Behind the Scenes: “Pranking the Garbage Man- Part 2″ August 24, 2007
Posted by Nalts in : Killer Video, Making Videos, Viral Video, YouTube, video cameras , trackback[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=O7eAg4F_nFY]
Some people have expressed interest in the “making of” my videos. So this post will describe the “behind the scenes” of how I made this short video titled “Pranking the Garbage Man- Part 2.” You should watch the video first, since this reveals key plot elements. Its prequel to this was titled “Prank the Garbageman.”
- While driving to work yesterday, I was captivated by the new hydraulic lifts on the BFI trucks. Imagine the time and costs they’ve saved.
- I followed our local garbageman to get some footage of the lifts in action. Unfortunately they spotted me, and got out the truck to find out what I was doing. When I explained it was for a YouTube video, the tattoo-laden guy demanded to see my paperwork. The nice guy, an African-American who never fails to smile and wave, wasn’t as concerned. But he did recall seeing me hiding in a garbage more than a year ago, and reminded me it wasn’t safe.
- In respect to the smiler, I left them alone. But as I drove to work, I was bothered by the reaction of tattoo man. I don’t believe there’s a law against videotaping in public, and I became more determined to complete the video.
- Luckily, I found a separate crew later. They’d have “plausible deniability” since I wouldn’t tell them what I was doing.
- Finally when I got home last evening, I asked my wife to shoot her portion with me crawling into a garbage can. No trucks were on route at this point.
- The editing was tricky. I had to overlay clips and sound to give a rough sense of continuity.
- The confused reactions of my wife (wifeofnalts) were authentic because she had no idea of what she was doing. Finally I explained, then fed her some lines so I could insert those audio-clip reactions (”it’s the hydraulic kind!”) while the lift is presumably dumping me into the truck.
- There are parts of it I still don’t think are quite right. Continuity errors since the trucks and locations were different. Ultimately I decided to give my “garbage can” camera a different look (black and white) because it was visually confusing.
- Total time to shoot: About 12 minutes. Six minutes of footage. Edit time was about 1.5 hours.
- Viral prediction: Maybe 100K view on YouTube.
Comments»
boo
Yeah, they passed that “No videotaping public utilities operations, facilities or personnel” act years ago as part of The Patriot Act. Better get your filming garbage permit in order!
go me!
she’s either an extremely good actress, or I totally sympathized and agreed with her confusion and distress, or both.
I predict this will be one of the most viewed nalts videos ever.I also predict you will get a lot of complaints from parents.
I no longer feel comfortable commenting on your videos with the new commenting system. So I’ll comment here - I like the inside of that garbage can - nice soft pillows in clean white pillocases. I wish my bed were that nice.
Very smart!…You got me there!
You got me there Mr. Nalts! I was saying Oh NoNoNo! on the screen as the hydraulic lifts the can(?)…Hehehe.. Kudos to WON for her part, hehe…
What is it about telling online video makers ‘NO, don’t do that’ that only strengthens their resolve? crazy lot…
Thanks for posting this! I love learning all the details. You make it look easy, you know. Have a great day!!
Your wife is a much better actress than my partner,..maybe we should swap for shoots. lol
LOL ruins my comment that did! GAH! Audio continuity is a bitch
Why is it that it only takes you 1.5 hours to edit this video, but it takes me 8 hours to edit one of my videos of the exact same length??? What’s wrong with me???? I’m having a video-stential crisis.
See, I could never post that under the new comments section because no one will get the existential/”video-stential” joke and I’d end up with 100 thumbs down. I hate youtube.
Interesting, you did good getting the continuality on it though i think … I hate playing with audio, its the one thing i cant do too well =/
Kevin, ROFL at wifeofnalts shes going to need therapy!!!
ROF LOL… this is hilarious…. I will be sharing this with friends and family… thanks so much for the laugh!
lo0000000000000000l lo0l lo0l when’d he find out about you ? did you go to like the garbage dump or something ? or did they find out about you b4 that ? l0ol
I don’t think the continuity really matters to be honest,it’s not very noticable unless you were some sort of geek who likes to be super picky , you know the type who watch star trek films.
Over and over and over.
Heres an idea:”farting in public trashcans” …….just imagine the echo,and the smell…….on second thought…..scratch that!. sukatra said” I like the inside of that garbage can - nice soft pillows in clean white pillocases. I wish my bed were that nice.”…..Datz so funny sukatra!
Good.
Hey, steveo, I already did a “farting in public trashcans” video…a year ago.
sukatra - two words, more RAM!
Kevin, I didn’t even notice the continuity problem, my attention was on the anticipation of what was about to happen, adding the rate of speed the video was shot, editing and it looked like a different angle.. ticky tacky suburbs. 7 hours 4000+ hits
lol.
Bravo Nalts! I had to give it a couple views… Very good video, I myself am on board with jischinger the speed of the cuts and the anticipation, I didnt notice any continuity issues, well done!
[...] Behind the Scenes: “Pranking the Garbage Man- Part 2″ [YouTube] Some people have expressed interest in the “making of” my videos. So this post will describe the […] [...]
The black and white second camera really worked! Loved it !