Most of the videos I work on these days feature a talking head going on about whatever, mixed with a little b-roll of people doing things. That is not the case with my latest little project for Augsburg College.
Typically, my employer puts together some sort of holiday themed photo slideshow for the students and alums this time of year, which is all fine and good, but a little hard to get excited about making… So of course a holiday themed puppet show would be the next logical leap forward, right?
Luckily my office is full of people who know how to sew, build sets and talk in funny voices. Now, just one week after going live, “Auggie Eagle Saves Christmas!” is on pace to be the most viewed video ever on the Augsburg College YouTube Channel!!! High Fives!
Back around the turn of the century I found myself in the midst of the dot-com boom… soon to be bust. But, during our short run we did see the future. Too bad nobody had broadband back then. Too much too young I guess.
The company I worked for aspired to be “The Remote Control of the Web.” What that actually meant was an enormous database of links to streaming 30 second clips of music, video of guys getting hit in the crotch, weird flash animations and a few actual short films made by actual filmmakers who had nothing better to do with their films once their festival run was over. It actually was a decent idea, but in those days of dial-up and a still fledgling Napster, it just couldn’t work.
Towards the end we finally caught a glimpse of what would come to be known as a viral video in the guise of the homemade special fx dynamo 405 (watch it above). It’s a simple enough picture from a narrative standpoint; a big ass plane lands on top of an SUV on the 405 freeway. And there’s a funny old lady who can’t drive very well.
What made it interesting to me though, was the fact that these guys made a pretty impressive (production-wise) little picture with next to nothing. I learned filmmaking a couple years prior on an Arri S and Steenbeck flatbed, but now you could do something large-ish in scale with a video camera and a home computer. I was confused, and even felt a little cheated about being just behind the technology curve during my undergrad days.
A couple years later I went to graduate film school and never shot a foot of actual film (aside from a little Super 8 for kicks). In the span of about four years, from undergrad shooting all 16mm to grad shooting all mini-dv, the entire low budget filmmaking world had changed, and continues to do so at a rapid pace.
I’m still trying to figure out if it’s better or worse, as we’re now inundated with media, mostly of questionable value. As a learning tool video is great in that it’s not quite as painful when I make something awful (which happens more than I’d like [all part of the process, right?!?!]). But, I kinda wonder if that extra pressure to preserve every last frame of expensive film pushed fledgling filmmakers toward better overall work…
