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A year ago Reddit frontpaged a video I directed called Sexy Saxman. Since then, it's been a wild ride leading up to RollingStone featuring my latest music video! I am Mike Diva, AMA!
So here's an update for you guys!
A year ago when a video I directed, Sexy Saxman, was upvoted to the number-one spot on Reddit for a day, I was exhilarated! I had never thought millions of people would be into something I created. The next morning I figured it'd be business as usual, but thanks to all the love and attention my YouTube channel got, so many doors opened up for me. I was finally able to focus on my passion, which is directing music videos for my favorite artists, creating shorts, my own music, and eventually make a living off my YouTube channel.
I got a chance to collaborate on another video that got frontpaged, DubStep Guns, with my friends Corridor Digital.
I was also fortunate enough to direct commercials for EA Sports and CAPCOM
My latest music video is for one of my favorite artists, Kill The Noise, on Skrillex's label, OWSLA. It took me four months to finish and holy shit, RollingStone reviewed the clip saying:
Diva's vision is a dystopian, zombie-filled future Los Angeles where gore and neon splatter the screen and a band of warriors embark on a video game-esque quest to kill the big bad guy – each of their blows in sync with the bass line.
As you can see I've been busy! I'm currently working on collaborations with Epic Meal Time, Smosh, and more!
This is truly a dream come true and I feel like Reddit was a major part in making it all happen, so here I am! Ask me anything!
BTW: Proof!
EDIT: dunno why i didnt mention this before but my video IM ON CRACK got featured on the front page as well.
EDIT2: Fuck yes front page! I'm extremely honored!! I love you Reddit, thank you!!!
blobok123190 karma
I'm commenting so that I can tell my friends that I talked to you. I love you.
Neex255 karma
Niko from Corridor Digital here just chiming in to say that Mike is a cool dude and everyone should keep their eye on him. He's got big things in his future.
MikeDiva133 karma
thanks for the support buddy :) been too long, lets kickit this week fasho
Balboa709223 karma
I've always been curious about this, was there any negative consequences while trying to film the sax man doing his thing? Like getting arrested, threatened, etc. Or was everyone just completely accepting what was happening. I assume most was getting kicked out of a store. But sometimes barging into a lecture hall or sprinting across a football field will have some ugly turn outs.
MikeDiva495 karma
the only negative consequences from that video was being banned by a couple malls. However, i told a story in one of my replies about the time that we almost got arrested for doing it on a plane. If one of the FBI agents hadnt seen the original video, we woulda been screwed!
bearback83 karma
i would like to know how that conversation went with the FBI guy that recognized you
MikeDiva373 karma
well about 5 FBI agents, 3 TSA agents, and 2 undercover air marshals were all telling us how fucked we were and that we were gunna have a mark on our permanent record. Sergio and i were fuckin terrified. Then one of the FBI guys was like "wait a sec.. were you the kids that made that one video with the guy running around with the saxophone?" and we were like "yeah thats us!!" and then everyone just sorta laughed and let us go with a slap on the wrist. It was some fuckin crazy shit youd see in a movie. very surreal
jimmiale188 karma
Just wanna say "I'm on crack" is one of the best videos I've ever seen. Send regards to the Tupac double guy. Cheers!
JonMcClane47 karma
OH MY GOD! I had no idea you made the "I'm on Crack" video. I work in the Mission district of San Francisco, and am reminded of that video on a daily basis. I literally sing it to myself as I imagine the crazy wild times the crack heads are having as they are muttering out insanities. I thank your video for all of it.
MikeDiva25 karma
thanks man!! glad you appreciate the ridiculousness that is that vid. i should probably edit my main post and throw that in there too now that i think about it
real_tayzonday178 karma
What are your five worst life decisions and your five best life decisions?
MikeDiva123 karma
oh snap whats up mr. Tay Zonday! Funny seeing you here buddy, how ya been? Thats a really difficult question you just asked but i'll try my best to give you one of each:
one of the worst: Filming a documentary in New Orleans after katrina hit. that shit was mad brutal and i wasnt prepared. Documentary stuff just aint for me. one of the best: Honestly, making the sexy sax man vid. I had no idea itd put me on the map the way it did!
