holy crap. is that kid okay? >> who doesn't want to believe that you can actually run on water. >> how do they do it? >> a good magician doesn't give away his tricks. >> by the end, i was pulling my hair out. i had nightmares about the machine. >> a good magician doesn't give away his tricks.

>> but we do. "caught on camera: viral videos, how, what, why?" i'm contessa brewer, when i look at the web's most popular videos, the ones that go viral, they have me going back and looking at them again and again to try to figure out the method to their madness. in this hour, we'll take a look at truly unique brain twisting videos to see if we can uncover their mystery. because we all want to know what on earth made them try that and how did they catch it all on camera. >> a few people have tried it. but no one has done it near to what we did it today. >> have you ever witnessed a miracle? >> you have to believe you can do these things. it's not like impossible. >> me, my boots and i, we are going to make it.

>> in april 2010, an incredible video hits the web making millions believe in the impossible. >> it's going to be the next big thing. >> a new sport super bowl introduced called liquid mountaineering, essentially running on water. >> could it ever happen? >> who doesn't want to believe that you can actually run on water? >> and you see that image of somebody actually doing it and it's exciting. >> you're going one step, going two steps, going three steps? we're discovering it >> it feels like any other documentary you see about any as we go along. other extreme sport. >> it shows the background of the athletes and their training and their preparation.

>> it's not straying into the water. any curve and by that bend, you're actually not allowing yourself to sink into the water and you want to keep that feeling sensation going as long as you can. >> i think if you don't actually believe you can actually walk on that water, it's not going to happen for you. >> belief maybe, but also some magic shoes. >> liquid mountaineering is actually a clever advertising for the high-tech shoe company. >> the original equipment, it first all started was equipment that would help repel water. >> the moment i realized that i was watching the ad, when they sort of close in on the shoe. and they say this shoe is how we were able to do it. >> it's like water repellent.

>> if this was right when we would achieve a lot of our goals which is to make people feel cool and look at our product differently. >> you actually see the athletes failing again and again. >> that lent some real credibility to the video. and most people that saw this video thought it was real. it's definitely a fake. >> wait, not real? if it isn't real, how did they do that? it features three extreme sports enthusiasts. >> we needed them to be believable, we needed them to be athletic and we needed them to be a good bit of fun. >> being able to walk on water is not a requirement for the cast.

so what went into that biblical special effect? >> they created a wooden platform underneath the water that the guy actually ran on. weights are used to hold it in place. >> it was a flexibility, bendable platform, and when you see it tip back and forth, it actually looks really, really real. >> i think the worry was that these people thought it was fake straight away, then it wouldn't have worked. >> with the effect complete,

high-tech launches the video online. >> we wanted a real conversation starter. whether people loved it or hated it, whether they believed it or didn't. we wanted everybody to talk about it and that's what happened. >> it created a splash, racking up millions of hits in just a few days. >> it's so unbelievable that that's what makes it funny. >> i think every little boy as a dream of wanting to be able to do this and it brings back memories. >> there's videos of copy cats for whom liquid mountaineering is -- >> high-tech creates a safer method for budding liquid mountaineers, an online video game. >> we have got sharks in it,

lairs popping up, and it's just great fun. >> wohoo! >> believe it. >> go! go! go! >> there's an element of something real in it too. >> walking on water may be impossible for us mortals, but you can still take away important life lessons for many of us. >> believe in yourself. believe in it. it's not about a miracle. you just do it. >> you fall down, you try again. coming up, a couple of guys and a pair of sunglasses play stump the experts. when you ask yourself when did this stop being real? >> you start with a trick and then do a harder and harder trick. >> how do they do that? maybe you can figure it out.

>> a good magician doesn't give away his tricks. >> when "caught on camera: viral videos, how, what, why" continues. programs like... ...the mickelson exxonmobil teachers academy... ...and astronaut sally ride's science academy are helping our educators improve student success in math and science. let's shoot for the stars. let's invest in our teachers and inspire our students. let's solve this.

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check it. >> whoa, check it is right. two characters get ready to roll out some tricks. >> it's like a human stupid trick that you can imagine somebody who practices all day long because they don't have a job. >> the tricks escalated from a very simple trick to an increasingly harder trick and harder trick. >> and it gets more and more unbelievable. and when you watch it, you ask, when did this stop being real? >> a lot of viral videos are really meant to pitch a brand without really looking like it.

