Videos don’t get much cooler than this. Director Bang-yao Liu’s school project is really tearing up the viral video charts, for good reason. Just take 6000 Post-it Notes, and spend some time with your buddies locked in a room for four days and this is what you get…
This is my senior project at Savannah College of Art and Design. Where my idea comes from is that every time when I am busy, I feel that I am not fighting with my works, I am fighting with those post-it notes and deadline. I manipulating the post-it notes to do pixel-like stop motion and there are some interactions between real actor and post-its.
Directed by Bang-yao Liu
Music by Röyksopp (http://royksopp.com)
Sound design by Shaun Burdick
And how lucky are we that he made a ‘making of’ video, too!
A friend of mine passed this video on to me this morning. Five side-splitting commercials for (now defunct) Ameriquest Mortgage, each with a similar witty punch line. What I love about these is how simple they are. Nothing fancy here, just a tight script and a few clever shots.
Of course, the irony of these spots (and their message) in light of current events is a bit, um, rich. But all things being equal, these commercials are quite amusing as stand-alone stories.
Several people have emailed me in the past few weeks asking about good resources for music to add to their videos. It prompted me to write a post to help you guys get a jumpstart on finding good tunes to go with your commercial work.
Option 1
How could I not recommend that you search the Poptent network for musicians? There are dozens of musicians, audio engineers and composers there now, and more joining every day. Strike up a conversation with them. Listen to a few of their tracks. Ask them to collaborate! Do you know musicians who should be on Poptent? Invite them!
Option 2
Find some royalty free music. For example, I was just reading on TechCrunch today that iStockPhoto - the great crowdsource photo resource - just launched their new product iStockAudio.
iStock’s Standard Audio collection now includes more than 11,000 royalty-free, user-generated sound effects and music tracks from 500+ artists along with a fresh Pump Audio collection of over 18,000 single-production music tracks. Pricing hasn’t changed since its launch: royalty-free tracks still start at $2 each with Pump Audio tracks going from $29.
And that’s just one option. There are many sites like this out there cropping up on the web. Here is Mashable’s list of 100+ music resources on the web (warning: this list is nearly 2 years old, it might need some updating, but it’s a good place to start).
[update] I’ve just been looking into more companies that sell inexpensive royalty-free music and found Jamendo. They’re definitely worth a look, as well.
Option 3
One of the best thing to do if you have the time and the means, in my opinion, is to make the music yourself. There are great programs out there that offer a platform for creating music quickly and easily. I use Garage Band for Mac, but there’s also several similar music apps for PCs such as Cakewalk Home Studio, Guitar Pro and Fruity Loops.
Option 4
Befriend your favorite local band. Go to one of their shows, walk up to them after they play and say “Hi, would you like to contribute one of your songs to a video I’m making?” Make a deal with them if your video gets purchased. So many indie bands are looking for new and different outlets just as you are. I can assure you (knowing a lot of indie musicians myself), a lot of them will be more than happy to share or collaborate. Search MySpace Music in your area, or keep an eye on the local listings for clubs in your town.
Conclusion
We all know music is a highly important part of the visual medium of film and video. Get creative. Don’t leave the tunes to the last minute or use filler. It’ll show. There are so many ways to find superb music for use in your projects, be they commercials for Poptent or your own personal work.
Good luck, and by all means share your insights on the comments below. I know I’m only scratching the surface, so let me know about something that’s worked for you.
[update 2] Post Script
I thought it’d be cool to add this recent video from Samantha Ettus. In it, she interviews award winning Hollywood soundtrack producer Ali Dee.
T-Mobile in the UK signed up a couple hundred of their free spirited folks and taught them a dance. Then went into the middle of the Liverpool train station and did it spontaniously, filmed it and posted it to YouTube. Gotta love when people dance together! And look! How easy would it be to make this with a couple hundred of your closest friends?
Okay, I know - that’s a long shot for 99.9% of you. But I had to think of some catchy title, didn’t I? Well, how about this. I’ll change it to “Creative Inspiration: Surrealistic Humor”. How’s that?
Absolut Vodka did the right thing. They hired Zack and his friends to make some ultra-surrealist humor. And I, for one, was ROFL! Observe:
Hat tip to my brother Dave for IMing this link to me (hey, you got funny commercials? Send ‘em my way!). Watch all three in the series here.
Man, crazy stunts. You just can’t go wrong with them! Yes, this is totally fake. But how cool is it?
It’s actually a ‘viral video’ for Gatorade. Not sure how the drink fits into this, but I just love watching it again and again. And sharing with you. Ergo - she’s viral, baby!
