Ryan Riffle (right) and Richard Riffle
If you haven’t seen Ryan Riffle’s winning Wildcard video for the DIY LEGO Movie Trailer project, do yourself a favor and check it out now. Ryan and his twin brother Richard painstakingly recreated the original LEGO Movie trailer shot-for-shot, entirely out of cardboard. That’s right, cardboard! The result is a giddy romp packed with action, humor, and an amazing a cappella soundtrack. Ryan and Richard’s hard work netted them $12,000 and (as of this writing) over 100,000 views on YouTube! Read on to see how they pulled off this crazy undertaking.
Matt Sweeney: What’s your filmmaking background? Did you go to film school or are you self-taught?
Ryan Riffle: I am self-taught. Started filming my freshman year of high school. My brother and I have filmed a little over 400 short films, which have improved my skills immensely. I first picked up a video camera after making a video for a film festival at church. I didn't take filming that seriously until I got into college, and now I love it and want to make a career out of it.
Matt Sweeney: Your entry for the LEGO Movie project was a pretty ambitious undertaking. What made you think you could pull it off? Were there any points where you didn’t think you could finish?
Ryan Riffle: We had no idea if we could pull this off, having only shy of one month and two people doing all the work (my twin brother and me). There were many points where we were not sure if we could finish in time. It took us about 20 days to make 75% of the sets before filming. Once we got to the filming stage, with only 10 days left till due date, we were a little scared and behind where we wanted to be, but knew that since we'd already put about 150 hours into it, we were driven enough to finish the film.
Matt Sweeney: What gave you the idea to make the video entirely out of cardboard? Did you just have a lot lying around?
Ryan Riffle: This was our first time ever making a cardboard video. At first we wanted to do a stop motion video of the LEGO trailer on a whiteboard. After testing it out we realized that it wasn't going to look professional enough. So we came up with the idea of trying to make it out of cardboard instead. We ran to Walmart at 1 a.m. and grabbed a full shopping cart's worth of cardboard. After smashing it into the backseat of our car, we were ready to begin the very long journey of intense cardboard building. And what a journey it was!
Matt Sweeney: You and your brother spent over 200 hours on this. How was the workload split?
Ryan Riffle: The workload was split evenly. We each had our own skills to contribute. Richard made the characters, vehicles, and a lot of the backdrops. My job was to make some of the backdrops, 3D buildings, and to put the sets and rooms together. I also was in charge of filming each shot to make it look like the exact same shots from the trailer, and edit the movie as we shot it. We both spent about 6-7 hours on the music and sound effects alone.
Matt Sweeney: Where did you film the video?
Ryan Riffle: We filmed the video at our house. We used our bedroom, the kitchen, and the dining room. The house was covered in cardboard for a little over a week. There was so much cardboard in our bedroom that we had nowhere to step. Our parents had a difficult time getting from the kitchen to the living room. I'll end it by saying our parents were thrilled.
Matt Sweeney: Your video is a shot-for-shot remake of the trailer. Do you think replicating a Hollywood director’s shots helped inform your own directing style?
Ryan Riffle: Doing a shot-for-shot remake of the trailer was tough. My brother and I are very detailed-orientated and wanted to make the sets exactly like the directors shots (prop for prop) but realized we didn't have the time to be perfectionists about every detail. Overall, I think even though we replicated the director's shots, we were still able to use our own directing style by the way we moved each piece, laid out the scenes, positioned the lighting, etc not using any kind of CG or effects.
Matt Sweeney: Who did that killer Elizabeth Banks impression?
Ryan Riffle: My brother Richard. He practiced for weeks just trying to get Elizabeth's voice perfectly...and...NAILED IT!
Matt Sweeney: Your video has over 100,000 views on YouTube and more than 2,300 likes on Facebook. How’s it feel?
Ryan Riffle: It makes me feel fuzzy like my teddy bear and warm like I'm sitting in my oven. All jokes aside, we feel so grateful and blessed by the gifts that God has given us. He gave us the strength to put the whole video together and the patience with each other to not get too frustrated. Getting those views and likes is just a bonus for us. We hope to work with Warner Brothers again sometime, as long as it doesn't have to do with cardboard.
Matt Sweeney: What’s the reaction been like from your friends and family?
Ryan Riffle: Our parents were very thrilled...once we got the cardboard out of the house. Our friends and family have been very supportive of our weird movie ideas and have stuck by us all the way. Our friends are so supportive that they are willing to be in our videos for free, and if we win, we give them some money. If we don't win, they are still supportive to try another video with us. Our parents are so loving and we were thankful that they let us trash the house for a week!
Matt Sweeney: What are you going to do with your winnings?
Ryan Riffle: “I am going to buy a llama.” - Richard Riffle.
As for myself, I'm going to hopefully buy my own T3i camera to improve our videos. Also saving some for a possible ring!
Last words of advice: If you want to make a video and have the idea and a camera, film it! If you don't have the "money" for it, film it anyway! We spent about $10 making this video and made our money back!