>> i was approached by -- i spent a lot of time just sitting on the couch with a pair of sunglasses and had them in my hands and was thinking, what would be a good trick. >> why settle on just one trick? mark benzo and his partner start performing some stunts. >> according to the laws of physics and gravity, it's possible in theory. i just kind of wrote that line of theoretically possible, which is good. >> certainly theories abound on the internet, all kinds of viewers have all kinds of explanations for how the boys do it. but the filmmakers are not

talking. >> got it. >> i like to keep the mystique a good magician doesn't give away his tricks. there was just a lot more planning that went into it than some people realize. >> there were hundreds of videos of kids trying to do the same thing, discussing whether in fact it was real or fake. >> i remember people commenting that he has magnets in his head, or steel plates in his head, and i started telling people, magnets. >> the most ambitious of the silver painted characters are character disillusion. >> the first shot is played back in reverse and it's not thrown at the catcher but pulled

towards their hand by the string. it's all played back in reverse until the swoosh pen and the characters lead. >> there were instances where he was on to us but he was confident in his breakdown. >> they left you a clue. listen to the sound of the wheels on the pavement. it's backwards. that sounds right. an impressive backwards skateboarding skills. >> the skate was definitely the hardest piece to take out. i was done. nobody else has gotten it done right. >> it took about 52 takes. >> something like that was really hard as we get through the video. our own behind the scenes methods became more and more complicated.

so as someone is watching the video, they think they figure out how we did the first few tricks as we get and then it totally blows that. >> i remember when he had the ice cream cone in his handmade me laugh for 20 minutes and that's when we kind of knew that we had a hit. this was the best place ever. >> yeah, i had about 12 ice creams. and then like their car, it was just -- how do we make it harder? how do we move it to towards his face? >> hard plastic hitting you in the face.

>> brands have jumped into that concept completely. it's a great way to get discussion going around the video. >> they take on the job of what they call seeding to help it go viral. >> we have a network of blog relationships that we have with hundreds of blogs all across the web. so we really know the influencers on the web that will help propel a video to popularity. >> it's a different way to express your brand and ilts a way that is more modern than traditional advertising.

>> i've been making films for 20 years and have always wanted to get into the cannes film festival and produced this and it won an award at cannes. coming up, an earth shaking boy meets girl story. >> we shot about 2,355 photos. >> with a cool trick with one of the oldest camera tricks in the books. >> and speaking of so many photos. >> nobody knows if it's fake or if it's real, it has the same amount of work in it. >> when "caught on camera: viral videos, how, what, why" continues. ay the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator...

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so it holds up better for a more dependable clean. fewer pieces left behind. now who's the man? [ female announcer ] charmin ultra strong. and now enjoy the go on the go with the sit or squat app. the clean restroom finder from charmin. hey, guys, thank you for checking on this latest video. this video is probably the craziest i have ever done. >> it's a simple boy meets girl story told in a really unusual way.

>> this is sort of like when you have some magical fantasy of a photograph coming to life. and it's people playing with their cameras. so the story line is also about the sort of medium they're using with all those little photos. >> this is a great sample of stop motion photography. the filmmaker created a bank of frames and he's actually moving from one frame to the next. >> most motion videos are 30 seconds or a minute long and they kind of punch you in the face. the allure with this one is that it's four minutes long and it takes the time to tell the story and it moves at a fairly slow place. >> you shoot one frame at a time in rapid succession. then you edit the frames together to create animated effect. >> i was shooting with a digital srl. and it's able to take about 50

frames a second. so we acted out the entire scene with them moving incredibly slowly so we can get it up to 24 frames a second. acting incredibly slowly. we had to mark down where the five photo frames would be, so when it jumped from friend to friend we would be able to gauge. >> when i saw the picture right >> above him and then you rales there's a system to it. >> we just decided to push it a little further and use stop motion inside of the frames and do stop motion again for the entire scene. >> kind of wonder how he set up the frames, what kind of

techniques he used. it would be really interesting to know. >> the entire scene there at the george was actually made up of two photos. we started with brian walking on the right side of the frame and we shot a corresponding scene on the left. when you combine them together, it starts to kind of make the scene. we have got five photo frames along the top and five photo frames along the bottom. and as a final step, we dragged it into the sides of the photo flames that we needed and we exported the photos in a sequence one by one. you can see how something like that has turned into thousands and thousands of photos. we shot 2,353 photos, give or take.

