Camcorder News

We all remember the Mentos Guys. Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz of EepyBird.com turned into viral sensations in 2006 when they experimented with 200 liters of Diet Coke and 500 Mentos mints. The video has generated more than 11 millions views on Revver. Read on for a Q&A interview for tips for making good content on the Web and what the Mentos Guys are up to these days.

CamcorderInfo.com Blog: EepyBird is best known its Diet Coke and Mentos video "Experiment #137" that is featured on Revver, as well as Facebook and MySpace? Why upload your videos to Revver as opposed to other sites?

Stephen Voltz: We actually put a lot of thought into that decision and the choice at the time came down to Revver or YouTube. At YouTube, we'd thought we'd probably get more views, but at Revver, we had a chance to share the advertising revenue they would make off our work. At that time Revver was still in beta, and YouTube was already huge. But since Revver offers a 50/50 revenue share with everyone who posts, if our video got views, we would start earning money right off the bat.

Fritz Grobe: We also figured, if we didn't get a lot of views on Revver, we could always move over to YouTube. But literally within hours of posting the video on Revver and EepyBird.com, we were getting thousands of views - and days later, hundreds of thousands of views. Our first video ended up getting 11 million views, not counting all the bootleg copies. It's great to earn some money for generating all those views.

CCI: "Experiment #137" features music by Audiobody. How important is the soundtrack in creating a video hit? Is music better than narration?

Fritz: The soundtrack is always a huge part of our videos, and we asked our friends at Audiobody if we could use 'You Gotta Tap' on Experiment #137. It just felt perfect. It sets the mood, draws people in, and gives the video a rhythm. We want our videos to appeal to people around the world, so we focus on the visuals and the music, and keep our use of language to a minimum.

Stephen: We tried a lot of different tracks for 137, and nothing seemed right until we found the Audiobody track. About a month after we posted Experiment #137 though someone posted a great remix on YouTube with Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" behind it. That was also a great choice. It was taken by YouTube, but I'd love to get a copy of it if I could find it. It was beautiful.

Narration can work too for some kinds of video I think, but for the kind of work we do, music is critical. And even if your primary soundtrack is narration, I'd think about putting a music bed of some kind in addition.

CCI: What makes a good video? Some video producers have told us the key to any good online video is a pretty girl or dirty humor. How did two guys in lab coats and goggles garner the same (or more) success than some sensational material?

Fritz: If you look at many of the big viral video hits of the last few years, like OK Go's treadmill video or Judson Laipply's Evolution of Dance, they're very simple productions: one camera, few edits - or even no edits at all, just a fixed camera with one uninterrupted shot. There's just enough production value to get the message across clearly but nothing unnecessary. That makes it feel like it's made by real people, for real people - it's not just about appealing to the lowest common denominator.

Stephen: Wait, are you saying we're not pretty??

CCI: According to EepyBird.com, Mr. Voltz and Mr. Grobe, you both have professional day jobs as a lawyer and juggler, respectively. What makes you want to continue to pursue online video? Could making viral videos be a full-time job for anyone?

Stephen: Actually, Eepybird has been more than a full time job since our first video launched in June of '06. We've been doing both video projects and live performances pretty much nonstop ever since.

Fritz: Viral video has become just a part of what we do. We've done video projects for both Coca-Cola and Perfetti van Melle (the makers of Mentos), as well as creating a video for Blue Man Group's 'How to Be a Megastar 2.0' arena tour. We've done performances in London, Paris, Madrid, Istanbul, New York, [and] Las Vegas. It's been an incredible ride.  We started off thinking that our peculiar brand of physical theater and our Diet Coke & Mentos experiments might work well on Internet video. Little did we know how it would change our lives.

CCI: What is EepyBird working on now? Can viewers expect more science videos?

Fritz: Our common background is physical theater, with an interest in not just science, but in how everyday objects can do extraordinary things. We spent six months exploring Diet Coke & Mentos before releasing our first video, and we've been hard at work for several months now on our next video - with a brand new idea.

Stephen: We think this idea is really, really cool. It uses various objects you might have around the office. And we'll be using a LOT of them. We're hoping to release it this spring - keep your eyes out for it!