My older brother has been know to throw great barbecues at our parents' house during summer vacations. His name is a derivation of, Michael. It's "Mickael." (Pronounced MUH-KEL or MEH-KEL) His barbeque was aptly named, the "Bar-be-Kael." It gained notoriety and momentum through the years. Stories grew into legends and each summer friends would look forward to the next Bar-be-Kael. There were even titles to each year...
The Bar-be-Kael
Bar be Kael: The Sequel
Bar-be-Kael: Version 3.0 Optimized
There have been six in all. There was a hiatus of a few years between the 5th and 6th editions. My brother told me privately, late in 2008, that the 6th Bar-be-Kael would be taking place in the summer of 2009. We decided to play this up for all the comedic drama that a summer barbeque could have and we created movie trailers to post on Facebook in anticipation of the event. Bar-be-Kael VI was scheduled for July 18th, 2009, and on February 7th, 2009 I posted a teaser trailer on Facebook. I tagged all of the friends that were past Bar-be-Kael guests in and simply entitled the video, "7.18.2009". The reaction and anticipation for the event were priceless:
This was just a quick slideshow put together with the help of friend, Ryan DJ RyFy Feinstein (mentioned again below). My brother and I collaborated on the initial concept of the teaser. We spoke over the phone about it:
Me: "It's going to be really simple. Just a slideshow of images from previous Bar-be-Kaels, and I need you to do a 30 second voice over. It just needs to be you talking about the nature of friends and summertime. At the end just make sure you say "...it's time for a comeback. It's definitely time for a return. There's going to be music with it too. We just have to pick a song and...
Mickael: "I already know what song to use. Kool and the Gang - Summer Madness."
Me: "Ohhh yes."
It was the perfect choice. It fit Mickael's voice perfectly.
*Kool and the Gang - Summer Madness is produced by K. & G. Productions in association with De-Lite Records. I do not own the rights to this piece of music.
(and we will see how long it gets to stay on this website...)
There was also an extended trailer. Now this...was...fun:
This was done guerrilla warfare style. I did not ask permission of these grocery stores before filming. We were able to get in, shoot, clean up and get out with minimal collateral damage (We did smash a mustard jar. Oops.) My friends are real champs for going along with this. The Nikon D90 did well too. I haven't done much DSLR filming, so this was all off the cuff. All I knew was that I wanted to keep every shot consistent at 18mm. I didn't have any dollies or stabilizers, so there was a lot of breath holding and skipping lightly to keep motion shots as smooth as possible.
The stories for each person were improv'd on the spot. We just decided who would grab what and how. The line, "Marriage?!" was poking fun at the guy, the couple, as an inside joke about his level of commitment. It was very cool that he was willing to do that. (Trivia: as of March 2015, that couple is married :) )
Editing and sound mixing was done by the very talented, Ryan Feinstein, who is now a very successful professional DJ. (check him out on SoundCloud: DJ Ryfy) He found the two songs that are used in the video (and I hope this video gets to stay on the net for a while despite them being surely copy-written tracks. I do not own the rights to any of the songs in the video). Ryan was also able to seamlessly mix in the cell phone sound effects.
A quick easter egg: Ryfy once had a vlog, in the vein of DailyGrace. He eventually hated it, but It was very good. He created a theme song for it and you hear it in the video as the cell phone ring for one of the two guys holding the baskets. If you watch the video again, try to listen for it, "Ryyfyyyyyyyyy...."
Special thanks to the friends in this video:
Ryan Henck, Rob Henck, Maddy Gale, Joshua Sette, Lauren Sherwood, Seth Kolbrenner, and of course to the Bar-Be-Kael creator, Mickael Pollard (voiceover).