Madison filmmakers who publish on the Internet continue to find success as the medium of online video approaches its second year of efflorescence. The latest to be recognized are the team at Jibangus, a three-person arts collective. Their video vignette Jicklefight was nominated last week for "Best Comedy Team or Duo in a Video Short" by Yahoo! video.
The nomination is the first in Yahoo's series of "Editorial Awards," an Academy Awards-season campaign to promote the site's online video feature and recognize Yahoo's most prolific users and contributors.
Jibangus is one of these early adopters at Yahoo! "I think they just want to recognize some people they think are interesting and are posting on their video site," says Steve Johanowicz. When the Jibangus member not working on setting up exhibits at the UW's Chazen Museum of Art, he collaborates regularly with Scott Nolin and Paul Fuchs to create Jibangus' conceptual video shorts.
Jicklefight
Jibangus subsequently utilized the clip in The Yungling -- a sci-fi tale addressing the ambiguity of control -- that was screened at art exhibitions in Madison, Chicago, Minneapolis and San Francisco in 2005. "We decided it would be great to use for a clip in the movie," says Johanowicz. "It's a stand alone piece, but it's also part of this larger movie that we made."
The Jibangus team shot the short film over several hours in a field adjacent to the strip mall sitting between First Street and the Yahara River. "In some ways it just speaks for itself," Johanowicz says when asked to elaborate on the concept behind the short. "We simply make these weird vignettes."
The trio was busy working on their latest video over last weekend. "We work over the Internet a lot," Johanowicz explains, "exchanging ideas over email and exchange music and video over our site." It's little wonder, then, that they're also busy presenting their films for online audiences.