>> the shots inside those frames aren't digital, they're actual physical photographs. why bother? >> since they're a photo printing company, we wanted to use real photos. so we sent those off to boston for quick print to print. they sent them back to me, all these photos. >> they shot the whole scene itself in stop motion, one frame at a time for 11 hours. >> it's not in the millions just quite yet, but most importantly we have had the demographics that we wanted to be back, we want the photographers who are going to use quick pick. >> part of the magic is the fact that somebody actually did all of that. >> so many photos. >> you want to talk photos, meet israeli filmmaker iran amir. >> this idea popped into my head and from the moment i thought about this, i knew i would have to make it. >> amir calls his video 500 people in 100 seconds. and what is that, a movie in their hands? >> this is a great, great video. you've got all these people being photographed and then there's a whole scene going on within the photograph that they're holding and you're looking at the people, but you're also looking at the video that they're holding. >> this video was made in two parts. the first part making the music video was easy. when i heard the song, i knew immediately this is the song i'm going to use. it have a catchy tune and it's on for 90 seconds, which for me is the ideal length of a video. i used my sister and my brother and my friends.

>> this idea kind of popped in my head and i thought about it and i knew i would have to make it. >> amir calls his video "500 people in 100 seconds" and what is that? a movie in their hands? >> this is a great, great video. you've got all of these people being photographed and then there's a whole scene going on within the photograph that they are holding and you're looking at the people but you're also looking at the video that they are holding. >> this video was made in two parts. the first part, the making of a music video, was easy. i knew this was the song that i was going to use. it has a good catchy tune and for me it's the ideal youtube video. i used my sister and my brothers

and my friends. >> it's so perfect that it's really hard to understand how the picture on the inside could be so smooth and pretty when everything was flashing very quickly. >> people don't know if it's fake or if it's real, and if it's real, it had an insane amount of work in it. >> the first thought is that he must be using some kind of digital trickery to put his music video inside the pictures. not this time. as it turned out, he shot the black and white movie, but then he had it divided up and turned into still frames. >> amir took his 96 photos and then took a printer for a hard copy. >> i got a box weighing in at almost 20 kilograms, and almost 1,000. and not even knowing if this is

going to work. and then i realized how many work i had ahead of them. >> then amir had to go out and find someone to hold up the picture in order. >> the first two days i went out to the streets of jerusalem and i came back with nothing. i didn't have even enough courage to ask anybody and then after two days i said to myself, well, i'm too deep in this. i've spent thousands of sheckles on it and i had no choice. i have to do it. >> part of the magic is knowing that there's actually 500 different faces there, that's 500 people different people there, and that's amazing. >> it gives us an analog feeling that you can't get in a different way. >> i break through on the second day of taking pictures, i put it back home, i put it all in the editing software and i only had

to see four seconds of it and know that i have something really cool in my hands. >> what's even more amazing is nearly a million and a half views in the video's first 3 1/2 months. >> some of the youtube covers say it's not 500 people, it's 436 people, and to get that sort of attention and interest online, it's absolutely incredible. >> we knew this was going to be a viral video. i do have to admit i didn't expect a million views. so it surpassed my expectation. coming up, a photography studio shows just how complicated taking one single portrait can be. >> we used almost every piece of

equipment that any photographer would ever own. >> like some mad scientist's intricate system so you can take a picture? >> i thought this is fun, this is interesting. and by the end of it was i was like pulling my hair out. i actually started to have nightmares about the machine. when "caught on camera: viral videos, how, what, why" continues. tt>ff@]!

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here's what's happening. the u.n. security council is meeting this hour to discuss the growing civil unrest in syria. beryl is packing winds up to 60 miles per hour. and tamer winds out west are helping firefighters battle 190 miles of brush in new mexico. crews are preparing to drop water carrying helicopters. now back to "caught on camera."

welcome back to "caught on camera." i'm contessa brewer. the web has as many viral video s as there are people to make them. how rube, how go you take your portrait? ought to be pretty straight forward, right? not in this video, by a small photography company looking to get noticed. >> we decided to shoot a machine and just take a tote photo in as complicated a away possible. >> they created a photo machine that you can't take your eyes off.

>> we used almost every piece of photographer equipment. we used camera bodies, we used lenses, little tripods, large try pods, light stands. we used conveyor belts which was kind of difficult to get our hands on. >> this was an amazing video you have all sorts of actions causing other actions. you can't believe that any one person would make this happen as it is happening here. >> can you imagine like some mad scientist to put together this intricate system so he could take a picture. >> i knocked them over and they were like dominos that immediately made me think of

rube goldberg. the term rube goldberg machine is a famous american who was known for -- >> getting from concept to reality takes more than six months, 25 people and many sleepless nights. >> it was trial and error. >> build an element, pray that it works, if it does, build the next element. and we had 253 elements. >> i thought this is fun, this is interesting, and at the end of it, i was pulling my hair out. i was actually having nightmares about the machine. >> i think one of the most