Everybody give it up for Tay Zonday! He's a great guy and a true pleasure to work with!
MikeDiva418 karma
Singing Chocolate rain is Tays only form of communication. He literally has to say "chocolate raaaain" before every sentence.
androidchrist120 karma
I've been a fan for nearly eight years. I still have my original cd copy of the first Vyncent Flaw album that you burned for me back when you were in high school. The ringtone from your "Cell Phone" video has been on every phone I've owned in the last six years, as well as many I've gotten a hold of at parties that I've snuck it onto as the main ringer. I remember when your lip sync contest videos still had the copywritten music on them, before YouTube went insane with that stuff.
It has been an insane pleasure to be on this ride with you for the better part of the last decade. The fame you are finally amassing is well deserved, as your talent easily exceeds your tiny Asian frame.
Now that we have my fanboy tirade out of the way, I wanted to know if and when a full Vyncent Flaw album might be available for public consumption.
As well, I'm sure the offers are there, but do you have any tentative plans on directing a full length feature any time soon, or do you plan to stick to more personal jobs and BAMMO related projects for the time being?
MikeDiva97 karma
woah thats fucking crazy that you still have that CD!! I DONT EVEN HAVE THAT SHIT!! Im coming out with a vyncent flaw (tho im going under just mike diva now) music video in a couple weeks so stay tuned to my main channel!! as far as another CD, im going to TRY to release an EP soon but honestly the video stuff takes up 99 percent of my time now. I really wanna do a movie soon and Im actually signed on to do a feature length zombie webseries called "six bullets to sunrise". We'll see what happens from there :)
MikeDiva43 karma
shit, i forgot to say man. I totally know who you are and I love you for sticking with me through all these years and being such an awesome person. I cant tell you how much i appreciate it :) People like you keep me going. Thankyouthankyouthankyou <3
MikeDiva138 karma
hahaha if you're who i think you are, you and i both know thats a "yes".
MikeDiva79 karma
We filmed my BAMMO show Turbo Time in a space ship set thats in the back room of my house. I happen to have 3 dogs living with me that just LOVED to shit in that space ship for some reason. So every day wed have to clean up shit before shooting. Unfortunately, someone workin on the set had to crouch down a lot and touch the floor. They ended up getting pink eye the next day
MikeDiva159 karma
Yes but you must first drink the blood of a virgin unicorn under a waning blood moon.
MikeDiva141 karma
what kind of crystals did you have around your neck? you have to have blue power crystals, not the green ones
Thehealeroftri60 karma
This would explain it. I always forget that it's not the green ones.
MikeDiva263 karma
Heisenbergs got the best wizard Crystals in town, i definitely recommend getting those. They're 99.1% pure. All other wizard crystals are like some generic off-brand Cola. His are Classic Coke.
MikeDiva138 karma
the poor girl is releasing a video every single week. Can you imagine how hard it is to make something that pleases millions of people every week? Shits hard man!
Herpes_hurricane100 karma
well now I feel like a terrible person. I guess shes kinda like Leno, but better and smaller boobs.
MikeDiva97 karma
she's good people. I have the utmost respect for her and everything she does. Know any other legitimately funny AND hot girls on youtube? Me neither.
MikeDiva44 karma
thank you sir :) if you liked that, youll love my new Kill The Noise video. Its got dubstep guns AND zombies! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVfU1DY73Tk
MikeDiva17 karma
unfortunately no part 2 for that vid but there will be one for dubstep guns! I'm still doing Bammo for a few months but starting next month im going to be focusing more on my main mike diva channel .
MikeDiva90 karma
Awesome, josh harraway is one of my favorite human beings. He's also one of the brightest people I know. Caught him reading a book on calculus on set. For fun. Wtf
MikeDiva88 karma
Kill the Noise gave me a lot of freedom to do whatever the fuck I wanted so it was really awesome working with Jake. Mindless Self Indulgence were also very nice and fun to work with. As far as youtubers go, Jenna Marbles is fucking hilarious and one of the sweetest girls you'll ever meet.
