Back in April, I had mused about the upcoming book “Killed Ideas: Volume 1” and the submission of some of the ideas that myself and friends had completed in the past. I talked about one idea in that article, Pop Secret Mountain, but I didn’t talk anything else I had submitted.
It just so happens that the shortest idea that I submitted just happened to make the book! Yes, the 11 second clip “By the Campfire” (shown below) made the top 50.
What exactly is the story behind this clip you may be wondering. Quite some time ago, myself, James Duvall, David Steele and Josh Blagg had entered one of our films into a local film festival. The organizers were screening their new feature length independent horror film at this same festival and given our expertise in creating some what interesting content they had asked us if it would be possible to do an opening title for their company, to be placed on that film. That output of that work was the above clip, which we delivered, never got paid for, and to this day have no idea if it actually made it on to the film (we’ve never seen the film, which shall remain nameless).
The fine details escape me as to how we came up with the clip (I suspect it was Mountain Dew fueled creativity, as we went through cases back then), but the art was done by David Steele (he did all our art work and special effects on our pictures, and is gifted beyond belief) and if I remember correctly I think we had Josh Blagg murmuring into a ragged microphone to give the muffled voice over. I worked on some of the sound clips and exports, and James Duvall pieced everything together.
It warms my heart to see it honored in the book among some other great ideas. This again proves a point that I often harp on: creativity can come out of four guys in a garage. You don’t need a lot of money, you don’t need the fanciest of resources, just the drive to do something different.
If you find the clip even mildly entertaining, I’m going to urge you to vote for our little clip over at the Peoples' Choice voting. Just because. :-)