Yeah Yeah Creative!

10 days of YYC’s favorite videos: Day 9

What’s more fun than kids shooting zombies? Kids teaching zombies to dance then shooting them with cardboard guns to a catchy little pop song. 

What makes this a really great music video is that it is just plain fun. They take a lot of popular elements like zombies, kids being heroes, a grindhouse aesthetic, and dancing and combine them into one fantastic adventure that’s hard to turn away from. It tells a story that sucks you in immediately. It’s familiar enough in content that you can almost imagine being there as a kid and fighting the zombies yourself. And if you’re like me, you’ll actually find the living dead a bit scary. I have reoccurring nightmares about zombies by the way.

There isn’t anything deep or uber meaningful here, but sometimes we just want to be entertained and have some fun. I think the band/ director took into account the song, the sound, and the bands personality and made a great choice. Keep it light, keep it fun, keep it awesome, and above all, keep it moving. 

t

10 days of YYC’s favorite videos: Day 8

This short film is decidedly more macabre than any of the others on this list, but I’ve come back to it several times this year. It hooks me on multiple levels: the score is eerily gorgeous (or maybe gorgeously haunting), the animation is fantastic, and in the span of a few minutes, it makes me care about these creatures and their creator. 

It also hooks me as a tribute to Jim Henson, whose Muppets have kindled countless creative fires long after Henson’s tragic death. I like the thought that our creations have life even after we are gone. 

I like short films that take a simple idea (in this case, a puppeteer and his puppets) and turn the idea on its ear. I also love short films that, like Tyler’s earlier entry, can tell a story without using words. 

10 Days of YYC’s favorite videos: Day 7

So we got a little caught up in the holidays and failed to post the past 2 days. Shopping, eating, family… can you blame us?

I imagine if you are reading this, you are taking a quick breather from all of the excitement of the holidays so I’ll make sure to keep this brief and allow you to get back to the festivities.

My brother Bryant is a huge Coldplay fan so naturally he shares any of their new music videos with me. This one in particular caught my eye (and ears). It’s a fantastic little christmas song and the video is such a fun and super creative one shot. I love one shots and I know how challenging they can be so when they are done as well as they are here, I have mad respect. Watch it while you drink some hot cocoa or egg nog and know that YYC wishes you the best this holiday season!

10 Days of YYC’s favorite videos: Day 6

If you can watch this and not be mesmerized, you’ve seen a lot cooler stuff in your life than I have.

I’ve always been obsessed with manipulating straightforward filming techniques to create something unique. Stop-motion, slow-motion, animation, CG … as much as I love really good, solid, linear storytelling, there’s something special about people creating things that didn’t exist outside their mind. (Or, in this case, creating a new way to see things that have always existed.) 

Time-lapse photography fascinates me. The best time-lapse films are created from a combination of technical knowledge, foresight, an artistic eye, and lots of patience. If Mr. Miyagi were a cinematographer, he would have been a time-lapse specialist. 

This is the best time-lapse film I’ve ever seen. If I could fall asleep to any video every night, this would be the one. I’d love to say it’s given me wonderful insight into the art of filmmaking, but the truth of the matter is that it just makes my heart feel full.

I like that, and I think that’s enough.

Enjoy? Let us know…

 www.facebook.com/yeahyeahcreative or ideas@yeahyeahcreative.com

 - david

10 Days of YYC’s favorite videos: Day 5

Ahhhhhh! There are so many really amazing videos that I want to share. We should have called these on going write-ups, “1,000 Days of YYC’s favorite videos.” However, we chose 10, so David and I will have to choose carefully. This one is definitely a favorite for us both…

Anna Sun, by Walk the Moon, is really an incredible song. It’s the type of music that causes your head to bob and your fingers to tap on the steering wheel without realizing it. Then once you really know the song, it’s difficult to not shamelessly belt it out in your car while your neighbor at the stoplight watches and laughs.

Walk the Moon’s music video for Anna Sun is the perfect compliment to the song. It has everything you want in an upbeat, joyful, modern day ballad… Lots of smiling faces, slow-motion keytar playing (yes, keytar), choreographed dancing, face paint, and lot of bright colors. I realize after writing that it sounds like I am describing a Polyphonic Spree video, but the truth of the matter is that it almost could be. Except that Anna Sun is infinitely less cheesy / cult-y and a way more cool / indie-y. The team that created this fantastic piece is Contrast Productions and I fully expect to see more great things from them in the future. 

Watch this video, then watch it again… before you know it, you’ll be humming the tune and showing all your friends this crazy video with an awesome dance scene.

Enjoy? Let us know…

www.facebook.com/yeahyeahcreative or ideas@yeahyeahcreative.com

-t

10 Days of YYC’s favorite videos: Day 4

This video is directed by a duo named Daniels. They’ve had a huge influence on us this year, so they may well pop up on this top-10 list one or two more times over the next week. Their brand of off-beat (maybe even a tad dark) humor resonates pretty closely to Tyler and I on the funny-bone spectrum. They cook up great ideas, execute them well (and, until this year, on very small budgets), and they throw these fantastic indie special effects in that form a cohesive whole. I’ve yet to see a video by them that I didn’t like, and I love most of their work.

