When a video makes you stop, think, laugh & wonder what the hell you just saw, it’s probably a good thing. The K2 Charlie – Adventure From Tip to Tail has a good mix of crazy, entertaining and snowy footage – enough to make it memorable.

About Face Media is the nifty company behind such creativity. About Face is a social marketing media company specializing in the development of short form video content utilizing a story-based, documentary film approach.

I had a good chat with Andy Gorzalski, Producer for About Face. Check it out.

So, what do you guys do exactly?

Andy: We create the video & content and then we optimize it online through a number of practices to make the video the most relevant online piece related to our client. It comes down to, “What conversation do you want to have online with your audience?” Then we make that happen.

It’s always evolving and maturing with all of the emerging technology. It’s a pretty fun challenge. We’ve been at this and started on the ground floor pre-Youtube, pre-Twitter in 2003. There are a lot of broken eggs along the way, but we feel we have started to really figure out how to make the omelet now.

How was working with K2 Skis?

AG: The marketing team and brain-trust at K2 is the genuine article. They are all active participants in the culture and sport, so collaborating with them was great. They have an authentic connection to their audience, they know their audience… because they are their audience. It was great going into making the K2 Charlie trailers because they’re really informed about what they want to do.

Plus, it’s a giant company that’s not afraid to use lasers, ninjas, and Sasquatches to have fun.

Seth Morrison, Michelle Parker, Pep Fujas, The Crist Brothers and all of the K2 pros are really cool. They all get it. And they’re sort of good actors, too. Well, at least better than Steven Seagal.

Lasers and Sasquatches. Nice. So how do these ideas come about?

AG: Collaborating with our clients & open dialogue. We go through a pretty extensive discovery process with clients and partners to find what needs to get done and what the message and goal is. We’ve had great luck with people recognizing that for videos to be seen or be interesting, they need to be useful to an audience.

You can’t just upload a commercial and expect people to listen or care. Companies, brands, and people like K2 are moving in the right direction by basically becoming publishers of content that their audiences want to see and interact with. Audiences don’t just want a blatant ad message forced on things. We can save all of that for DVR fast forwards.

What video equipment does About Face use?

AG: We shoot everything in HD with Panasonic HVX cameras. We’re also big Apple nerds, so our editorial work-flow is all based in Final Cut Pro. We have a great staff of editors, designers, and animators in-house.

We’re unique behind the camera too, in that our director talents are experienced, real filmmakers who have had films at Sundance, SXSW, and are real independent presences in that world. Our director on the K2 Ski project had just wrapped up a project working with Ben Stiller. He also directs pieces on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

It’s the inverse of what used to be considered for “web video” and the mentality of, “We’ll just have my nephew shoot it, it’s just for the internet.”

Do you have a favorite YouTube video?

AG: Outside of our work, I’ve always been a sucker for Tim and Eric’s, along with insane genius Zach Galifiniakis’ work that was commissioned by Absolut Vodka. It defies explanation. It’s a great example of just make something entertaining or useful to an audience, and embed Absolut Vodka in as a sponsor or as a supporting presence. It’s never blunt old school advertising that just blasts a huge “BUY Absolut Vodka NOW” message. It’s something fun to share with friends.

K2 understands all of that. They know their audience, they value their audience, they want to interact and have fun with their audience. It’s like hanging out with a friend and sharing stuff you both like and want to talk about.

It would be weird if your friend would Facebook or email you every day about impersonally buying something.