Click over to Toyota’s youtube channel, and you’ll find their latest commericals.  Best of all, there's an interesting making-of video for the new Prius ads which have my 10-month old son enraptured every time he hears the female a cappella voices. You know the ones? The 2010 hybrid car goes driving through a magical world of “nature” that is literally hundreds of silly people in bright colors, dancing, jumping and waving.

The tagline reads “Harmony between man, nature, and machine”.

I am fascinated by this campaign, but more-so, I am impressed that the making-of video is readily available to curious web surfers like myself.

Sometimes, disclosing your methods can further entice your audience. Sometimes something this new and cool has to be explained, like a magic trick that is spoiled the second time around for the audience’s benefit, making us chuckle at how it’s really done. Show us the invisible wires! Show us the green screen. We want to say, ‘I know how they did that!’ What once was movie magic is now more of a network of afficionados who have computer skills. The more one knows, the more included one feels. Indeed, I find myself wanting to explore who came up with the concept for the Prius campaign, who directed the commercials (he’s Japanese?), who produced the web videos and who sang the song.

And so, of course, the Toyota brand sticks in my mind all afternoon. Way to go, them.

This is a rhetorical question.

First, what is the difference between 16×9 video and 4×3 video?
These numbers describe Aspect Ratio, the horizontal length of your video (or television) in relation to its vertical hight. The TV you grew up watching Sesame Street on was 4×3. The new monolith you probably shelled out for just before Circuit City went out of business (you, meaning you and I) is 16×9. You may have noticed that YouTube is now streaming all its videos in 16×9. Why did they make this change?

Probably due to all the new films, videos, games, DVDs, and such which are now being released widescreen. The simple answer is that consumers are quickly thinking 16×9 is what looks cool. Why should hip new videomakers be constrained to 4×3 aspect ratio when it could cut off the sides of their image OR worse, squish the image so that it looks “tall”? YouTube has accommodated those who know what is current, else users decide to jump ship to other video hosting sites.

Check out Spunkeez YouTube Widescreen Tutorial. He’s a surly fellow who discusses how to update your videos so they look correct on today’s YouTube. And he uses rock n roll background music. Clever stuff.

If you have a consumer camcorder, look for the 16×9 setting and give it a whirl. Your actors reels and family videos will better fit on tomorrow’s televisions, iPods and computer screens.