Weird Al Yankovic “Mission Statement” Whiteboard Video
For over thirty years, Weird Al Yankovic has been pointing a funhouse mirror at popular culture. His 2014 album, “Mandatory Fun” proves that out. When Al Yankovic asked TruScribe to point that goofy mirror at our own industry with a whiteboard video…well, you can see what was intended up above.
Listen to “Mission Statement” and you can hear how it would be an easy fit at a corporate retreat meant to inspire and drive people to go forth and synergize. Harmonious drum circles and flowers distract you from plans for world domination.
Start of Collaboration
Working with Al was a lot of fun for our entire team. Our first meeting was just over a year ago, and so we had some time to let our creative juices flow. Each of our artists worked on the first 30 seconds of the lyrics and passed their drawings around to the rest of our team to evaluate. The group lifted up Brian Wisniewski to be the lead artist on the project, but when you watch the video, you can see that there was more than one hand involved.
A Few Whiteboard Tricks
When we sent over initial ideas on all the new tricks and experiments we had in mind for the project, Al urged us to keep it simple. One of the new tricks we did get to use was having multiple hands draw in front of the camera so we could draw images and lyrics at the same time.
Most of our videos use black and one other color as an accent color to simply signify an important part of the video. Early on, we knew we wanted a psychedelic section to make the corporate speak feel like a bit of a trip to match the style of the song. For that section we wanted to use lots of color. To achieve the right effect, we used a trick that we’ve not seen anyone else use.
This technique is something we developed for color matching to corporate brand guides. A bit of green marker, and the world is a rainbow.
TruScribe videos are 100% hand-drawn, but a few cheats aren’t bad.
Seeing the Humor
We’re certain that this parody is going to get some mixed reviews from our clients. This language appears in our videos all the time, and we know that the instructional designers, trainers, and marketers out there will have a laugh with us. As with most forms of humor, it speaks to a bit of truth that we can all learn from. You can use all the jargon and cultural speak you want, but if the message behind it and the actions you take to support it aren’t authentic, people won’t trust it.
Our Experience
The TruScribe team lastly wants to thank Weird Al Yankovic and everyone on his team for including us in this project. Our memories, and this video, will always be a part of our story. Al, we wish you all the best with “Mandatory Fun” and look forward to looking into the funhouse mirror again.
Creative Director: Eric Oakland
Producer: Bessie Cherry
Artist: Brian Wisniewski
Editor: Aaron Williams
Support: The Whole TruScribe Team