2015 HOF Inductee #6: Kel Steenerico
Dec 14, 2015 5:41:10 GMT -5
benjamin, durty530, and 2 more like this
Post by [beej] on Dec 14, 2015 5:41:10 GMT -5
Kel Steenerico
Induction by SS Press
Whenever I think of Kel, three things always come to mind. Besides the fact that the dude is stupidly good looking (like seriously...stop!).
When I try to think of the first Kel Steenerico video that truly stood out for me, it is his Davey Richards music video. Right away his music taste was right in my wheelhouse and was the initial reason I became a fan. But it is also because I have a huge soft spot for to-the-point & well-synced MVs. When a big cymbal crash happens, I want to see someone get hit with something. This video, while probably nobodies favorite video of all time, is to me MV making in its purest form. I like this. Here is a cool song showing why I like it. Mix it in with some subtle but noticeable effects and a good eye on sync and I became a fan. His Austin Aries video and his Davey in ROH video also show this very well. So when I think of Kel, I think of someone who loves making music videos.
I had the absolute pleasure to team up with Kel and do a Murder City Machine Guns video set to one of my favorite Minus the Bear songs. I couldn't have asked for a better partner. He gave feedback on what to improve and seemed genuinely excited when something cool he likes shows up. That weird horizontal line effect thing was just me messing around and became the look of the video because Kel loved it and asked to overlay parts of his video with the same thing. We also collaborated really well on what would have been our second video covering Jimmy & Colin Olsen's split in Chikara. My parts still exist online, but only me and Kel have seen his parts. If not for an unfortunate loss of his footage, we would have put together a pretty freakin; awesome video. So when I think of Kel, I think of someone who is an amazing guy to work with.
Then Kel dropped his Magnum Opus. "Big Brother". Mixing in his great use of sync with a then-unknown song and showing how he had evolved as an MV maker. Storytelling is something I honestly did not recall seeing much from Kel beforehand. But he had told the story of the feud between Jimmy Jacobs and BJ Whitmer beautifully. When I saw this video, I instantly fell in love with it. To this day it is still one of my favorite videos of all time. If not for the fact that the Timbaland remix of said song is played everywhere to this day, which is inferior to the original. So when I think of Kel, I think of one of the best videos ever made which I ironically can't watch too often because one of my favorite things about Kel (his music taste) became my enemy.
This is a very personal induction. But that is because to this day, I still consider the editor known as Kel, and the man known as Michael to be my friend. But the reason I got to know his so well is because I truly admire what Kel has been able to do in the realm of wrestling music videos. Mainly because in the history of MVZ, a community known for its insane editing and high-concept topics, Kel kept things simple. And because of that, there was heart in every video he did. You can tell he enjoys his videos. And in return, I and many others enjoyed them as well.