My friends at Dead Panda Comedy had a great idea. They got in touch with me last month about DPing their latest video, a crazy one-take steadicam tracking-shot music video parody with a ton of extras and VFX. They had been told that it was impossible. Together we worked out the details and planned a very possible shoot. Somewhere in Jersey on a cold Saturday morning, we began hammering out take after take until we finally got what we needed in the late afternoon. Then it went into post for 2.5 weeks and was released on YouTube on Tuesday. Since then it’s been featured on College Humor and Smosh and it’s starting to rack up views on YouTube. Exciting stuff!!!

I served as gaffer, DP, Glidecam operator, VFX coordinator, and editor. So basically I facilitated bringing their vision to YouTube. But the real creative push came from the guys at Dead Panda. Their “impossible” idea and a ton of time procuring the resources they needed, plus the awesome writing and acting was what made this video great. Plus they had some really awesome sound work by some guy named Nick.

In the next few days they’re planning on launching a behind-the-scenes campaign. Once they do I’ll post some detailed info on how we managed to shoot this in one take, how I lit the basement despite it not having electrical outlets, how I removed crew/equipment in the frame in post, and how I composited and rotoscoped the rainbow, portrait, and computer pullback.

In the meantime, watch the video and share it with your friends! Let’s get it to a billion views! A Billion Views.