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Artik Video - The Matrix

Artik’s Holiday Video

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Thanks for watching the video, it’s a little silly but we had a ton of fun making it and showing it at our Christmas party. If you’d like to see more from Artik, follow us on Twitter and see us on Facebook.

Making of the Video:
Several years ago, while I was doing video editing as part of my work, a customer paid us to shoot a funny video for a retired executive. We brought him, along with his wife, to our studio. We interviewed them about stories from their life and shot several scenes with a green screen. Later, I spent a week looking through clips and inserting the executive and his wife in to funny scenes.

At the large retirement party, hundreds of people watched the video. The audience was in stitches and kept laughing throughout the duration of the film. I did multiple video editing jobs later on, but that fun evening is one I will always remember.

When I came back to actively running Artik with my business partner Rafi, I kept wanting to do a fun video with the Artik team, but every year, I was too busy and the project got pushed to the side. This year, I was determined to make this video happen. I started working on this project a few weeks before our holiday party, and once I start working on a project I get “laser focused.” I continuously thought about ideas and a story line for this video.

Being the owner of Artik and managing a team reminded me of working of a ship. Everyone has a role, and Rafi and I are the captain. Sometimes, it’s smooth sailing and fun. Sometimes, a storm approaches, and we must pull together to survive. Having our location at 314 Adelaide Narrow and Long further brought together this analogy. I Photoshopped some large sails on top of the building. This, along with some wave effects in a video editing software, brought the ship to life.

As I was doing the project, I decided I wanted every person in the company to be in the video. From the custom printed T shirt printers to the custom button makers to the customer service reps and the admin team. For those who were shy, I asked for just a short clip. Those who enjoyed acting received bigger roles.

One image that continuously jumped into my head was of our salesperson and two shorter employees on each side of him acting as Matrix agents with sunglasses. I kept on jotting down these ideas and looking through YouTube clips for just what I needed.

One of my biggest challenges was keeping the video short. I had enough material for 30 minutes but aimed for just under 5 minutes. I kept editing and cutting down the video, finally settling on just over 6 minutes.

I knew the last scene would provide some great shock value and many laughs. I hesitated taking off my shirt for that scene as I am far fatter and hairier than I would like to be… but the goal of entertaining the troops made me laugh every time, and Rafi and I decided to do it.

We had the party at our friends’ restaurant “The Bank Note” at King and Bathurst downtown Toronto. I should have come earlier to test the video connection, but I was editing until the last minute. We had many issues, and I thought I would not be able to show the video, but at the last minute, Louie set up the big screen and made the audio work.

Artik’s staff, Rafi’s wife embroidery company, and all of the guests added up to more than 50 people. All the people in the restaurant were also watching. As the video played, I felt deep satisfaction. Everyone had a great time, and all of the Artik employees were able to see themselves on the big screen. The hootin’ and hollerin’ peaked at the last scene. After the video, Rafi Bombs (Jager Bombs served up by Rafi) were flowing, and we had the best holiday party ever.

During the weeks of creating the video, something unexpected happened. There was a lot of team bonding and building. There was a shift in the energy. We were all part of a fun project and the entire team was transformed, dealing with many of the daily issues a ship crew of a fun cruise would experience when sailing.

About the Technical Side of the Video:
This was a fun project. We didn’t have a green screen so we printed a large, green format banner. It was too shiny and lighting was not optimal. As a result the chrome keying is a bit choppy

I did all my editing in Adobe Premiere as I was familiar with it from the past. I love this intuitive and powerful software. Instead of buying it, I opted for the monthly cloud option, which provided me with all the Adobe products. I felt like a kid in a candy store. I was able to use Adobe Premiere for video editing, Audition for sound, and After Effects for special effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, and so many more programs Adobe offers.

As I was working with Premiere, I noticed many large improvements since the last time I used the program many years ago. The integration with the other programs is seamless. Want to clean the sound? Just right click the clip and choose edit with Audition. The same holds true for After Effects. I created the rain effect with After Effects. It doesn’t look quite right, but I was running out of time. Perhaps in the future, I will learn to use it better.

Sometimes, I focus on work and efforts that bring direct results and sales. However, I’ve realized that it is the projects that I have a passion for. These projects generate a lot of fun for myself and for others, and I remember them as I look back at years past.