Tag Archives: viral video

Short film: ‘Address Is Approximate’ (using stop-motion & Google Street View)

December 4, 2011Short film, VideoGoogle Maps, Google Maps Street View, short, short film, stop motion, stop-motion animation, Street View, The Theory, Tom Jenkins, viral, viral videoScott Meisner

A lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can – using a toy car and Google Maps Street View.

Address Is Approximate is produced by director Tom Jenkins of London-based commercial production company The Theory. The stop-motion animation short, shot with a Canon 5D Mark II, quickly went viral and has garnered over 1.8 million views in fifteen days. The story it tells is so simple yet unbelievably captivating. And the idea of taking inanimate objects for a “drive” cross country in front of a computer monitor using Google Maps is utterly ingenious. In case you’re wondering, the soothing track that plays throughout is “Arrival of the Birds” by The Cinematic Orchestra.

The clip was a pet project for Jenkins who was recently signed to the talent agency WME with his partner Simon Sharp. Hopefully this means that we can expect more from Jenkins in the future, perhaps on the feature side of things.

[Via Deadline; Vimeo]

YouTube musician Kina Grannis has fun with jelly beans in new stop-motion music video

November 6, 2011Music, Videojelly bean art, jelly beans, Kina Grannis, music video, stop motion, viral, viral video, YouTube musician, YouTube starScott Meisner

Have you ever heard of jelly bean art? Well it exists. And now so does a jelly bean music video. YouTube star Kina Grannis wrote a song called “In Your Arms” and developed a music video with director Greg Jardin involving 288,000 jelly beans. The insanely impressive stop-motion video, which includes a total of 2,460 individual frames, took 22 months (1,357 hours) to complete. Sure the song is catchy and Grannis has an infectious charm about her, but it’s the sheer level of dedication put into this music video that has elevated to viral status. In under a week it has amassed about 1.5 million well deserved views. After you wipe the saliva off your mouth when the video ends (and that’s either because you’re so impressed or you’re craving Jelly Belly jelly beans, or both) make sure you jump after the break to watch a seven minute making-of video that shows just how much hard work and patience was required to make the music video a reality. With “In Your Arms” Grannis has proved she’s a creative force to be reckoned with, and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next. Continue reading YouTube musician Kina Grannis has fun with jelly beans in new stop-motion music video →

Actor Miles Fisher creates fun, gory musical to promote ‘Final Destination 5’

September 5, 2011Hilarity, Movies, Music, VideoFinal Destination 5, Miles Fisher, music video, parody, viral videoScott Meisner

Miles Fisher landed the lead role in the fifth installment of the Final Destination franchise, and to celebrate he wrote a catchy song called “New Romance” and starred in the parody video that’s embedded above. Fisher approached FD5 studio backer Warner Bros. with the idea and they decided to fund it. It’s really fun to describe: Fisher has imagined a colorful world that melds high school teenie boppers and well groomed guys with over-the-top death sequences in the style of Saved By The Bell. Watch it now, it’s a bloody good time.

And this isn’t the first time Fisher has made a parody; check out Pinkberry 3D!

[Via Deadline]

Bloodthirsty kids deal fake drugs in this spectacularly animated music video

June 16, 2011Music, Videoanimation, blood, children, graphic, Is Native, Is Tropical, kids, music video, viral, viral videoScott Meisner

You may not have heard of London-based pop group Is Tropical, but I guarantee you will get a kick out of their music video for their latest single “The Greeks.” Directed by Megaforce (the man behind the trippy Cudder clip “Pursuit of Happiness“), the video follows a bunch of bloodthirsty kids who indulge themselves in murdering each other in the most spectacularly disturbing of ways. The cartoonish animation is provided by Seven and it helps spin the rather graphic nature of the music video into an enjoyable visual feast.

The band describes the video like this: “Part Rumblefish, part Die Hard, part Akira, we wanted to work together to create something both visually appealing and aesthetically relevant to the band. We like kids, we like gangs, we really like daydreaming and imagination; the video straddles the line between nostalgia and the visual death-porn of our generation – the action film. Don’t get carried away by politics – this is a straight-up kid brawl the way it played out in your head when you were stealing your mums mascara to be like Arnie in Predator. It isn’t a shocking rebuke to our drama queen, populist news culture either – just naive, blissful shoot-yr-mate until he’s definitely dead war-games – the way you wish it still could be.”

Sure the video is great and all, but do you also like what you hear? The single “The Greeks” is available to download for free right here, and Is Tropical’s debut album Is Native is out now in the UK.

Super 8 in theatres now, get a glimpse of the creature here

June 12, 2011Movies, VideoJ.J. Abrams, movie release, movie viral, Super 8, viral, viral videoScott Meisner

The J.J. Abrams / Steven Spielberg production Super 8 is in theatres now. Leading up to the film’s release, Paramount has been adding snippets of video to this official website. On June 9, one day before the film hit theatres nationwide, the studio brought it all together and the final black-and-white video sits above. The “Full Editing Room Film” gives those anticipating Super 8 a small glimpse into the mystery behind the creature that lands in the small Ohio town the movie takes place in. If you’ve seen the movie already, you’d know that bits of this video are included in a pivotal scene.

