Interview with a YouTube Millionaire

Do you remember Chad Bonanno? We talk about his a few months ago when he shot a parkour video for the Tempest team. Well, if you have been on Youtube recently, you have probably seen his latest creation: an advertisement video for the Tempest Freerun Academy.

The video has gone viral now and has over 2.5 million views so I decided to ask Chad a few questions about (1) the video and (2) what it means to have your video at the top of the YouTube chart.

Now the interview…

About the video

How did you end up doing this clip?

6 separate shots with interesting wipes from the environment to fuse them together to feel as if it was all one shot. Keep in mind, however, that some of the 6 shots were still around 25 – 30 seconds long

Did you expect the clip to go viral?

Not as quick as it did. I saw it getting 250K views, but I was not expecting millions!

How did you manage the advertisement of the clip (to get more views)?

I personally advertised it, as well as all members of Tempest Freerunning , on Facebook and Twitter. The REAL interesting thing is that over 150,000 people shared it on their facebook walls!

We keep hearing about people whose clip gets viral and who get contacted by big agencies. Have they called you yet? Did the clip bring any new business?

Yes, we have been contacted by a few outside companies, all with different interests. It has also brought a few calls to me for graphics and possible shooting.

Anything you would have shot/done differently?

Spent a little more time with keeping the lighting setups consistent regarding the visible lights. I used visible shop lights to light a lot of it, and I just wish I had kept a few in the same place. Also , made sure there was no one hanging out in the background.

About the gear

How many shooters

ONE, Me =)

How many hours shooting

About Total about 18 hours total over 3 weekends

How many camera / gear used

Canon EOS 5D Mark 2 , 16-35mm f/2.8L II , Glidecam HD-4000

Any special considerations when shooting fast moving subjects

I shot with a shutter of 1/50th and an fStop of 4 – 5.6 . I would have upped the shutter a bit, but lighting was tricky in certain areas so I played it safe. We only ended up with about 2 shots that were out of focus.

Chad also gave me a few BTS stills to show you guys.