Bringing Facebook to life

Cedric Vella’s innovative take on social networking site Facebook saw photos come to life with groovy music and nifty videos. He speaks to Martina Portelli.

If Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populated in the world. With such a large amount of users, it is impossible to negate the impact Facebook has on everyday life; we update and are updated, catch up with friends and complain endlessly when the layout changes.

In Malta we think it is impossible to get a project off the ground due to lack of resources, but once you’re on the internet your competition is global

Creative visual artist Cedric Vella managed to take things to another level, bringing Facebook to life through his short film YouTube, My Facebook.

The two-minute clip is an original take on social networking site Facebook where images come to life through video and music.

The clip quickly did the rounds on social media and attracted a lot of attention, even taking first place at the Palo Alto International Film Festival-Talenthouse Short Film Contest in San Francisco.

Vella’s creative ventures, however, are not limited to filmmaking and he also has a keen interest in design, music and technology. I meet up with him the night before he flies out to Palo Alto, and with such varied interests, I’m keen to find out where Vella derives his inspiration from.

“Creative stuff,” he says. “From online videos to magazines to a simple music chord”, and cites his preferred music genres – which range from heavy metal to more folky sounds such as the band Beirut – as an example of his varied interests.

It was precisely these diverse interests that pushed Vella to try out so many different creative outlets. He explains that he is in a band, and as a firm believer in the idea that the best way to get something done right is to do it yourself, Vella often would revert to designing or creating posters or videos for the band himself.

Picking up on Vella’s affinity for DIY, I enquire whether his work as a creative visual artist is all self-taught and I am not surprised to hear that the answer is yes.

“I do have a degree in communications, but most of what I know I’ve learnt from online tutorials. I learn by doing.”

Perhaps this is why Vella was so keen to land a job at one of Malta’s foremost recording studios while he was still reading for his degree. Vella says his experience at Temple Studios, under the mentorship of David Vella, is one he learnt a lot from, add-ing it was both a source of inspiration and support.

A little over a year ago, Vella created quite a stir in Valletta as ‘The City Sunbather’, a stunt which saw Vella – kitted out in beachwear – sunbathing on a deckchair in Republic Street and various other locations, garnering a number both positive and negative reactions.

“My friends and I wanted to film a prank in the style of [French humorist] Rémi Gaillard and upload it to Youtube, but the reactions and comments we got really make you think,” he says, adding that a stunt like this led to a greater understanding of Maltese society.

Will ‘The City Sunbather’ be making a comeback anytime soon?

“I like the idea of shock marketing, but I do not want to be known just for pranks,” Vella replies matter-of-factly.

I ask about the making of Youtube, My Facebook and expect to be regaled with tales of a long drawn out process with a hefty cost.

However, Vella says the two-minute clip took just over a month to make, and that he filmed most of it with a hand-held camcorder.

It was a tedious job though, having to work on the audio and video separately and then to finally put it all together.

“For that month Youtube, My Facebook took over my life.”

The sense of professionalism Vella exudes is impressive, but he remains very modest and cites his friends as the main source of inspiration and help behind the whole project.

The concept behind the Youtube, My Facebook as well as its popularity seem to say a lot about people today – the Facebook generation.

Vella believes the bombardment of information has become part of our everyday lives, making us accustomed to a sort of instant gratification, but in no way negates the impact that social media has had on our lives.

“The ease of access nowadays is fascinating. For example I didn’t read the latest news about the Neutrino in a newspaper – but on a social networking site,” he says.

Vella reveals he has some projects in the pipeline and hopes to work in collaboration with other artists in the field.

“There is a lot of untapped talent,” he muses.

Vella imparts some food for thought: “In Malta we generally think it is impossible to get a project off the ground due to lack of resources, but once you’re on the internet you are no longer in Malta – your competition is global.”