The story behind the PWN The NOOBS Music Video


One week ago I released what is probably my personal favorite of all the videos I've ever made. It has also been very successful in terms of views for a Billgrip video- getting around 4,000 in its first week. Most people who have watched the video have liked it, and I think that those who didn't like it just didn't understand it. I don't consider myself to be a rapper, nor do I consider myself to be good at online video games anymore...although there definitely was a day when I used to PWN those NOOBs regularly :).

Go back to the Spring of 2008. This project started as an inside joke that basically involved me and my friends making fun of "hardcore gamers" who care way too much about PWNING NOOBS. I wrote the lyrics and everyone thought it was hilarious, but we didn't know anyone who could make the music. Then came fall of 2008- I became good friends with Logan Lukow. He was actually pursuing a degree in recording, plus he had been in a band for a few years, and he was really good at video games. Basically the perfect man for the job. So we started working on it, but with school and my upcoming wedding, the project moved slowly. However, by early spring of 2009 we had recorded everyone's parts and we were ready to film.

This video was originally supposed to be the next video after Lag in Real Life. We had two Canon HV20's to use for the project, but both broke in the same week! Before we could get the cameras fixed, Lindsay and I moved away from Hastings to work at a summer camp, and the project had to be put on hold until later.

Summer came and went, and fall came and went. But during that time Logan kept on working on the song. Every time I listened to it, the song seemed to get more awesome. All that time the video was still in the back of my mind, and I kept getting more and more ideas on how to make the video awesome. We were supposed to film it around Christmas time 2009, but a freak blizzard came and made filming impossible. However, that gave us even more time to make it better. Finally this spring everything came together and we were able to film it. The only thing that didn't work out as I had hoped was that my friends Micah and Truman couldn't be there, but that's okay because everyone did a great job and the final video turned out great! We have finally accomplished a 2 year project. It was definitely a good feeling to get this video done.

I learned a lot by doing this whole project and every other video I do now seems a whole lot easier. There will probably be a day when another Billgrip video comes along that out-does this one, but that might be a while. I plan on writing a blog post soon all about the process of making this video, so look forward to that!

-Billgrip

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