complicated elements actually, a very painful thing to set up. >> i think my favorite elements in the machine is the little mario on the screen that jumps across. >> it doesn't like mario. >> they have hundreds of synchronized moving parts and every one has to work from beginning to end in sequence, without stopping. >> we decided not to edit the video and try to get it in one take, because i think as a viewer you would want to see it in one take, and not have transitions to different camera angles. so you definitely have to learn the timing and learn what's going to happen and i had to choreograph the movements with

the camera so i had to learn dance moves, in and out and twisting and turning. >> it's an amazing amount of work. >> every time i would do a take, take 93, this is the one. and i was on the 99th track. >> i think people really relate to the amount of work that's required to put something like this together. >> from the very beginning, we knew that it was going to be go big or go home kind of deal. >> my parents called me up and said, oh, i saw the video, it's got 10,000 views. i was like just wait. >> it was a viral video smash hit. >> it was fun. i was happy i did it once. but to be frank, i never want to do another one of these machines ever again. coming up -- >> 1,000 --

>> -- got 77 hours to spare? evidently this guy does. they say the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. what would they say about counting to 100,000? >> 10,000. >> clearly this guy has to get a day job. >> 12,000, 13,000. 14,000. >> when "caught on camera" continues. does your phone share what you are seeing and hearing right now with the touch of a button ? droid does. does it post it instantly to facebook with sound ? droid does. droid with color for facebook. it's the ultimate status update. get a droid razr maxx by motorola for only $199.99. [ female announcer ] letting her home be turned into a training facility?

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so we combined our citi thankyou points to make it happen. tom chipped in 10,000 points. karen kicked in 20,000. and by pooling more thankyou points from folks all over town, we were able to watch team usa... [ cheering ] in true london fashion. [ male announcer ] now citi thankyou visa card holders can combine the thankyou points they've earned and get even greater rewards. ♪ new york has never been cuter, the big apple as a little toy city in a video gone viral. >> it's sort of like toys brought to life. it reminded you when you used to play as a kid, you would make

little towns and that's really where it came from. >> and look, someone else made a miniature chicago. >> it's just a different view of the city. and i was thinking, you know, i would love to get something people can relate to and enjoy. >> what's really fascinating about this is that you really can't tell if it's real or if it's military sets. when you first see the -- it's almost like it's back pedals. >> if you guessed model toys, you would be wrong. >> this is the tilt shift photography, it's a method of where you're actually shooting down at an angle and it really

focuses your attention on certain scenes and the people in those scenes. >> people use tilt ship lenses. >> the things that makes it feel like toys is a combination of two things really. the first thing is when you see the focus is falling off, that immediately queues you to think that's small. and the second thing is the acceleration. >> instead of shooting individual images, tony created top motion in his video camera. >> we decided to shoot video

instead of still photography. just because the process of is a little easier and quicker to do. each shot is like two seconds long. >> the strobe effect is what gives you the stop motion look. and the color correction, it's the saturation where it can look miniature and toy like. and the lower layer is the one that has the defocus or blur on it that really has you focus on the subject. >> tony's bosses at wgn loved the results. ary miniature chicago has become a youtube hit and their most popular on air promo. >> i think it's such a hit because people love their city, and chicago is a great town. >> i have seen the city look different, sort of charming and harmless in a way. >> sam called his new york video

the sam pit. in the first three months it has 750,000 hits. >> i didn't expect it to impactas. it's something that i thought would maybe generate some interest to me but i didn't expect it to go the way that it did. >> you almost get the feeling that every city wants to have it because when you're seeing your own city that way, it's familiar but different and it lets you see your own city in a different light. gee whiz i wonder how high i can count. let's find out. one, two, three, four, five,

six. let's find out, one, two, three, four, five, six. >> and so it will go for more than 70 hours. no flash, no tricks. he's going to keep going until he gets all the way up to 100,000. >> 15, 16, 17, 18. >> 24, 25, 831, 832, 833, 834. >> this video is legend on youtube. the concept is so simple and absurd that you really want to see if he's actually going to make it to 100,000. >> 2,789, 2,790. 2,803. 2,804. 2,805.

