Trim and going Viral : Update

Tom getting shaved.

Tom getting shaved.

Now that it has a million views, I suppose I should post this awesome video I made. Check out the whole story below.

Wednesday night, my good friend, Tom Offer-Westort, texted me to say that he wanted to shave his head that night. He had been talking about it all summer and he wanted to do it before he left for Hawaii (which happened yesterday). I told him to come over to my house as I had the tools.

I decided that maybe it’d be fun to create a video of the whole process. I’d had seen it done a number of times before and thought I’d give it a try. When Tom showed up, I ran it by him. He was all for it. So, we started planning about 7:30ish and played a quick game of connect the dots. Then at 9 we buckled down to start shooting the stop animation.

Abby wielded the clippers and I made sure we were cutting in the right order. 4.5 hours later, we turned off the camera and went to bed.

After work Thursday, I quickly arranged the pictures in the correct order, put them in Final Cut Pro, exported to a movie file, and uploaded to my favorite video site, Vimeo. I submitted the vimeo link to reddit thinking that a few people would enjoy it and have fun things to say about it. When I went to bed, it was #7 in the r/videos subreddit and had about 10 comments. That is the highest I figured it would go and was immensely satisfied that I was getting a positive reaction.

Well I woke up Friday and Abby informed me that it was number one. I figured it was one on the subreddit, which it was, but it was also one on the entire site!! Daaaang. When I got up, it had 2o something thousand views. This is about 100 times the amount my most viewed Best Biking Buddies video had gotten. By the end of the day, I was at half a million. Crazy.

I’m not sure why the video is so popular, but it really is. Lots and lots of people have something to say about it. Mostly positive, but a few obligatory anonymous internet scumbags. It is really fun to read so many people’s thoughts about this project I did. Not to mention that it has been posted in at least a dozen languages! Cool.

My friend reminded me that I once stated that a goal of mine was to have a video go viral. I mean what modern internet videomaker doesn’t? I’ve achieved that goal. wow. weird… and I’m not sure how or why. Welp, I need a new goal now.

Below are a list of all the sites that blogged/posted it that I know about:

Gawker

Gizmodo

The Daily What

Huffington Post 1

Huffington Post 2

A.V. Club (Madison)

Backflip Films

Beard Revue

The Daily beast

Today’s Big Thing

Daily Mail (UK)

Chongas (Portuguese)

Tafixe (Portuguese)

Ezmiez (Hungarian)

Mangas Verdes (Spanish)

Joe Monster (Polish)

 

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11 thoughts on “Trim and going Viral : Update

  1. Mary Ann O

    Congratulations, Petey Boy, Abby, and Tom!
    Here are my thoughts about why it went viral:
    1. It’s cross-cultural. No language skills are required to be able to enjoy it fully, so it could easily travel around the world.
    2. It’s non-violent and “clean,” so it can be shared with anyone anywhere. (No grandparents or little children need be scandalized!)
    3. You guys didn’t mess around with subtle changes, but went for radical transformations. Tom changes so much with each revision that it seems like we’re watching a magic trick!
    4. It’s short, but a complete story.
    5. The music sets a nice tone.
    6. It ends with a sweet smile.

    Reply

    1. Petey Boy

      I think that just about sums it up. I shall keep that in mind for future viral endeavours.

      Reply

  2. Uncle Gopher

    Way to go Petey

    I’ve watched your Trim video many times and it just makes me grin every time. Great job.
    I’ll never shave my head, but would possibly go shaggy again. (But thats just me thinking out loud)

    Looking forward to your next production.
    Take care
    Uncle Gopher

    Reply

    1. Petey Boy

      I’m so glad you dig it. I mean I did make it assuming I’d just show it friends and family. I never imagined it’d get so popular.

      Reply

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  5. Seanaci

    The video came across my Google+ account today. I think it’s pretty darn awesome. Great job!! 🙂

    Reply

    1. Petey Boy

      Thank you! I really appreciate it.

      Reply

    2. Petey Boy

      Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoy it.

      Reply

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