Casey Neistat. The YouTube Films of Casey...

Casey Neistat.

The YouTube Films of Casey Neistat.

I first came across Casey Neistat’s video work perhaps a year ago when I watched “Bike Lanes by Casey Neistat” on YouTube, his anger driven video on New York City’s bike lane laws inspired by receiving a ticket for riding his bike outside the lane. His way of dealing with the issue was creative, humorous and hooked my attention, so I watched a few others. I said to myself, “this guy is really good at this.”

After my video watching binge the videos and name settled in the back of my mind and I went on with my art posting and Tumblr antics. Until a few months later when I came across the video above: “Make It Count.” According to the video Nike asked Neistat to make a short film about how to “make it count” and in turn Neistat took all of the money Nike gave him and flew around the world for ten days, “making it count.” The video is fantastic and is a perfect commercial for the product Nike is selling. It’s also beautifully shot and edited and the narrative really hits home. It was at this point I said to myself, “who is this guy?”

Bike Lanes by Casey Neistat.

I started investigating and watching more of his videos. Each one of them was entertaining. Even the ones that I figured might be boring kept my attention. I also began to notice that Neistat’s idiosyncrasies (he only pays in two dollar bills, his studio is incredibly neat — I’m talking every wire in the place is pinned down, his love of Apple products, his love of fitness, stop animation, etc.) were apparent throughout all his videos and I really came to appreciate the idea that this person was a genuine, one of a kind filmmaker. And maybe the most artistic YouTube filmmaker out there. (Not that his videos wouldn’t work elsewhere, they would and do.)

Instagram i love you

So what’s Neistat’s story? He got his start on YouTube making videos with his brother, Van Neistat. The videos are short explorations of random subjects and by random I mean random only to you and I, as to Neistat these are more than likely things he ponders on often. They were so enjoyable that the Neistat brothers got their own HBO show.

My Birthday Movie

Now, however, Neistat works primarily alone in his Chinatown studio creating his own videos and also creating “op-doc” videos for The New York Times. (One such of these “op-doc” videos, “Bike Thief 2012” is what made me decide to write this).

Bike Thief 2012

Filmmaking as an art can be looked at from all types of different angles but no matter the angle, passion is key and Neistat has a passion that is irresistible, setting his films apart from others. The fact that he’s documenting our time now, with such an unique point of view, makes his works of art distinct and important. And also, entertaining.

Casey can be found on Facebook and Twitter and through his Website. His videos are here.

193 NOTES

POSTED BY supersonicelectronic ON
October 4th, 2012.

#art #casey neistat #video #features

193 NOTES