By Kashmir Brummel

Earlier this year, the kids at kluster came across one of the most amazing short films we'd ever seen. Its page on YouTube listed it as Tony vs. Paul, a five minute stop-motion video of two friends-turned-enemies who battle their way across backyards and parks. Absolutely stunned by the amount of work and skill that went into creating this clip (plus all the cool stunts), I had to find out more about the creators – who, funnily enough, are named Tony (Fiandace) and Paul (Cummings).

The pair met at college, and though both were creative types (with Paul playing in bands and Tony studying printmaking), neither had any experience in filmmaking. "We bought a camera in college and just started shooting these little shorts," explains Paul from his home in Massachusetts. "It really was just for fun… and basically still is." But that bit of fun has turned into 2 million views on YouTube alone for Tony vs. Paul, with another million hits from other video sharing sites, blogs and MySpace pages.

And it's not hard to see why. The sheer "how did they do that?" factor is enough to warrant a couple of views. Knowing that with stop-motion, every frame must be filmed separately, the mind boggles at the time (and energy) it would take to create every airborne moment. "Yes, we really did jump all those times," states their YouTube FAQ page.

This stop-motion genius has proved to be the key to success for Tony and Paul. "We'd been making films for about four or five years at that point… but most of our old stuff was pretty bad," Paul reflects. "[Then] we made a promo for NBC's The Office for this contest. It was in stop-motion and it did really well and got us some recognition, so we decided to push that concept even further". The promo they created didn’t land them first prize, but being placed in the top ten started them on the path to success.

The pair claims they never set out with any particular goal, but after five or so years of fooling around with a camera, they hope to do some more commercial work, and maybe start using their talent to pay the bills. "We've made money from the films," admits Paul, "but we both work day jobs. We already get a lot of 'you guys sold out' stuff for the online ads we do, but no one seems to know that we work 9-5 every day, and I edit all night and we film every weekend." Their hard work has paid off, with Tony and Paul recently signing to LA-based agency ka-chew and now working on a couple of ads.

Despite the rigorous and seemingly thankless work, the two still retain the passion for collaborating. "We work closely with all things film related," says Paul. "I play in a band and Tony does a lot of printmaking. We are both super busy with that… so having a partner for film stuff is really great. I think we would both get burned out if we did too much on our own."

Dedication and hard work, while vital to getting the job done, aren't going to get you all the way. While Paul admits to some poor early work, he and Tony have obviously come a long way in the technical department since starting off as two kids with a camera and no formal training. With professional editing software now available to the home user, I asked his thoughts on whether formal training or the self-taught approach is preferable. "There are benefits to both," he remarks. "We've got filmmaker friends and sometimes they are so trained that a lot of their creative thinking goes out the window… but at the same time, they are really knowledgeable and a great resource. I learned to edit on my own, but after finishing Tony vs Paul I took an editing class to sort of learn some of the basics. Just little things I missed along the way."

Another aspect that has revolutionised the way that aspiring filmmakers reach an audience is the emergence of sites such as YouTube that allow them to tap into a previously unreachable market. "We would be nowhere without YouTube," agrees Paul. "Otherwise we'd have been entering film festivals (and most likely getting rejected), and showing these videos to our friends or making a reel… or, hell… I don't even know. With this sort of platform there is always an outlet."

Though Paul modestly suggests that he and Tony still fall into the category of 'aspiring filmmakers', he did leave us with some words of advice for those looking for their own DIY success story: "Keep creating… but stop trying to 'make it'. Just do what you love. Make films… put them out there. If you stand behind it, someone else will. I'm not saying don't have goals or don't dream… but still… the first thing you should do is just try to create something you love."