>> one of the comments on youtube was from a guy who said he went to spain for the weekend and when he came back the video was still playing. clearly this guy has to get a day job. >> i shot the entire video on a little ipod touch. parts of it were at my school. i actually shot part of it at my sister's wedding. i was just a little bit bored so left the section area and started counting. >> 80,012. it took about three months to shoot the whole video. >> how john does it certainly isn't very complicated. but the big question is why, for pete's sake. >> i went to college and our

final class was to make an experiment film. the assignment was extremely open ended. i just wanted people to question what makes a video entertaining. and just do something different. >> the best part is that nobody's going to watch the whole thing. you almost wonder if he stuck in little jokes on the inside that nobody ever saw. >> 61,438. 61,439. >> and while some people may think man needs to get a life, what about all the people out there who are actually watching this? >> i think it became a real contest of wills as to whether anybody could actually watch the whole video. >> i know i missed 99,990, 99,992. >> people keep calling me telling me i missed a number. throughout making the video,

there were several phases. at the beginning, it was kind of peaceful and actually relaxed me to do it. near the end i started having nightmares. part of the reason i originally did it was so that i wouldn't have to write a script, i wouldn't have to hire actors and stuff. but about the middle of it i actually thought it was more work to count to 100,000. >> 99,798, 99,799. >> john's video doesn't stop with the counting. his concept hit a road block when it was time for the video to go viral. >> youtube has a 20 gigabite limit so it's tough getting 77 hours of video down to 20 gigabits.

most programs have a time limit. most of them are 12 hours. so. his pride and joy, his claim to fame, more than half a million views and still counting. >> that's sort of the magic of the internet, that there can always be something that you did that nobody else did. it might be counting to 100,000 that no one has ever wanted to do but it's still yours and he's that guy forever now. >> 99,998, 99,999, 100,000. coming up, two kids from germany run into trouble with a magic trick and then it gets worse. >> holy crap.

is that kid okay? >> we're about to find out when "caught on camera: viral videos, how, what, why" continues. [ dad ] i'm usually checking up on my kids. but last year my daughter was checking up on me. i wasn't eating well. she's a dietitian and she suggested i try boost complete nutritional drink to help get the nutrition i was missing.

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two kids attempt one of the oldest tricks in the book. >> this is just the old pulling the table cloth from under the stuff without breaking it trick. >> a trick that we have all tried at one point in childhood. >> they try the trick again. and again. >> everybody knows what it is to be the kid trying to do this trick and failing a whole bunch of times. >> you are expecting something to happen. >> and then something does. >> oh, my god. the kid gets crushed.

>> you scream the first time you see it. >> holy crap, is that kid okay. >> you're wondering what on earth happened. >> don't fear, they are not hurt in the making of the video. in fact, it's not a manual jik trick but a camera trick created as a viral marketing campaign for the gop theater in germany. >> gop is an entertainment for all senses. you just silt there and look with wide eyes and it's very fascinating. we have five theaters in germany and we have about 700,000 people coming to our shows every year. >> however, the theater wants to attract a younger demographic. they hire film makers to create a video to grab people's attention. >> we researched youtube and

found out the videos of children and accidents are very successful on the internet. so we just thought, let's do a combination of both. >> the use of kids is a nice thing because kids are so innocent. how could they ever lie to you and make a fake viral video. >> dominic enlists his 13-year-old son to star in the piece. >> it was roughly explained to me that we would be doing a table cloth trick. >> they do multiple takes attempting the trick. >> we laughed a lot because we had to do everything over again and everything broke. we liked that. >> translator: the first three videos we made simply to support the credibility of the piece. >> then the film makers set up for the real ta-da moments. >> first we filmed the two kids

in the room with no table cloth and no dishes and he bumps into mikel. >> they are sent out of the room as the directors prepare for the second shot. >> we secured all cables and knocked the shelf over. >> with the living room demolition is a success, they bring the video in to edit. >> we superimposed the two videos, as though he was able to pull the table cloth from under the dishes and the shelf was falling on top of mikel. >> with the magic of editing complete, they are happy with the results. however, they notice one small mistake. do you see it? >> in the front you see a pen

that is slightly moving so there is a mask that is not running correctly. this could be a hint that the video is fake. >> okay. you need serious attention to detail to catch that one. in august 2011 the gop launch the video online. it tricks viewers gaining more than 10,000 hits turning them into internet celebrities. >> it's cool. >> i think it's cool. >> translator: my father suggested that we print autograph cards. >> it went all over the world so people in australia and people in south america were watching our video. so that was really, really not expected. >> i think this video went viral because it's really well done. it's short, sharp. >> there's an immediate feeling of surprise and horror and then

just wondering where it came from and who made it. >> millions of viewers traced the video back to the gop theater. after the magic trick gone bad, curious patrons flock to the theater in record numbers. and this may not be the last time you hear from young sven and mikel. >> family members have said to me, sven, you have the potential to be an actor. i want to move in that direction so i can an actor one day. >> the next time you click on a viral video and laugh out loud, remember, there's a lot more to the video than what meets the eye. i'm contessa brewer.