Magic Beard: Man uses iPhone app and ton of facial hair to create amusing viral video

By Trevor Mogg August 23, 2013

man with magic beard and stop motion app creates amusing viral video 1 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Who would’ve thought facial hair could be so entertaining. Of course, to make it entertaining does require some input on behalf of the person it’s growing on; it doesn’t just start doing stuff all by itself, although in Ben Garvin’s humorous video, it looks like it does.

When the Minnesota-based photojournalist decided it was time to take the clippers to his burgeoning beard, he had an idea for a little project: to make a viral video using his face-based haystack.

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“I Googled, ‘How to make a viral video’ and ‘When is the best time to post a viral video,’” Ben told local news site Pioneer Press, adding that he spent lots of time researching the different ways of promoting a video online.

Effective research and a talented beard have evidently combined well for Ben, with his clever stop-motion video on Thursday passing a million views just two days after hitting YouTube.

It's some ending.... — It’s some ending…. Image used with permission by copyright holder

Shot with an iPhone 5 fixed to a tripod, Ben made his two-minute video (below) by snapping thousands of shots using an app called Stop Motion Studio (boy, oh boy, the folks there must be dancing on the ceiling right now – they should send Ben a gold-plated razor or something).

Several months later, once all the shots were in the can, he started editing the video on his PC using Adobe’s Premiere Pro software. After taking out the boring bits and adjusting sections to make them sync better with the music, the job was pretty much done.

Unsure of the reaction it might get on YouTube, he decided to show it first to his seven-year-old son. His was response was excellent….sort of. “He laughed so hard a small puddle appeared at his feet afterwards – a high bar!” Ben wrote in a blog post. High praise, indeed.

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