Hadn’t this concept already been done by someone else?… I think that the original started as a fight—Tony vs Paul.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJzU3NjDikY

This filmmaking technique was explored by Chuck Menville and Len Janson in the early 60s when they were film students at Chouinard Art School in Los Angeles. In 1966 they did Vicious Cycles which apparently was available at one time from Pyramid Films. They also did one called Stop, Look and Listen. Here’s a link Vicious Cycles on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAj0NvKt9pM

The leader of the bad bikers is Len Janson. The leader of the fancy bikers in top hats is Chuck Menville. The image quality is a little rough, but it’s 40 years old! Len and Chuck did several more shorts employing the same technique, then went on to successful careers as animation writers. Chuck died in 1992. See more info on IMdB.

I am baffled by the comments of Jayson and Bob Foster. I had a look at the two links and what I saw were two different examples of the same technique, namely pixilation. I can’t see how the wonderful PES commercial was in any way derivative just because it used an animation technique that has been around since films were first made. George Melies was doing it over a hundred years ago!

I think I saw some one on b3ta.com do something similar too. It’s still good, though.

I want to know why his shorts never look as good on TV as they do on the internet. I think they must change the sound somehow. I thought the coinstar commercial was a crappy rip off of PES before I saw it on his website (where it looked pretty cool).

I did 2 days work on this spot. It was great fun (and PES was terrific to work with). Those two actors have incredible stamina, especially the poor guy on the ground. Luckily, the other guy was standing on a steel rig that meant his weight wasn’t actually on the “board”. But the board did have a leaf blower blasted in his face to create the ’speed’ effect…

Wow… Didn’t mean to poo-poo PES by any means there Jeff. I like it!.. It was more of a stream of consciousness, “Hey, I remember seeing this before” sorta thing… specifically the surfing/skateboarding on top of someone.

Yeah the idea may not be original, as I’ve seen a few other human skateboard videos, but man the execution is fantastic. Love the grind shot!!

Jeff: Skip to 4:16 on that ‘Tony Vs Paul’ film and I think you’ll see what he means. Most likely a coincidence, mind. It’s hardly a ‘Hyperactive’ sized copy. *coughfosterscough*

One of the contributors to typophile.com uses this idea in animated gif form for his online identity:

http://typophile.com/user/13171

OK I’ll eat humble pie and admit I hadn’t watched the Tony vs Paul video all the way through and also hadn’t seen that animated GIF which is indeed the same idea! Sorry if I ruffled any feathers. Must be awfully hard to come up with a truly unique new concept in any artistic medium, methinks.

erm, much as i love PES, this time it’s clearly inspired by ( http://youtube.com/watch?v=7sQEOP0FlTQ ), nay, verily, done before ( http://youtube.com/watch?v=NGkW1l5nQZs ).

mind you, it’s still great work, given his attention to details.

That’s the one I saw on b3ta, Kellie.