by ori.roth
HOF – unknown facts and hidden messages – part 1
1:19 am in general stuff, videos by ori.roth
I thought it would be nice to make this kind of post with all the small details and silly stuff about this videos series…
It got quite long so I made 2 parts for your convenience….
Enjoy.
General Background:
The idea of making this series came up to my mind, unsurprisingly, while watching the opening intro theme of “Happy Tree Friends“. I looked at it and something looked strange… I thought to myself: “if I will only change one letter it can sound like Happy Ori Friends!! yes!!! hahahaha…..”… yeah…. satisfied from another pun, happily I went to take a shower.
After finishing me and Avner’s juggling videos series I was constantly thinking what I’d like to make next.
I always had the hopes and aspirations of making juggling videos with other jugglers.
As I was showering I had that enlightenment – I should make videos with other jugglers and call it “Happy Oree Friends”!!
1st video – Bike’s Balance (Edgar Groll & Tavo Del Pietro)
Name: There are some head balances on bike.
Location: Jaffa (Yafo) – Israel.
Date recorded: 26.5.2008.
Music: A New Hot One – David Krakauer.
We filmed everything in 4 hours, starting with shots in the streets, then moving to a big public garden where most of the footage was done, and finally going back to Edgar&Paula’s place to make the musical part.
After I got back home at that day I was still excited enough to capture the footage and edit everything before I went to sleep.
Edgar&Tavo’s illustrated characters are the only ones that have a juggling prop on them.
1:18 – That is Paula down there in one of the rare cases she wasn’t holding the camera.
1:37-1:38 – Paula again, only now it’s just her cheering a cheerful word in Spanish.
2:05-2:08 – It was easier for me to make the spin without the flip flops.
3:02-3:12 – Tavo filmed it.
3:14-4:01 – In Argentina about 96% of the jugglers can balance a ball on their head while playing a musical instrument. I used a beanbag 
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2nd video – Ball-Club-Scissors (Ron Be’eri)
Name: As in “Rock-Paper-Scissors”.
Locations: Ra’anana, Kefar Saba, Zichron Ya’akov, Pardess Hanna – Israel.
Dates recorded: June – July 2008.
Music: Hop – Ofer Tal.
It took us 3 shooting days over one month.
The music is a part of a big mix called “HOP” by Ofer Tal. It is a mixture of “I am the Wolrus” by The Beatles, and “Sweet Transvestite” from the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” movie.
00:34-00:59 – We wanted to make this video a bit surreal.. like the song.
1:10 – Here comes this video’s theme… As I was juggling balls and Ron clubs, we though it would be nice to make some kind of a mini battle between them…
1:31 – That shot was taken exactly two weeks after the previous one (you can see my hair grew a bit too fast).
1:46-1:50 – “…I’m crying…” – you can see a big tear drop falling out of the graffiti eye.
1:54-1:57 – I was so happy when I got it…
2:38-2:46 – I initially filmed it while I was filming the 6th HOF video, and pondered a bit in which video it would fit better..
3:11-3:17 – The night before we shot that trick I cracked it in around 3 AM in my room.. Still don’t know what’s its name….
3:26 – Yes, club beats ball. I think it’s because it is stronger and fearsome.
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3rd video – Cave Case (Ayal Benin)
Name (credit – Ayal Benin): Ayal was found in a cave (not for real) and from then on everything went downhill…
Locations: Mount finger, Atlit, Ceseria – Israel.
Dates recorded: July – August 2008.
Music - Low Dee Doe – Terry S. Taylor, Ace of Wands – Steve Hackett.
It took us 3 shooting days over 3 weeks.
One week after I finished it Ayal went to the “Carampa” circus school auditions. He is currently in his second year of studying.
00:42 – The legend tells about a cave which was made by a bear after it stuck his finger into a small crack in the mountain to search for honey, and when bees stung him the finger got swelled to the current cave’s dimensions.
1:24-1:26 – Reversed speed.
1:56 – That is Ayal’s famous frisbees case.
2:19-2:23 – We took a couple of shots for that long distance and unknown destination frisbee throw. Luckily we managed to find all three of them.
2:36 – This location is not a snowed mountain, but a salt factory. That day was one of the hottest of the year but you can still get the impression of a chilly one…. It was funny going back in the bus while I was covered with salt, my shirt was upside down and full with juggling equipment and camera stuff….
3:49-4:53 – Those shots were made at the Cesaria’s ancient aqueduct
5:41 – At that place and position exactly, Ayal’s brother (Ben Hopper), took a picture that won the Israel’s National Geographic Channel (http://ngcisrael.co.il/) 1st place for Summer Sports Photography in Israel Competition (Summer of 2007) .
