A COUPLE of pranksters have become internet sensations after creating
slow-motion videos of themselves recreating messy playground stunts.
Best-mates Gavin Free and Dan Gruchy film themselves throwing water bombs and
firing eggs at each other.
Then they slow the footage down so web fans can enjoy the action for longer –
with amazing cinematic results.
The pair, from Oxfordshire, use state-of-the-art high speed cameras to create
the effect – once they are slowed down the stunts appear 200 times slower
than real life.
Calling themselves the ‘slow mo guys’, their videos uploaded on to YouTube
have attracted millions of viewers across the globe.
In one shot, Dan, 22, has a football smashed into the side of his face.
At normal speed, it looks mildly uncomfortable and lasts less than a second.
But once the footage is slowed down, his face can be seen recoiling with the
force of the impact.
In another film, they fill an enormous balloon with gallons of water.
Although it takes several attempts at jumping on the huge water balloon before
it finally bursts, the results are incredible as a tidal wave of water comes
blasting out.
Gavin, 23, said: “I first made a slow motion video back in 2004 of me throwing
a water balloon at a friend.
“I just wondered what it would look like slowed down as far as I could – so I
managed to get hold of specialist filming equipment and gave it a shot.
“I uploaded the video to the internet a few years ago and forgot about it.
“But then I found out other people had been posting it to different sites, and
it had had hundreds of thousands of views.
“Dan and I decided to film more things in slow motion and upload them – people
are fascinated by it, but we just enjoy messing about and having a laugh.”
Filled with enthusiasm they also started filming incredible scenes from nature
that the naked eye would miss including a bumble bee stumbling and falling
out of a flower and a dragon fly eating a tiny insect without even
realising.
Dan, a Lieutenant Corporal serving in the army, added: “My family think I’m
mad, volunteering to have things thrown at me all the time – but everyone
thinks the videos look great.
“Some of the things we do might be pretty immature, but when the videos are
slowed down, they really are amazing to watch.
“As long as people keep watching our videos, we’ll keep making them.”