This week’s MMM pick is a special effects demo reel by a 10 or 11 year old (?) boy named Kevin Lin. It was brought to my attention by the artist Paul Chan, who came across the clip when our team was hunting for web videos to show in the 2009 Migrating Forms Film Festival’s “Tube Time” competition. (Tube Time is a bracket-style tournament in which teams present found Internet videos to an audience whose applause determines the winner of each round.) Miraculously, our team captured the Tube Time championship that year, soundly defeating a the competition favorites—a cocky team headed by writer/curator Ed Halter.

Though this video is now seven years old (created in Adobe CS3!), “Special Effects Collection (Adobe After Effects)” is still exciting to watch in an age in which homemade special effects have become increasingly sophisticated. I think this is because of: 1) its economical editing (no one demonstration lasts more than a few seconds); 2) the dynamic performance of the young actor/editor (check out the intensity with which he snatches up light rays while maintaining a casual, deadpan stare); 3) the idiosyncratic details (Was that a Windows Vista promo?). This is resourceful, savvy, DIY light-and-magic by a young artist with seemingly boundless potential. We will all be lucky to intern for Kevin Lin when he grows up and takes over Hollywood.

Special Effects Collection (Adobe After Effects), By Kevin Lin