MikeDiva30 karma
i did a music video for Mark David Chapman when i was like 18 and then another one for Im on Crack a couple years ago
mutantlabor33 karma
Mike, can you go into a little detail on how you do your color grading? I love the cool purple/blue blown out highlight look that you get, for instance on your latest video Kill The Noise.
Thanks for all the inspiration and entertainment even if you can't get to my question.
MikeDiva33 karma
Tbh man it's just a shit load of layering. I have a magic bullet looks suite layer, a grunge layer, and old film layer that I literally stole from planet terror and looped, and some selective color overlays. It's all just a matter of overlay settings and how much ur willing to tweak out on one scene!
mutantlabor15 karma
That's mostly what I assumed. Out of curiosity are you motion tracking patches of overlayed color at times or do you aim to capture most of your color work in camera? Sorry if this is more of a technical or specific question than you're hoping for. Thanks again!
EDIT: I'm looking at a shot of the zombies, for instance, where their skin tones are blue and the backgrounds and clothes are purple/red. Assuming this was done in camera and then punched up a bit in post, but I'm wondering if you had any words of wisdom on capturing or creating that sort of look.
MikeDiva28 karma
the reason i was able to pull so many colors out of those shots is cos we shot with a RED EPIC so the color data was really well preserved. There are times that i motion track the scenes and put patches of colors in different places, it just depends on what the scene calls for. overlaying gradients helps out a lot. Have you seen the side by side comparison video on my channel? youll get a good idea of whats captured in camera and whats post fx http://www.youtube.com/mikediva
mutantlabor11 karma
Thanks Mike, that clears up a lot. Haven't touched the Epic yet, been working with the Red One and tons of DSLR shooting, but obviously DSLRs don't give you the latitude or the color depth needed for that. Really good info, this is something I've been wondering about for a while when watching your vids, so thanks a ton for following up with the info. I'll definitely be a loyal fan.
MikeDiva13 karma
no problem buddy, glad i could help clear some shit up! Thank you for being a fan of my work :D
AllBrainsNoSoul26 karma
How do you feel about Vitamin Water using the saxman in their (I think it was the superbowl) commercial? Were you compensated for their usage or make any kind of agreement with them?
Has George Michael contacted you? If so, what did he say?
MikeDiva27 karma
i had nothing to do with the Vitamin Water commercial, and i'm not quite sure how i feel about it. it was kinda cool at first but now that i see it fucking everywhere all the time its getting a little bit annoying. Sergio was compensated nicely i'm sure.
I'm sure george michael has seen the video but we have yet to hear from him about what he thinks. Hopefully he has a good sense of humor about it
MikeDiva33 karma
thank you sir! I believe that staying positive and humble no matter what is the key to happiness and success.
suprsolutions20 karma
I believe you live in Los Angeles.
Would you say you're approachable? For instance, would I be able to say what's up, I dig your work, make up a secret handshake, and invite you in on this spliff?
MikeDiva37 karma
i would be down for all those things, especially the last part. If you see me on the streets of LA, please come and say Hi! Im a nice guy and its really awesome to me that people like what I do.
MyStepdadHitsMe14 karma
Dubstep Guns was one of my favorite videos last year. The editing is just.....bangable
MikeDiva14 karma
Thanks brotha! I know i keep saying this but if you dig Dubstep guns you'll dig my new video for Kill the Noise. I consider it a nice little follow up to dubstep guns: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVfU1DY73Tk
also, dubstep guns 2 coming soon ;)
creepycrawl12 karma
No questions to ask, but wanted to tell you how many times the Sexy Sax Man video has brightened up my day. Keep on keepin' on :)
MikeDiva11 karma
thanks man! :) have you seen any of my other pranks? you might like my "extreme caroling" vid
apostrophy11 karma
There's a rumor going around that you're doing a follow up to Heroes and Villains that you did with De Storm. Is that true? I loved the first one.
