Melbourne-based The Woolshed Company is a film studio with a confession to make – they’ve just run a two year long social experiment called “The Viral Experiment”, where they faked viral videos on the Internet. Via Design Taxi:
The series, directed by Richard Hughes and Caspar Mazzotti, comprises eight ‘viral’ clips that some of you might find familiar.
This includes the GoPro footage of a man’s fight with a great white shark off Sydney Harbour, a GoPro falling off a drone and onto the ‘Burning Man’ dance floor, a guy who ran into an outback tornado to take a selfie, the USA vs Japan selfie stick fight, the stormtrooper who fell down the stairs on the way to the Star Wars premiere, guy’s reaction to his girlfriend nearly getting struck by lightning in Sydney, a snowboarder getting run down by a bear and a lion who took revenge on a trophy hunter.
The videos had not only spread across the internet but also sparked debate surrounding their authenticity. The news coverage gained the clips even higher view counts.
In an infographic that was published with the announcement, The Woolshed Company states total online views for the videos at 205 million from more than 180 countries, approximately 1.5 million likes, half a million comments and worldwide news coverage.