Face to Face with... David Lewandowski

Pulse Films director David Lewandowski is an entertaining man. You’d only have to watch his first short film, Going to the Store, to know that. Following “a normal guy, walking normally to a place”, it’s an entertaining watch and has notched up over a million views on YouTube with countless spin-offs being made. Having worked in the film industry since he was 19, Lewandowski created the title sequences for Tron Legacy and recently directed a promo for Friendly Fires (above), which again, incorporates his passion for comedy and visual effects. Here he talks about the video, the reaction to his hit viral, and his own favourite store.

So what’s the story in the Friendly Fires video?

Hurting is about rejection and persistence.  It’s also about two incredibly odd people finding each other and my love for the aesthetics that crop up in the process of 3D animation.

Where was it shot and how long did it take?

I flew to London the day after Going to the Store premiered in LA, landed and shot the singer, Ed, in Brixton. In early September, we shot for two days in downtown Los Angeles, in the nice, quiet, arts area. A number of things have been shot down there recently; it’s lovely and works perfectly for the video. I scanned Nikol’s [Peeva, the actress in the video] head on set, then did an additional body scan and clothes scanning day with our dancer a bit later in post.

How did you cast the characters?

We had a great casting session.  Nikol was the first girl we saw out of a full day of casting, and George was the very last guy we saw. He chased us down on the street because he was late to our audition; he’d just come from a shoot. We got him to email us a video audition and he completely nailed it. He had the perfect energy and right attitude. Nikol got the jokes right away and really enjoyed the whole process.

How did you explain the idea to the band?

Presentation is so important with something very technical, so I made a little video treatment which started off with some simple animation tests with me narrating and explaining the concept. I explained how I wanted to take a pretty clichéd narrative but distort and heighten all of the visuals. Then I gave a technical demo to show them some of the technologies I wanted to explore. Head scanning, motion capture, head replacement, a lot of which was inspired by a recent trip to Siggraph (computer graphics conference), but also from the reaction to Going to the Store. Then I showed them a boardamatic, and I got the job.

Tell us about Going to the Store and where the idea came from for that...

I’m really into errors in visual effects. Bad motion-capture data, broken rigs... While working on Tron, I saw many things that made jaded 3D artists cringe, lots of rigging errors and heads exploding, bodies not self-colliding, Jeff bridges jaw unhinge like a snake, Olivia Wilde’s head detach and dance around. But I think that stuff is hilarious.

It’s also not hard to see Graham Linehan’s Big Train as reference deep within Going to the Store.

What do you think of all the spoofs on YouTube?

Oh God! They’re wonderful aren’t they? I love them so much. I think there’re over 60 of them on YouTube and I love every single one of them. The attention to detail! They even simulate the shot flow and shot composition. I also really enjoy the reaction videos (hey kid, your laugh makes me laugh).

Here are some of my favourites. They’re all pretty amazing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhxMDHuj5jU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaK2UQkPalo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boZ8sZnKVbk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NS3joMyd_g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlBrU-em8xI

Did you expect it to receive that much attention?

At first I thought it didn’t have the universal appeal that most traditional viral videos have.  There are little things, however, like the music and lack of any language components which make it more likely to appeal internationally and to children. On its appeal, my friend Adam Buxton points out, “It seems to reach in and connect with people on a very semi-conscious, fundamental level. Plus it’s funny and well done.” What a sweet and gentle man!

What’s your favourite thing on the menu at Chick-Fil-A and why’s the restaurant so good?

Come on, the southern sweet tea? The waffle fries? The chicken sandwich? You’re going to make me choose? I’ve had this conversation with Zach from Fatalfarm several times. It’s psychological, it’s a novelty. He says it’s just another option to him, in Texas. They’re not widespread out here in southern California, but where I’m from, in central Florida they’re everywhere.  I essentially had one on cus at school and growing up it was the fast-food of choice in my family. So out here, when I get homesick, I make the hour or so drive out for some of that weird Christian fast food.  Also sweet tea, proper tooth-rot sweet tea, is hard to come by in LA anyway. I don’t mean to overhype it, it’s just a quirky detail about me I guess.  It is good for fast food, though.

What inspires you in Santa Monica?

I love the weather, how quiet it is. I can really focus here and I don’t feel surrounded by LA stereotypes.  I live in Sunset Park (where going to the store was photographed) with my little corgi in this bungalow.  I have a cornershop and I know my neighbours, it feels like a suburban beach community.  I moved here in 2009 to do Tron, and haven’t left yet.  I liked living in Silverlake and even in studio city, but there’s something about being this close to the ocean that appeals to whatever’s left of the Floridian in me.

What have you seen/read/heard recently that has inspired you?

Hmm, a good place to look is my YouTube channel’s favorites, I try to keep things in my personal brand that excite me in there.

I used to really draw on the darkest things possible for inspiration, but as I get older and my cynicism cools I gravitate to silliness and surrealism.  Also I’m a total anglophile and closely watch the alternative comedy industry over there.   How’s that for non-specific, ha.

Any upcoming work you’d like to tell us about?

Working with Flying Lotus a lot, still have some projects with Fatal Farm that are slowly finding their way out of the pipe. Shouldn’t say too much, but continuing to explore the uncharted intersections of comedy and visual effects.