SWIATEK BROS PRODUCE THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS VID
Published in Reel Chicago, May 2015
In a true coast-to-coast collaboration, Chicago-based Leo Burnett ACD Paul Swiatek and his brother, LA-based filmmaker Mike Swiatek, recently worked with an 80-plus cast and crew across the country to produce the official music video for the song “All The Lazy Boyfriends” by New York-based band They Might Be Giants.
In less than four minutes, the quirky tour de force features nearly three dozen depictions of men confessing to bad bathroom etiquette, sloppy eating habits and a whole lot more, each flaw described on a handwritten note woven into the scenery.
“You’ve heard of dog shaming,” says Mike. “What about boyfriend shaming?”
Since its release, “All The Lazy Boyfriends” has racked up more than 80,000 views, becoming the band’s most successful online music video since 2014’s “Am I Awake?” also directed and produced by the Swiateks.
The offer to do the project came from TMBG’s cofounder, singer / guitarist John Flansburgh himself.
After hearing the song, the brothers launched into “a tournament of ideas” that began while they were together visiting family in LA and continued via Skype conferencing after Paul returned to Chicago.
“This was Mikey’s idea,” Paul explains. “He said, ‘Girls always have something to say about lazy boyfriends… picture the headline you can write.’”
As the concept grew to include “forty or fifty” portrayals of lazy boyfriends, recalls Mike, they realized they would need “a ton of boyfriends, a ton of girlfriends and a ton of locations” to “boost the production value” and create the mood they hoped to achieve.
“We really wanted people to connect with it on an emotional level,” he continues.
“We wanted it to feel user submitted,” Paul adds.
So they reached out to a number of contacts in the film industry who, according to Paul, “are in it for the same reason we’re in it: to do cool work.”
“There’s some anxiety that goes with allowing different people to take control,” Mike explains. “We chose these people carefully.”
They ended up with 70 cross-country actors and 13 directors.
Without providing much direction — “We didn’t want to pigeon hole exact style, exact lighting, etc,” he continues — they embarked on production that boasted “five crews across the country” in a single day.
Mike directed a handful of scenes, including “Santa” and “Toenails,” in a house in Pasadena. Paul directed five or six in Chicago, including one that shames “a seventh year Masters student” in Hyde Park.
Columbia College grad Peter Eaton handled the edit, a job that includes addressing “constant updates” on a “list of feedback and review” that the brothers keep on Google drive.
According to Mike, he fit right in.
“Peter would make fun of us because we’d watch it over and over and over.”
Besides having a short and a feature film in development, The Swiatek Brothers intend to launch their own production company soon. Stay tuned for details.