Music: “Renegades of Funk” by Rage Against the Machine (iTunes)
History:
Ah, good times. In December of 2004, I came across an flyer advertising a local film competition with several sweet prizes, including a Canon XL2. The first thing that came to mind was to do a little introductory video to flourishes for laypeople, showing all the different things possible with a deck of cards.
Knowing that I probably wouldn’t be able to pull off the whole project on my own, I contacted my friend Huron and asked for his help. At the same time, the both of us were hanging out with fellow Singaporean flourishers Elijah Cai and Sylvester Singh as well, so we asked them if they’d be interested in helping us out as well. As fate would have it, they agreed, and we set out to make the most awesome flourish video ever.
Over the course of the next month, the four of us met us at least three times a week at the Esplanade to film the video. As the deadline for the video submission drew nearer, we were rushing to get everything in place – so much that I ended up editing until 4 in the morning the day it was due. During the editing process, I was on the phone with Huron for most of the time discussing the video structure and soundtrack choices, as well as what the video should be called. After running through a series of uninspiring names, Huron suggested ‘Virtuoso’ and the name stuck.
While we managed to get the film in on time, it didn’t make the final contenders list, let alone win anything (the #1 spot went to a documentary on transgendered people in Singapore). Nevertheless, the experience was a great one, and the fact that it led up to the team we are today is better than any XL2 in the world.
In May of 2005 we were interviewed for a local newspaper, so to give people a point of reference I created a special ‘Virtuoso Profiles’ section on my site, and edited clips from the original 7-minute short into the little video montage you see above. This was pretty much the first public appearance of our group, and you can bet your ass it won’t be the last.
-Kev
[...] out on tales of the first magic routine I ever created, a video that was actually a failure, and the true story of how Virtuoso got its start – all fascinating and heartbreaking in their own [...]