desirable. Seems like a lot of businesses realize that. Except maybe the housing industry?
In an article appearing in the LA Times about a renovated ranch home the owners describe the house they were seaking as a Mr. Incredible House, referring to the modern ranch house that was the home of the characters in the animated movie The Incredibles. Interesting. Since america's home builders can't seem to get it together to offer such a cool looking home the owners had to hire designers and create their own.
We had covered the design of the Incredibles House in the original Mod House Media Watch, so we'll repost one of the images here.
A Mr. Incredibe House at the LA Times
Just another casual appearance of the modern house living in a very ordinary way in a tv ad.
Why not a traditional house? The subtlety of the ad would probably make it completely unnoticeable without the modern house. In this case the modern house serves to break the scene from convention, and perhaps hold your attention. I think this is how the ad leverages the modern house. Could you even see this commercial with a traditional house? Oh, what a drag, dude.
Lexus is running an campaign for their hybrid technology cars called the The Power of H. It includes several short documentary type videos which are hosted on their web site. One of these shorts focuses on the use of reclaimed shipping containers to build houses, of course they are overtly modern houses.
Its very interesting. There are more than one traditionally styled house project out there that was built with shipping containers. I can call out one in Charleston, and one in Tampa off the top of my head, I'm sure there are more. Yet Lexus choose to highlight 3 architects creating very progressive houses with this recycled building block. Why would that be? Well, wrapping up a shipping container in traditional garb so it looks like every other house would not really make much of a statement when you want to wear your environmental status on your sleeve. So modern houses that wear their containers proudly are a much better selling point for a hybrid car that does the same.
