At the beginning of November, producer Fede Alvarez posted a video on YouTube called “Ataque de Panico” (Panic Attack).   Six weeks later, the 5 minute film he produced for $300 has been viewed 3.5 million times and just landed Alvarez a $30 million movie deal from Ghost House Pictures.

When $300 can produce something of this quality, you begin to see why traditional media & entertainment companies are in trouble.  And it also makes you think twice about how much you are paying your agency for that latest TV commercial as well…

I have to admit, I have been fascinated by the Virtual Good / Social Gaming market lately.  It is something I am going to be thinking / writing about more often in the coming weeks for sure.  In the meantime, here is a great presentation that was recently given at the Virtual Worlds Conference.   Great primer for those new to this space.  [presentation embedded below].

Thanks to HBO, the Cincinnati Bengals are going to learn about a Hard “Knocks” Life.  Premiering on August 12th at 10 PM EST, the Bengals are going to be featured on this season’s Hard Knocks, a show that looks into life at a NFL Training Camp.

As a Bengals season ticket holder, I can’t wait to see the show.  Will Carson Palmer be able to come back two years of injuries?  Will Chad “Johnson” Ocho Cinco get into trouble for sending tweets from the locker room?  Or will any of our players end up arrested again before the season begins?  Those are story lines just made for a reality TV show.

And of course, I’m looking forward to talk to HBO and the Bengals about partnership opportunities with the real Hard Knox Life.

There is no denying the impact of Twitter these days.  But what if we talked in “real life” like we do on Twitter?  That is the very question that Dan Gurewitch at CollegeHumor answers in this funny video.

(RSS Readers: click through for video).

I might be crazy here but I have a gut feeling that the company who ends up buying Twitter is not going to be Google or Facebook like everyone thinks.  Instead, as I mentioned on Twitter the other week, I think Yahoo might just emerge as the Dark Horse candidate to pick-up everyone’s favorite microblogging service (which just saw traffic surge to 10 million).

Here are my five reasons it might just come true:

1. The release of Yahoo Sideline shows Twitter is on their radar: If you haven’t seen Sideline yet, it allows you to “watch, search, and monitor the Twitter public timeline in real-time.”  In a time when new management is trying to get things moving in the right direction at Yahoo, they are only going to invest resources in something that is important.  This is not the biggest reason but something to keep in mind.
2. Yahoo has a history of investing in Web 2.0: People often forget that before Yahoo fell on hard times, they were the go to place for a Web 2.0 company to get acquired.   They bought the leading photo site with Flickr, the pioneer of social bookmarking with del.icio.us, and widget “inventor” Konfabulator.
3. If Yahoo wants to win in search, Twitter could be the key: Much has been written about the search wars between Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo.  In fact, many say its the reason Microsoft made a play for Yahoo in the first place.  Now everyone is talking about how Google and Microsoft are bidding against each other for the search rights on Twitter.  What if Yahoo stepped inand took it away from both of them?  Would that be enough to bring Ballmer back to the table to buy Yahoo at $33 a share?
4. Yahoo has the cash that Twitter wants: Yahoo has $3.45 billion in cash on hand.  Facebook’s play for Twitter fell apart because in the $500 million offer price, they were only giving $50-$100 million in cash and the rest in Facebook stock.  If cash is what Twitter wants, Yahoo could easily give them an all cash deal.  Though if I was the Twitter guys, I would take a little of the undervalued Yahoo stock as well.
5. Yahoo’s new management needs a hit: This might just be the most important reason.  In a part of the country where being the next big thing is half the battle, Yahoo has fallen on hard times from an image standpoint.  I can’t think of a more startling way for Carol Bartz to declare that “Purple is Back” than by making the play for the hottest company out there.

So what do you think?  Could the Twitter founders end up wearing purple when all is said and done?

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• Google and Microsoft Battle for Twitter Advertising Deal (mashable.com)
• Microsoft Faces Branding Problem In Effort to Top Google (blogs.wsj.com)
• Ballmer still keen on Yahoo deal (vnunet.com)
• Yahoo: Bartz’s ‘Gut Instinct’ Is To Keep Search Biz; Separately, Exits UK Contextual Ad Market (paidcontent.org)