Lasse Gjertsen (born 19 July 1984) is a Norwegian

animator An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animat ...

, musician, and

videographer Videography involves capturing moving images on electronic media (such as: videotape, direct to disk recording, or solid state storage), and can include streaming media. It encompasses both video production and post-production methods. Histori ...

.lassegg
on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

He is best known for his short pieces "Hyperactive" and "Amateur", big hits in the early years of YouTube, which strung together short clips of video to create a unique form of video akin to

stop-motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animation, animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appe ...

animation. His "Hyperactive" video has over 8.9 million views and his "Amateur" video has over 16 million views.

Biography

Gjertsen was born in

Larvik Larvik () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Vestfold. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Larvik (town) ...

, Norway. He studied animation at

Kent Institute of Art & Design The Kent Institute of Art & Design (KIAD, often ) was an art school based across three campuses in the county of Kent, in the United Kingdom. It was formed by the amalgamation of three independent colleges: Canterbury College of Art, Maidstone Co ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, and at

Volda University College Volda University College ( or HVO) is one of the no-tuition state institutions in the system of higher education in Norway. It is located in Volda in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. History HVO was established on 1 August 1994, when the Mør ...

in Norway. His time at Kent Institute ended with his teachers failing to appreciate his work, specifically ''Hyperactive''.

YouTube

Lasse originally submitted ''Hyperactive'' to YouTube after seeing a copy uploaded by another user with poor

sound quality Sound quality is typically an assessment of the accuracy, fidelity, or Intelligibility (communication), intelligibility of sound, audio output from an electronic device. Quality can be measured objectively, such as when tools are used to gau ...

. Over the next six months Lasse uploaded 16 more videos, many created during his animation course. He has had several videos featured on the YouTube front page, including ''Hyperactive'', ''What The Fuck?'', ''Amateur'', and ''Sogno ad Occhi Aperti''. While ''Hyperactive'' has been the most popular, ''Amateur'' was featured in an article in the online edition of the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

''. Another video by Gjertsen has also been featured on

; "Hva faen, Speil?" in which he is looking into a mirror while some of the effects of hallucinogenic mushrooms become apparent through video and audio editing. Lasse Gjertsen's video ''Hyperactive'' was nominated in the category Most Creative video in YouTube's 2006 Video Awards. The video achieved third place. Hyperactive was copied by

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

in an advert for the show ''

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends ''Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends'' is an American animated television series created by Craig McCracken for Cartoon Network. It was produced by Cartoon Network Studios as the network's first show animated primarily with Adobe Flash, whic ...

''. Lasse initially considered

legal action In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the part ...

but after talking to a lawyer decided it would be too arduous. It was also spoofed in an advertisement for the 3rd season of the FX TV show ''

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'', also known colloquially simply as ''Always Sunny'', is an American sitcom created by Rob McElhenney and co-developed by Glenn Howerton for FX (TV channel), FX. It premiered on August 4, 2005, and stars Charl ...

''. Whether this was done with or without Gjertsen's permission is unclear. Lasse Gjertsen is also the creator of the soundtrack of the Chaplin Snakker videos on

. Chaplin Snakker is one of his electronic songs, in which the freedom- and awe-inspiring speech of

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...

from his movie ''

The Great Dictator ''The Great Dictator'' is a 1940 American political satire black comedy film written, directed, produced by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. Having been the only Hollywood filmmaker to continue to make silent films well into the period of sound f ...

'' (1940) is elevated by the use of music. Gjertsen also created a parody of Fireman Sam, dubbing his voice over Thief in Pontypandy.Archived a
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and th
Wayback Machine

Beyond YouTube

The YouTube success has resulted in offers from international companies like

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

and

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

. However, Gjertsen publicly denounces the concept of

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

, considering it below prostitution, and has refused all such offers. In addition to his video work, Lasse has a self-produced album of

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

music. In 2007 Lasse worked on a two-part

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

collaboration, named ''Sogno ad Occhi Aperti'', with the Italian

Cellist The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

Giovanni Sollima Giovanni Sollima (born 24 October 1962 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy) is an Italian composer and cellist. He was born into a family of musicians and studied cello with Giovanni Perriera and composition with his father, Eliodoro Sollima, at the Conse ...

. This was presented at the 8th International Fringe

Film Festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theater, cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent ...

in Marzamemi,

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. In the same year he directed the music video for the Swedish rapper

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; ; Koyra Chiini: ; ) is an ancient city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. It is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali, having a population of 32,460 in the 2018 census. ...

's song "Get Fizzy". From 2019, Gjertsen has been working with VFX and voice on the children's show "Minibarna" for the Norwegian broadcaster NRK. Together with colleagues he received the award "Gullruten" for best VFX in may 2021.

Software

Lasse has stated he uses the following software in the creation of his videos: *

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc., Adobe for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital ...

Adobe Premiere Pro Adobe Premiere Pro is a video editing application developed by Adobe Inc. and is distributed as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. It is primarily used for producing high-quality videos across various industries. History Original A ...

Adobe After Effects Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Inc.; it is used for animation and in the post-production process of film making, video games and television production. Amo ...

* Debugmode WinMorph *

FL Studio FL Studio (known as FruityLoops before 2003) is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by the Belgian company Image-Line. It features a graphical user interface with a pattern-based music sequencer. It is available in four different ...

Music

Lasse uses FL Studio to create original compositions in his videos. Although he claims not to have much skill with instruments, he has sampled himself using Drums, Piano, Guitar,

Harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

, and singing. The only videos without original compositions are the two music videos, ''Home Sweet Home'' by Norwegian

Rapper Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

Sirius, and ''Sogno ad Occhi Aperti'' by Italian Cellist Giovanni Sollima.

YouTube video chronology

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

References

External links

Lasse Gjertsen
on

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

Lasse Gjertsen
Exclusive content created for E4 {{DEFAULTSORT:Gjertsen, Lasse Norwegian animated film directors Norwegian film directors Norwegian male comedians 1984 births Living people Alumni of the University for the Creative Arts Norwegian YouTubers People from Larvik