Blending humor, gaming influences, and internet nostalgia, the creator’s award-winning experimental video draws inspiration from both meme culture and the old-school YouTube era. What started as a quirky concept soon turned into a project that not only entertained viewers but also earned industry recognition.
What Inspired Your Experimental Video?
At the time I was going to video game development classes, while my collaboration with Rednex was taking shape and slowly becoming a reality. My remix had like two weeks left before release when inspiration suddenly struck. There was a popular meme surrounding Rednex at the time where a chicken nugget with a meme face danced to the "Cotton Eye Joe" song. I was watching Angry Video Game Nerd a lot at the time and I used my concepts for the class as this "video game" about this chicken nugget, and tried to imitate AVGN as much as possible to invoke a comedic effect. The music video was generally inspired by this old-school pre-2010 youtube vibe where people were less real and more playing characters for their youtube shows.
How did you approach the creative process for this video?
I was playing my rage up as much as possible so it would be funny in a very slapstick way, and the comedy could be conveyed without saying a single word. It was a difficult task but I think it paid off. I was too shy to ask Rednex to feature the music video on their channel, but they let me put it up on mine, and I'm grateful because it paid off in my first directorial award.
What message or feeling did you want to convey to the audience?
I really just wanted to make people laugh. Generally speaking most things I make are comedic in some way, and this was no different, I am not very good at conveying messages through art, it always ends up coming off as self Indulgent in my opinion, I'm mildly autistic so it might have something to do with that. I really just enjoy making people smile and laugh, it's the best thing you can do as an entertainer.
How did it feel to win Best Experimental Video?
It was absolutely insane, one sleepless night I sent it to a bunch of festivals, couple months later - boom, I won! I didn't even expect to be nominated, hahaha! Honestly, I am really happy about this, as an entertainer I always feel a little self-conscious about my place in the world of entertainment, and things like these really help with my self-esteem as an artist, last time I felt like this was when I got my youtube plaque... now to be honest, it wasn't real. I did cross the 100k subs but they refused to give it to me for some reason, so I ordered a replica. Still, it wasn't a lie or anything, and I felt really good about it, but this feels better because it's a real thing! In other words, I feel incredible. Art and entertainment is something I always wanted to do, and it's nice when the world of entertainment acknowledges you back.
Do you have any future projects or ideas you are excited about?
I am currently executive producing some movies and trying to pitch a script for a full length comedy spoof movie to studios. Frankly, it's not going very successfully, and my location is a bit challenging for non independent creative media, so I might have to film it myself. Another music video is not off the table, hire me, people! Uhh, I am working on my ongoing youtube channel, trying to get another short film off the ground, and I will have a 2 second role in an upcoming australian horror flick! Lots to look forward to!