The fun ones

What’s the point?

One of the questions I get asked fairly often by other creators is “why do you make this kind of stuff?”, and I used to think it was such a lame question; it brings me joy to make fun videos. That’s probably close to what any creator would say in response to that question within their first year, but as you get swept up in the waves of trends, algorithms, posting schedules, brand deals, partnerships, and the myriad of other staples of the creator economy, making what you want can start to take a back seat. I spoke a lot about this topic in my last article Influence of Integrity?, so I won’t go one too long about that here, though that subject matter will probably come up a lot.

The beginning

Ironically enough, my first* one of these fun little montages was actually done for a brand back in 2022, you can watch it here if you want. I think they shot me a couple hundred dollars to do a video in their ninja hoodie, and as a fun-employed athlete recovering from an injury, I figured why not? However, I was doing this one on my own terms, and as this was just about the era of influencer fatigue, I was going to do what I wanted.

Showcasing talent & skill above all, I just decided to film some tricks, combos, and cool techniques I’d been working on for a while and tweaking them to fit the “Ninja aesthetic”. It was about a week after I sent them a heavily watermarked draft before I posted it, and I couldn’t stop watching it because it gave me something I was in desperate need of: Joy. After posting, it ended up blowing up a little and I think the brand probably made some decent money off of it, but I was more interested in this new idea of just putting everything I liked into short videos solely for the purpose of making myself happy.

Evolution

From 2022-2023, I experimented quite a bit in trying to find the perfect tone (for me), identifying elements such as: humor, skill, character, variety, etc. until I finally got it down. It’s basically the Buster Keaton-Jackie Chan ratio of Dumb:Dope. Their works have the near-universal appeal of Cirque because they can keep people laughing and in awe at the same time, leaning more towards either end of the scale whenever needed, and they’re never concerned about looking silly. That right there is the winning formula for action comedy, and who doesn’t love that?

Since I can’t speak in any of these videos (according to the arbitrary rules I made up at some point), I decided to let my body and face do all of the talking for me, which of course meant… Character Acting. Now, I’ve never been a terribly compelling actor, so I figured this would count as good practice and a fun challenge: can I tell a story with no lines, plot, resolution, coherence, or theme? I’m still not sure, but it has been a hell of a time trying!

This is one of my favorites, I put an Elite Kicks! promo in the caption, but really I was just having so much fun making this up after a heavy training day. Another key element for these bad boys is that I come in with no real plan, I treat the room like a blank canvas, and I am both the paint and the brush… only instead of being profound, I just get absolutely silly with it. What do any of the quirky little character moments mean? Who knows, they just felt like fun to do and so I did them, no rigid structure to adhere to other than the static camera.

I also really like to let the music inspire the movements, my dance background doesn’t come up that often because most people just see the martial arts or tricking, but dance will always be my base understanding of creative movement. For example, in this tiktok, I had heard the song like a week before and kinda thought nothing of it, but kept finding myself going back to listen to it again, like I’d missed something in it intitially. Eventually, I realized that the song was an absolute BANGER and I just let it play while I came up with combos, and a couple of hours later, voila! Alternatively, this next song was a lot more whimsical to me, and so I ended up with this video which is a bit slower paced and dumber, while still being pretty objectively impressive.

Friends!

Getting to make a few of these with my friends has been so much fun, and probably a piece of how I’ll view them as people for the rest of my life. Being in such close proximity to Hollywood and Loopkicks Socal (the epicenter of Tricking in Southern California) means I’m surrounded by some of the most unique athletes in the world, and being friends with so many of them means we’re definitely gonna cook up some fun stuff here and there. Getting to see your friends grow is a great honor, but experiencing their growth with them? That is a heavenly priviledge. It’s also makes for way more bloopers.

I want to make a YouTube compilation at some point, but for now, here’s Yung Brian w/ the Heart x F808Z!

Now what?

Honestly, I don’t know. My career and surviving this absolute dog-water economy take up a lot more of my time, but I still love making these little videos as much as when I first started. It would be nice to be able to monetize them, but if it came down to money versus artistic liberty, I’m going with the latter. There will be plenty of other chances for me to make money, and I’d rather not contribute further to the slop that saturates creative platforms already.

One day, there will be no new F808Z videos, only the old ones to look back on, and I want to be able to look back with pride, joy and a sense of fulfilment. So the next time you see one of these, just know that I’m living my goofy little truth, if only for 90 seconds or less.

Also, check out my newest one, I love it so much! ↓↓↓

Song: Plastic - Tendencies

*One could say that my birthday videos in the parking structure were the true genesis of this genre for me, but those were more just the manic creativity of an unrestrained mind during the pandemic