Rhett's 41st Birthday Gift Idea [ please read and comment! ]

Hello, Mythical Beasts!

Thanks to the wonderful ideas submitted in both the Call For Ideas post (here) and the Twitter discussion thread (here), we may have come up with a possible idea for Rhett's 41st birthday. This is not set in stone just yet, so please continue to suggest ideas and come brainstorm with us! No idea is a stupid one; the more the merrier! Time is quickly running out, however, and we need to get this show on the road asap if we want things to be ready in time for October 11th!

Combining both Ethan (CrazyQuantum)'s idea of sending postcards along with my own of a chain-link transition video, our idea is this:

write your birthday well-wishes on a postcard featuring your location or hometown if possible
make a video showing you take a box from one side of the screen, as though someone is passing it to you
present the front of your postcard to the camera (we can display your name in the video if you'd like)
place your postcard into the box
pass the box to the other side of the screen

Then go ahead and post your postcard to Rhett (without the box, of course - that's just for show), and email your video clip to us!

Once all the videos are edited together, the box will transition smoothly along a chain of Mythical Beasts as though we are passing the gift to Rhett! Ethan will contact Jen and ask her to combine all of the postcards together to then give to the birthday boy on his big day!

We figured the postcards would be a wonderful way for Rhett to see just how far and widespread us MBs are - if we could get postcards from all over the world, that would be amazing! The video is a fun way for us to join together and show unity, and it will also act as a trailer of sorts for the postcards. Obviously some will take longer to reach LA than others, so Rhett can see the video first and will have something to look forward to should they not reach him in time.

If you would prefer not to be in the video and just send a postcard, that's absolutely fine! And if you would prefer to send a digital postcard rather than a physical one, that's fine too! You are more than welcome to send me the postcard via email, and I will print it out and send it alongside mine so that it gets added to the final gift box.

What do you think, MBs? Suggestions and opinions are more than welcome!

Please keep sharing the Call For Ideas post on Tumblr (here), Twitter (here), and Facebook (here)!

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Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies to This Discussion

K-ModPermalink Reply by Victoria (Centauromadoose) on September 4, 2018 at 11:26am

Ooh, I think this is fantastic! Very clever way to combine the 2 ideas. :)

The first thing I thought about was how to make the transitions smooth for whoever edits the video. It could be pretty bumpy depending on how close/far people decide to film their clip, so they might not actually line up super well. You might have to provide guidelines on how to frame the video clip in that case (e.g., from the waist up, full body, etc.). Then again, maybe that's not a huge concern, as long as the idea is presented clearly.

I also thought that if people film their video clip in some recognizable or interesting spot in their area, that could add to showing how everyone is in different places around the world. Like I might go the National Mall in DC since I'm near there, or to a spot in my local town center instead, as an example.

Permalink Reply by Sarah (Ratnix) on September 4, 2018 at 11:33am

Thank you!

Ooo, the location spot is a fab idea!! I'll pass that on to the others!

As for the transition, yes, I'd been thinking about offering some kind of guidelines for cropping etc, but I don't want people to get too bogged down with the details and stress about it. So long as it's presented clearly, like you said!

Permalink Reply by Michelle on September 4, 2018 at 12:43pm

We should also dictate which direction we are passing the gift from, i.e. left to right, so editing will be a little easier.
And if people are filming with their phone (which I assume will be most people) emphasize that they need to film it horizontally! There’s my two cents. I’m looking forward to contributing to this project!

Permalink Reply by Sarah (Ratnix) on September 4, 2018 at 2:44pm

Thank you so much for your input, I'll pass it all on to the team! (Sorry if you get two replies - for some reason I'm not sure if my last one went through!)

K-ModPermalink Reply by Victoria (Centauromadoose) on September 4, 2018 at 1:03pm

Oh, another thought -- are these meant to be silent video clips?

Permalink Reply by Sarah (Ratnix) on September 4, 2018 at 2:45pm

Great question!! I'll chat to the team about that!

Permalink Reply by Kimberley (orge) on September 4, 2018 at 2:23pm

I think that is an amazing idea I think we should definitely do it. Rhett would love it! should we all print/ draw something on the box and stick it on? It could be the same image or different. I'm not sure if different would work though.

Permalink Reply by Sarah (Ratnix) on September 4, 2018 at 2:47pm

If you want to decorate your box then by all means, please feel free! I don't want people to feel as though they have to as it might put people off if they have to print things out/draw etc to participate in the video, but I'll certainly put the idea to the team :) Thank you so much for the support!

Permalink Reply by cindy on September 4, 2018 at 6:40pm

i could help out with putting the videos together, just dm me on twitter @triviaIovve the L in love is actually a caps i.