MikeDiva16 karma
yup!! i shot 2 and 3 recently and theyll be up in a month or so! :) should be pretty epic
MikeDiva53 karma
nah, but we almost got in BIG trouble when we tried pulling it on an airplane on the way back from Jimmy Fallon in NYC. When the plane landed we were greeted by about 5 FBI agents, 3 TSA agents, and 2 undercover officers who repeatedly told us how fucked we were. We were treated like terrorists and they said wed have a mark on our records and that we would be spending time in jail. We were terrified until one of the FBI agents was like "wait a second.. were you the guys that made that one video with the sax guy running around?". We were like "yeah!! thats us! we're just a couple of kids fuckin around we didnt mean any harm by any of this!". then they just let us go with a slap on the wrist and everything was cool! Definitely one of the most surreal moments of my life.
surfingrob9 karma
Did you go to west covina high or are you a local? I noticed west covina foodcourt and west covina highschool, and the ross at eastland...
West covina local here, right off lark ellen.
Swaggbagg9 karma
I have been a fan for years (about six or seven, I believe) and love your work and style. I was recently looking for an older video you had done that was pretty /r/wtf worthy. In it, you were sitting at your computer with a flashlight with music playing and your penis came out of your pants with your head as...well...your head. Where did that video go? D:
Oh, and I love Vyncent Flaw, btw.
Edit: how is Maxxx (sp?) Jenga? I thought someone would have asked.
MikeDiva34 karma
also, i just realized the videos still uploaded but its just private. Heres a link that you can watch every night before bed. http://youtu.be/pOWvuZkyjHQ <-- for those who want to see my face singing on my dick, you should probably click that link..
MikeDiva9 karma
First off I wanna say that its so fucking awesome to me that youve been into my work for such a long time. :) I'm very flattered. As for that video, it had to go. It was too fucking weird and I didn't wanna scare any potential clients away yadigg? Tho for some reason my parents thought that the singing penis video was hilarious, i have no idea what i was thinking at the time.
MikeDiva46 karma
a lot of my ideas come while im stuck in traffic and bored. Other than that, brainstorming with friends helps out a lot.. and weed doesn't hurt either.
lucifer-obgyn8 karma
Dude, you got mentioned on The Nerdist podcast! Co-host Jonah Ray was at a wedding you played at recently!
lucifer-obgyn6 karma
I think it's mentioned towards the end of this episode, but here you go!
MikeDiva33 karma
really? i didnt know i was cougerbate, ive never been with a woman over 30. Got any pics of your mom? Lemme get them digits dog, i dont mind being your new dad for a while!
cynicalnick8 karma
How often do you change your Hair ? And do you apply Eye Liner once a day or throughout?
MikeDiva18 karma
Haha I change it like once every month. As for the guyliner, i almost never wear any unless I'm filming or goin out
edave227 karma
Have you ever fallen into a deep state of awesome and couldn't get out, no matter how hard you tried to be lame?
acdramon7 karma
How come you never showed the Split screens in Dubstep Guns. I was crying in the fetal position when they said you were going to say how you did it in the video but you didn't do it.
MikeDiva11 karma
Sorry about that dood, I didnt have much to do with the behind the scenes of dub step guns. Shit got really busy for me around that time. The good news is that corridor and I are discussing Dubstep Guns 2 and i'll make sure we have more in depth behind the scenes content for that!
MikeDiva5 karma
Smosh are actually from my hometown Sacramento and they're some of the nicest and funniest guys youll ever meet.
MikeDiva6 karma
yes! studio version drops in 2 weeks on my channel, along with an awesome music video! stay tuned :D
Draggedaround2 karma
I am a video editor, but my editing job is very boring. I was curious what program and effects you used on Dubstep Guns? After Effects?
MikeDiva3 karma
That video was all after effects. The lazer blasts were made from a plugin called particular FORM. Its hard to use but once you get it down you can make some cool shit with it.
Carpemortem2 karma
How was it working with the Left Rights for the I'm on Crack video? How is Jimmy Urine in person? Also, did you have to ask for your own cameo in that video, or did you just do it?
MikeDiva3 karma
Jimmy is nice as fuck and an all around good human being. The left rights video was a blast to make because it literally involved me and my director buddy pedro getting high and drunk one night and shitting out whatever came to our heads on paper. Then we just went out and shot it with my homie Josh over the course of a couple days. As for my cameo, i just did it.
Herpes_hurricane459 karma
How many women were instantly impregnated during the making of sexy sax man?
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