Here’s why this video stood out to Tyler and I: It’s a big idea, a difficult concept to pull off, and yet they created a willing suspension of disbelief. You watch it, and tell me you don’t think “How the heck did they do that?!?”

“Puppets” was an eye-opener for me. If Tyler had pitched this idea to me 9 months ago, I would have winced. “Great idea, but we can’t pull that off on a budget.” But as Tyler and I watched and rewatched “Puppets” – as we did what all filmmakers do and mentally reverse-engineered the video shot-by-shot – I realized we had the same physical tools Daniels were operating with. I don’t mean to minimize the film. In fact, I’m saying they didn’t create something this fun because of some silver spoon. They earned this through cleverness, good writing, great editing, and a rare ability to turn a whacky dream into filmic reality.

An old friend of ours, Austin Church, recently blogged about the importance of optimism and the importance of curiosity. Both are great reads, and they are lessons I need to continually relearn for the rest of my life. Great ideas – and great videos – aren’t born of timidity and cynicism. 

Long post, but I can’t quit this thought without adding this clip. This thought from Conan O’Brien has stuck with me for a year and a half. It gets super-inspiring around 3:15 or so.

10 Days of YYC’s favorite videos: Day 3

This video came to me a while back and I quickly fell in love. Some people might consider me a bit of a romantic and occasionally a bit of a loner, so after the first minute or so I was hooked. I assumed something great was going to happen to this poor lonely guy, but I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen enough movies to know better or maybe it was the music that had a hint of hopefulness in it. Or maybe it’s because I just really wanted something great to happen to him… like, oh I don’t know, find love?

I am also a big fan of short films that don’t require any dialogue. I’ve tried this and it is a very tricky thing. You need just the right actors, just the right music, just the right pacing, and just the right kind of story. That’s a whole lot of “just the rights” which doesn’t leave much room for error. This one, however, has all of the right pieces in place to keep you interested, if not fully invested, for the full 11 minutes. 

So I hope you took the time to watch this one all the way through. The reward at the end is definitely worth while and is sure to put a big smile on your face.

Enjoy? Let us know…

www.facebook.com/yeahyeahcreative or ideas@yeahyeahcreative.com

-t

10 Days of YYC’s favorite videos: Day 2

Yesterday, Tyler mentioned we would be sharing some videos that have influenced us over the past year. He led off with a really sweet stop-motion video. If you missed that post, check it out.

Here’s my submission for Day 2 (forgive the ad … I wish that could be bypassed):

YouTube won’t allow us to embed the actual video. Click here to watch the whole thing.

This video has stuck in my head for months, which is atypical for me. For starters, my attention span for online videos is ashamedly short. Hook me fast and keep me hooked, or I’m going to Control-Tab over to something else. Usually, that means I favor bright colors, frenetic movements and editing, and beautifully complex visuals. I think I have a lot in common with cats.

But Dead Weather’s “Treat Me Like Your Mother” hooks me, and for none of the reasons listed above. It’s desaturated and minimalistic. It’s basically two people walking through a dust bowl for half the video. Still, I keep coming back for more views.

I think this video sucks me in because Jack White and Alison Mosshart create a delicious sense of urgency right from the beginning. They’re not walking, they’re stalking with a purpose. They’re clearly charging into battle, only with less charge and more cool, indifferent determination. Heck yeah, I want to see what happens. The two aren’t shown in the same frame until 3:30 into the song, which is another way to create subtle tension.

That’s so hard to do as a filmmaker – creating the subtle tension. But when someone pulls it off, man, it keeps me coming back for more.

Enjoy? Let us know …

www.facebook.com/yeahyeahcreative or ideas@yeahyeahcreative.com

- david

10 Days of YYC’s favorite videos

For the next 10 days leading up to Christmas, we are going to share with you guys some of our favorite videos that have done at least one, if not all, of the following:

• Inspired us to create
• Forced ourselves to learn a new technical skill
• Made us laugh
• Gave us chills
• Motivated us to push our creative limits
• Caused us to argue about “How in the world they did that?!?!”
• Did I mention inspire us?

The first video comes from Theory Films of the good ole United Kingdom. They are an extremely talented and successful (not to mention award-winning) film and video production company who are proud to call themselves HDSLR specialists. I mention that last part because we, too, shoot on HDSLRs and feel we are in good company. The Theory, as they refer to themselves, have an impressive roster of clients and an equally impressive portfolio. Seeing these guys’ work and success is encouraging because I imagine their story isn’t too different from our humble beginning here at YYC. Who knows, maybe someday a young video production will be blogging about one of our videos?

So this particular short is called “Address is Approximate - A Google Street View / Robot inspired stop motion short.” You may have already seen this little gem as its “virality” has been increasing over the past few weeks. The concept behind the video reminds me of something I would have thought of as a child, which may be why I loved it so much. It’s fun and exciting to watch, but at the same time there are elements of sadness and false hope mixed into the impressive visuals. I’m sure I could sit here and go into all the subtle analogies that it may, or may not, be trying to make, but I’ll spare you all of that conjecture and let you enjoy the video for what it really is … a nice little getaway from being stuck in the office.

Enjoy? Let us know …

www.facebook.com/yeahyeahcreative or ideas@yeahyeahcreative.com

-t