Norwegian anti-Facebook film goes viral
The Local Norway - [email protected]
Published: 26 Jun, 2014 CET.
Updated: Thu 26 Jun 2014 15:16 CET
A Norwegian short film about the miseries of life in the age of Facebook has struck such a chord that it has had nearly three million views on YouTube in less than a month.
Brother film-making trio Shaun, Andrew and Steven Higton, whacked the film, "What's on your mind?" up on YouTube after showing it at the Cannes film festival in May. But they never expected such viral success. "It's crazy," director Shaun Higton told The Local. "I've just been enjoying the ride and watching it go up." The film follows an everyman character whose life gradually falls apart while the number of 'likes' on his Facebook Page creeps steadily upwards. Eventually, he cracks and posts, "my life sucks", after which all of his 'friends' immediately block his feeds. "I was looking at my Facebook feed one day, and I was thinking, 'everyone looks so great all the time,'" he explains. "So this idea just popped into my head, 'wouldn't it be cool to follow this guy as his life is going in a downward spiral, and as he goes down, his Facebook 'likes' go up. That was the whole point." The three brothers, born to a Norwegian mother and an American father, were brought up in Oslo and already work as commercial filmmakers, with Shaun most recently directing an advert for Intersport in Norway. His younger brother Andrew Adam Higton worked as the film's producer, and his other brother Steven Higton, worked as a video effects artist.
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Brother film-making trio Shaun, Andrew and Steven Higton, whacked the film, "What's on your mind?" up on YouTube after showing it at the Cannes film festival in May. But they never expected such viral success.
"It's crazy," director Shaun Higton told The Local. "I've just been enjoying the ride and watching it go up."
The film follows an everyman character whose life gradually falls apart while the number of 'likes' on his Facebook Page creeps steadily upwards. Eventually, he cracks and posts, "my life sucks", after which all of his 'friends' immediately block his feeds.
"I was looking at my Facebook feed one day, and I was thinking, 'everyone looks so great all the time,'" he explains. "So this idea just popped into my head, 'wouldn't it be cool to follow this guy as his life is going in a downward spiral, and as he goes down, his Facebook 'likes' go up. That was the whole point."
The three brothers, born to a Norwegian mother and an American father, were brought up in Oslo and already work as commercial filmmakers, with Shaun most recently directing an advert for Intersport in Norway.
His younger brother Andrew Adam Higton worked as the film's producer, and his other brother Steven Higton, worked as a video effects artist.
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