6:17 – Ayal actually dove down that small gap and came out after a couple of seconds from the other side (the left side of the frame).
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4th video – Flight Of The Yohos (Dekel Azulay)
Name (credit – Assaf Schneider): Sounds like “Flight of the Concords“, we are flying and using Yoho diabolos.
Locations: Tel Aviv – Israel, Antalya – Turkey, Frankfurt – Germany, Budapest – Hungary.
Dates recorded: August – September 2008.
Music: 15 Step – Radiohead.
The video is divided to three parts – airports, flying and solid ground.
The most filmed airport was Frankfurt. Me and Dekel were coming back from the 2008 EJC and we searched (a bit) for a place to stay one day before our flight. After a small discussion with the inner fancy hotel’s clerk we decided not to take it and instead staying inside the airport. That means we had 14 hours of pure awaiting fun hours for our flight.
We started by traveling around this huge airport and saying goodbye to Sondre. After that we started filming some of Dekel’s stuff and in between found a casino. Dekel was too young, I was old enough, and we had too many spare hours to kill. I took the chance… Had no idea what to do while Dekel was throwing random orders at me through the glass window. After 3 failed attempts I won 52 euros in that slot machine… beginners luck? probably… Of course I had to document everything and eventually it became quite usuefull……
0:17 – Antalya airport.
0:23 – Frankurt airport.
0:25 – Tel Aviv airport.
0:43 – Those coca cola bottles were special edition ones!
0:46-0:48 – Dekel surprised by the camera on the other side of the casino.
0:53 – Those black chairs were our beds for that night…
1:21-1:26 – My brother is on the bottom right corner of the frame singing a song he just made up about how lousy charter flights are. To be more detailed, we (my family and I) went to a vacation in Turkey and got stuck in the airport for 16 hours because of our constant delayed charter flight. I think we were the less desperate people there among the furious mass. Luckily, I had my camera and 5 blank cassettes on me all the time, so it turned out that I’ve documented all the dramatic happenings and the human suffer. After coming back from the vacation I sent the tapes to one of the biggest news company in Israel and the day after there was an article about that flight with all of my footage on the main newscast.
2:15 – Budapest airport.
2:27-2:35 – “15 steps then a sheer drop” – Dekel is doing exactly 15 catches with 4 diabolos and then drops.
2:44-2:45 – In the clouds it is no other than the German juggler Till (unknown last name), a.k.a Hercules (that’s why he’s in the clouds..)…
2:53 – end – We took this part at the same day before and whilst the great Tel Aviv juggling club weekly meeting.
3:31-3:48 – Reversed speed.
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5th video – Juggling Seeds (Daniel Bareket)
Name (credit – Daniel Bareket): We plant juggling seeds…
Location: Harduf – Israel.
Dates recorded: September 2008.
Music: Sweetwater, Texas – Fastball.
My vision for this video was to be as calm and pastoral as possible. That was quite simple to imagine after Daniel’s idea to plant juggling seeds and after I chose the soundtrack.
For making that vibe I slowed down most of the shots, used some color effect to make the colors warmer and give more glow so it will have a dreamscape look.
Daniel came up with the planting theme after thinking about his little hand made iron club.
0:45-0:58 – In order to create this stop motion sequences Daniel called his little brother to the rescue. Uri, his little brother, took about 131 photos of the 9 growing club stages – from underground to fully grown, which means more than 10 photos for each stage. The beanbags part was easier and faster as he took “only” 38 pictures of the 4 growing beanbags stages.
1:02 – Adding the guitar shots also contributed to the general atmosphere.. I also knew the song’s chords (but most of the times what we played didn’t really match if you want to be picky)..
1:45-153 – In all of those guitar&juggling shots I played with the guitar playing speed so that the strumming will fit the song’s original strumming…
2:09-2:14 – I made this scarecrow trick out of 4 different shots: 1. ball is sitting on his left hand’s palm 2. rolling the ball on his left hand 3. rolling the ball on his right hand balls 4. ball is sitting on his right hand’s palm.
2:21-2:30 – (my 3bbb trick) – The only juggling trick that is not in slow motion in the video.
3:46 – Daniel’s brother and sister are throwing the flowers at us. That symbolizes how little juggling props are coming to the world (after passing..)…
3:54-3:59 – This stop motion sequence was done when the still camera was on a stand (as opposed to the other sequences)…
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The other 5 videos on the next part………
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