So What Is It That Makes A Video Go Viral?
David actually crashed the servers over at Fstoppers once in the past when he wrote an article about Jean Claude VanDame. JCVD saw the article and posted it to his social media accounts. The responding traffic crashed the Fstoppers servers. My point being David knows a little bit about what it takes to make things go viral. David breaks it down into 4 different points. Before we go any further though here’s the video. Hint- the end is spectacular.
1.) Start With Amazing Content…
Without a doubt, even for those of us who don’t really ski (I’m one of those people), the visual content of this video is jaw droppingly insane. The moves, tricks, sense of speed and skill in this video are all just incredible.
We have to start with outstanding content as a baseline – but that by itself isn’t going to be enough to make a video great (Candide’s first video is good evidence of this. Two million views is great, as is the video itself, but it’s taken 2 year to get to almost 2 million views compared to the sequel which has more than 7 million in less than a week).
2.) Bring More Than JUST Content
Candide edits the video so it feels like we’re not only there with him, but rather, that we are actually him. The camera placement immerses us totally in the feeling of what it must be like to experience what he is going through. Some neat trickery with After Effects shows him putting his goggles on in the mirror with apparently no camera visible as he looks at his own reflection (this simple but highly effective trick is relatively straight forward to do in post).
The goggles go over the camera (the screen, our eyes) and we are right there in the moment, not just with him, but actually as him. A subtle but important point to set the context for the main body of the film.
We then see him (us) look up and watch a flock of birds, only to tilt down and have been magically teleported to the slopes through the use of a seamless edit transition. These great little touches totally add to the immersion and feeling we are watching something that looks simple but has been carefully put together.
3.) For More Impact – Don’t Use Music
I grew up making videos set to music, and watching countless music videos and seeing how the visuals and audio worked together. Why does not having music work here? It simply adds another layer of immersion, so we feel we are actually there on the slopes, racing as Candide. No music in an action sports film is almost beyond comprehension these days yet without the ‘distraction’ of the music track, it pushes us to engage our visual senses even further. Ambient is in.
4.) Start Small, End Huge
The opening is genius. Getting up, brewing and drinking some tea and putting on clothes while calmly taking it all in as birds soar over head…and then ending in one of the most insane finales to any ski run I think anyone of us has ever seen. The key – start small and draw the audience in through to the big finale and climactic pay off at the end. Leave them scratching their head wondering what it was they just saw, because doing that will cause them to hit replay immediately (which is exactly what I did the moment I finished watching the video).
Source: Fstoppers
