The Eye of a Fish

The Eye of a Fish

This slo-mo animal-distorting video was shot just last week. As you will see in the next few weeks, a decent amount of my videos include fast-forwarded footage, so I wanted to "slow things down" for a change. I had also just purchased a fisheye lens for my Flip video and wanted to use it so I combined the ideas.


The night that the lens arrived in the mail, my family was going up to Chipotle to eat so I put it on and taped all the way there and back just to see what it would be like. When I got home, I plugged my Flip into my computer to look at the videos. It had a very cool, distorting effect on the road. But I have done numerous videos involving driving, so I wasn't sure if I would use it and if I would what else I would shoot to go along with it. 


I had thought of a rather complex plot that might work, but I wasn't sure about it so I decided to just let the whole video idea "marinate" in my head.


As some may have seen, fisheye lenses and animals make a cute and goofy combination; the "duo" now cover gift cards, calendars, mouse pads, etc. I had seen a lot of fisheye-animal pictures, but had seen no video. So when my cat, O'Malley, was lying on the counter I figured I would try it out and see how it turned out. 


I really loved how the footage of "Mr.Kitty",O'Malley, turned out so I shot some more of him and my dog, Moose. I went over to my grandma and grandpa's house that night. They have two cats, Ben and Jerry; they're named after the ice cream. Jerry is the fat one who really hates me because I enjoy chasing him to watch his feeble attempt to run. I know its terrible!


So I videotaped Ben and some fish in the backyard pond and then I went searching for Jerry. I found him hiding in my grandparents room. I turned on the lights and he gave me a death stare. I approached him and he began to hiss and show his fangs. After 5 seconds of my video camera in his face, he pounced and slapped my camera with his paw! He hit the lens off my camera! This of course didn't stop me from getting about a minute more of him hissing at me on tape before I ran from the room fearing for my life.


Ever since Kanye and Jay-Z's Watch The Throne came out I had wanted to do a video with one of the songs, "Illest Motherf**ker Alive". It has a part in the beginning where Kanye says "I  need a slow motion video right now. Cause I'm moving in slow motion slow motion". So I took pieces of that and "H•a•m"and I had my soundtrack. 


If I were to give my "artsy-fartsy" explanation of this video it would be that the viewer should feel like an animal (probably cat) who is watching these other animals and goes for a car ride. Sometimes the other animals are nice and friendly to you and other times they are trying to pick a fight. Then the animal (viewer) goes on a car ride and this so foreign of an experience that it is fascinating to them.