Banking on the success of last year’s viral video retelling, Canadian film festival CFC Worldwide is back with two more short films inspired by viral videos.
The international short film festival, taking place in Toronto between June 5-7, made video history with its 1:41 version of the 2007 YouTube hit “Charlie Bit My Finger” re-imagined as a zombie horror film.
The short, directed by Jeff Chan, has seen one million views to date.
The brains behind the video, Canadian marketing agency doug and serge, were tapped by the festival again this year, and they chose to remake Leeroy Jenkins and David After Dentist this time around.
The CFC Worldwide festival describes the ad campaign on their website as such:
There’s no shortage of amateur videos circulating online, garnering millions of views worldwide. But for the most part, there is something lacking in those videos: quality. That’s why we asked two directors to re-imagine two popular viral videos as short films – to prove that great talent makes all the difference.
Will lightning strike twice? So far the view counts say no.
Director Finn O’Hara reimagined Leeroy Jenkins as a bank heist gone wrong in his three-minute short. 71,000 people have tuned in, with the majority of commenters complaining about the deviation from the original. There’s not even the slightest mention of a massacre. Or fried chicken.
“David After Dentist,” directed by Shian Zeychwey, has been viewed less than 200 times, and tells the story of a guy named David who goes on a horrible drug bender. The short, just over a minute long, ends on a cliffhanger which hints at David’s demise.
Are these better than the originals? The production quality is, of course—that’s a no-brainer. But that’s not what made these videos so popular in the first place.
Photo via YouTube