Slap

Slap began as a bet with Nick Roy from Glasgow, who was working for BBC at the time. I claimed it was easy to produce a pop video and have success with it. He said it would be a lot harder than I imagined. What started as a casual challenge became the first prototype project for Schmiede and eventually YouTube's top-rated video worldwide.

The Bet That Started It All

In 2006, during conversations with Nick Roy, I confidently stated that creating a successful pop video was straightforward. Nick, with his BBC experience, challenged this assumption. This friendly disagreement sparked what would become one of the most successful viral videos of early YouTube and a foundational project for Schmiede's collaborative methodology.

Five Days to Internet Fame

The entire production followed an impossibly tight schedule that would define Schmiede's approach to instant prototyping:

• Day 1: Writing the lyrics
• Day 2: Producing the song with Dan Rejmer
• Day 3: Preparing choreography and planning the shoot
• Day 4: Video shoot
• Day 5: Cutting and post-production

More than 20 people were involved, all recruited during the festival itself. This spontaneous collaboration became the model for how Schmiede would operate-projects weren't pre-planned but emerged organically from the festival environment, using available resources and the skills of whoever was present.

The €200 Budget

The entire budget consisted of my last €200:

• €100 for tights for the dancers
• €100 for beer to convince them to wear the tights

This minimal budget constraint forced creative solutions and established another Schmiede principle: limitation breeds innovation.

Hacking the Algorithm

Our path to international success was, fittingly, a hack of YouTube's system. We discovered that the daily ratings reset at midnight US time. By organizing everyone to vote for the video at exactly that moment, we became the daily top-rated video worldwide, which earned us a spot on YouTube's homepage.

This timing was crucial. YouTube had just been acquired by Google for $1.6 billion and was constantly in the media spotlight. Being featured on the homepage during this period of intense attention created a snowball effect. The visibility led to more views, which led to more ratings, which kept us on the homepage.

The Result

Slap became YouTube's top-rated video worldwide across all categories and all time. But beyond the numbers, it achieved something more significant: it proved that rapid prototyping, collaborative creation, and playful experimentation could produce results that competed with traditional production methods.

Legacy: The Schmiede Method

Slap became the prototype for instant prototyping at Schmiede. It demonstrated that projects didn't need to be set up and planned upfront but could emerge from the festival environment itself. By using available resources-people, skills, and a minimal budget-we could create something that resonated globally.

This approach influenced how Schmiede would operate for years to come: as a laboratory for rapid collaborative creation where the process is as important as the product, where constraints fuel creativity, and where a bet between friends can become a worldwide phenomenon.

Looking back, Slap taught us that success in digital culture isn't just about production quality or marketing budgets. It's about understanding systems, timing, and the power of collective action. The video succeeded not despite being made in five days with €200, but because of it. The constraints forced us to be clever, collaborative, and bold-principles that continue to guide my work today.