Interview with Jesse VandenBergh

I interviewed Jesse VandenBergh who is working on a concentration in Video. I watched one video entitledYanks, Sox, and Ground Zero Mosques, was a short, comedic video relating the Yankees and Sox rivalry to, the heated debate around the construction of a Mosque near Ground Zero. Also, I watched Bad News, a lighter work, which he created for fun where a newscaster stuck in character breaks up with his girlfriend.

KM: How would you say you go about your process of coming up with ideas?

Usually I’ll think of a funny idea or concept and build it off that. For example in Bad News, I thought it would be funny if there was a newscaster that was stuck as a newscaster all the time. Then, I thought of where I could go from there and write a little skit.

KM: What would you say is important about your work? Are there any goals you ultimately like to reach with each project?

Sometimes I’ll do things for fun, like Bad News, which was just for fun, there’s nothing really important about that. And other times I like to do some form of political or social commentary and make it kind of funny. Sometimes I just aim for some type of satirical comedy and other times it’s just for fun.

KM: How do you decide who to use in your videos?

It used to use anyone I could find in the beginning and now we’re seniors and now we know who is in their element for one. Now I have a select group of people that I usually choose from. If I see that someone can act really well, or is really funny I’ll approach them about being in a video.

So at this point you know exactly what you’re looking for the kind of videos you want to do.

KM: Do you feel like your process for each video is the same every time, or does it change depending on the project?

It’s generally the same I mean the only thing that’s different is the content of the script. I usually have the same process: write a quick outline, storyboard it, shoot it, edit it.

KM: How did you get into video?

My dad is a freelance editor and he worked for this company called Framerunner, and he was laid off conveniently when I had the idea for my first video. So I wrote that and he was editing from home, so it was easy for him to help me edit that, as opposed to being out working in the city, so that kinda got me into that.

KM: Did you know you wanted to do video when you came to school?

When I came to school yes. I guess I’ve wanted to do it since I was really young.

KM: What would you say your inspirations are? Whether it has to do with video or just art and life in general.

For the comedy aspect I would say my main influence is my grandfather because he was one of the founders of MAD magazine. I guess I get my sense of humor from him, and he taught me how to draw, which comes in handy for story boards. Other than that, from a video standpoint I love directors like Stanley Kubrick, Scorsese, Tarantino, Hitchcock, and Christopher Nolan are my top.

KM: Do you find that your work is influenced by them directly, or are there any connections?

I did a parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey, so I guess I was mimicking some directing styles, but from a parody or satirical standpoint, I just adapt that style to reference or make fun of it.

KM: What are your thoughts on Thesis? Ideas, qualms, etc.

I’m not really sure what I wanna do just yet, now, but hopefully just doing more stuff like this and going to class and seeing what happens I’ll kinda come up with something. To just keep doing what I am doing maybe I’ll find something that I can do a little differently, maybe things I can find that I’m comfortable with that I can do the same.