I attended a midnight premiere screening of the movie, and without giving anyway away I will say this: Super 8 is a perfect summer movie filled with action and healthy doses of emotion & sci-fi. All of the kid actors nailed it, especially the young lead Joel Courtney. It’s truly a must-see. Whether or not it is a veiled Cloverfield prequel remains to be determined; I’d like to think it is. Also, beware of so much lens flares–alas, it is the Abrams touch (see Star Trek).

Improv Everywhere implements the mute button in a crowded park

June 4, 2011Hilarity, Videogag, improv, Improv Everywhere, mute button, viral, viral videoScott Meisner

The fellas at Improv Everywhere are at it again. Here are the deets…

The mission: 23 actors and 2 dogs infiltrate a public space and go on “mute” at coordinated intervals.

The location: The northern entrance to Prospect Park in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

The result: Curious and confused passersby and a heavy douse of hilarity for us!

First kiss caught on camera…priceless

May 9, 2011Hilarity, Videochild, children, cute, first kiss, kid, kids, kiss, viral, viral videoScott Meisner

Meet little Elliott and Bowie. Innocent, young love captured on camera, by accident no less.

At one point Elliot exclaims, “Me and her kissed on the lips!” And then he gives this head nod of satisfaction and manhood that is truly priceless. Catch it at :52.

YouTube sensation KarminMusic covers Chris Brown’s “Look at Me Now”

April 19, 2011Music, VideoChris Brown, cover, KarminMusic, viral, viral videoScott Meisner

This little video’s gone viral and after you mash play you’ll no longer wonder why. Musical duo KarminMusic–comprised of Nick the keyboardist and Amy the vocalist–have produced an outstanding cover of Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now,” a track I never really enjoyed until I watched this. Girl’s got game, yo.

Babies debate in mesmerizing babble-speak

March 31, 2011Hilarity, Videobabies, baby talk, infant, twins, viral, viral videoScott Meisner

Watch as eighteen-month-old fraternal twin boys Sam and Ren converse in a heated debate about something we mere older people will never comprehend. This week the video pasted above has gone viral, and after you mash play you’ll no longer wonder why. But how is this da-da-da conversation taking place? Listen to what the experts have to say.

According to Stephen Camarata, professor of hearing and speech, “These kids are right on the cusp of language. They’re using the intonation patterns of sentences — imitating sentences in a crude way. It’s one way that children learn how to talk.” Adds Dr. Roberta Golinkoff, education professor and director of the infant language project at the University of Delaware: “Even before they have words, they know how conversation work. They’re producing syllables emphatically and using them for communication purposes. They’re having a ball.”

Crazy huh?

[Via ABC News]

This kid can rap…FAST

January 23, 2011EXPERIENCE, Music, Videofast rapper, George Watsky, poem, poet, rap, rapper, viral, viral videoScott Meisner

This kid named George Watsky can rap. He’s pretty incredible. This might have turned into a viral hit (it’s currently at 3 million views and counting), but Watsky is no one-hit wonder. He happens to be a professional performer and an extremely talented poet. He was the 2006 Youth Speaks Grand Slam Poetry Champion and was later featured on HBO’s Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. Jump after the break to watch him perform an epic poem about kids who stutter.

[Thanks, Rob M.] Continue reading This kid can rap…FAST →

The Assassination of Yogi Bear by the Coward Booboo

December 13, 2010Hilarity, Videoanimated, animation, assassination, dark, dark video, parody, viral, viral video, Yogi BearScott Meisner

This video is disturbing, unsettling, and hilarious all at the same time. The upcoming Yogi Bear animated movie doesn’t hit theatres until this Friday, but that didn’t stop 25-year-old animator Edmund Earle from making a parody video that went instantly viral. He’s billing it as a “parody” in hopes that Warner Bros. (the studio behind the real Yogi Bear movie) do not take it down from the ‘Net. He makes it clear that the video is independently made and that he has no association with the movie. Anyway, the title of the viral hit is “Yogi Bear Alternate Ending: Booboo Kills Yogi” and it’s nearly a shot-by-shot recreation of the final scene from The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, a 2007 Western starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck. Taking a comically dark route in this parody was “an organic creation”, Earle told the WSJ (that’s right–the WSJ has already interviewed him and the video was uploaded to YouTube earlier today). I’m not surely exactly what it is–the music, the way this short story is told through the eyes of the characters?–but again there’s something very unsettling about watching a famed cartoon go down like this. Ah well, in the end it’s an extremely well made parody and you should watch it, unless of course you’re under the age of 12.

Watch the Google Chrome notebook get destroyed in more ways than one

December 13, 2010Technology, VideoChrome OS, computers, Cr-48, demonstration, destroy, destroyed, experiment, experimentation, Google, Google Chome OS, Google Cr-48, notebook, viral, viral videoScott Meisner

In this unorthodox demonstration video Chrome UX designer Glen Murphy destroys a Cr-48 Chrome OS notebook. Since Chrome OS relies on the cloud to store data, it doesn’t matter what happens to your computer. Get it?