This Panda is Dancing
This is an informative, spoken word video to raise awareness about the “Attention Economy”, Most companies design their technology to maximize our screen-time. But what if technology were designed to help us live by our values?
The aim of this video was to bring awareness about the concept of the “Attention Economy” and to stimulate the design leaders of our world to create more human-centric technology that can better benefit people.
I sat down with the creator of the poem, Max Stossel, to help determine how we would visualize his poem. We decided that this would be best as a live action film with Max as the central character. We eventually dedicated this film to a movement called Time Well Spent, led by Tristan Harris, who has been extremely active in helping leaders critically think about how the technology they create can help the user.
“When Sander was introduced to me by a mutual friend as the best in the world at what he does I laughed at the grandiosity of that statement... but after working with him I’m pretty sure he’s the best in the world at what he does.”
The video went viral. Next time people got stuck in their endless social media feeds, this video may have provided some perspective. The film was shared by Elite Daily, GOOD magazine, George Takei and more resulting in over 1.5 Million views.
Approach
I took this project on as a pro bono effort, and it was one of the more challenging projects, as it combined live action, visual effects, UI interface animation, choreographed performance, and poetry all into one video.
Since every move Max makes need to happen precisely at a specific time to match with the visuals, we started with storyboards to get an idea of the precise time he would need to move or turn around.
Rough Storyboards to outline the timing of the Video
Once that challenge was worked out, I worked with Max on his performance, then found the perfect street location in New York City. A project of this undertaking would be impossible to do alone. We got Director of Photography Conor Murphy and production company Yacht Club Films involved to help us with the live action.
The footage was color corrected by RCO and the music and sound design for the film was created by Wesley Slover at Sono Sanctus. After that I completed the visual effects and animation work.
Original
Final Result
Services
Creative Direction, Storyboarding, Live Action, UI Animation, Visual Effects, Color Correction, Concept, Music and Sound Design.
Credits
Director, Co-producer, & Visual Effects: Sander van Dijk
Writer, Co-producer & Lead Actor: Max Stossel
Executive Producer: Jake Ladehoff
Production Company: Yacht Club Films
Director of Photography: Conor Murphy
Color: RCO
Music & Sound Design: Wesley Slover
Steadicam Operator: Kyle Fasanella
Graphic Artist: Aaron Kemnitzer
CG Artist: Joseph Pistono
Visual Effects Assistant: Chelsea Galen
Roto Assistant: Regina Morgan-Munoz
Lead Actress: Crystal Lee
Special Thanks:
Chantal Stafford-Abbott, Radha Agrawal, Koen Oosterbroek, Anneke Jong, Jacob Tugendrach, Alex Mizrahi, David Markowitz, Gene Gurkoff, Taryn Southern Katie Growald, Steph Bagley, Joel Wishkovsky, Amy Karr, Erica Shay, Kurt Peloquin, Tobias Rose Stockwell, Erica Berger, Nora Graham, Elana Meta, Julian Dufault, Michael Rosen, Kelly Stoecklin, Adam London, Gary Su, Auston Copeland, Katya Stepanov, Betty Kay Kendrick, Zach Bell, David Yarus, Stephan Cesarini, Jon Morris, Michelle Finizio, Lauren Bille, Felicity Conrad, Abel Costa, Ria Bouttier, James Hercher, Sarah Knapp, Simon Roberts, Alex Abelin, & Dan Fredinburg