Maxxing Out Big Ideas in Short Form with Max Zavidow

Like any medium, the Internet is guaranteed to bring mind-blowing tech, big names, and big changes. As one of the first winners of the Webby for Best Shortform Video, creator Max Zavidow represents someone who studied visual culture across mediums to inform unforgettable shortform stories that stuck with millions of viewers.

In this Winner Story, Max walks us through his historic Webby achievement, what’s exciting about narrative fiction in our current Internet era, and how to create content that’s engaging as it is impressive.

What made your Webby-winning work stand out? 

I think what made my video stand out and made it a Webby Award-winning video was that it was a compelling narrative, and it was narrative fiction, and I think on the internet, especially on short-form platforms like TikTok and Instagram, we just don’t see a lot of people making narrative fiction and this was a piece that I went all in on, and I think it had, not to stroke my own ego (especially on camera) a really tight script, it was really visually compelling, we scored it like it was a movie the same way a feature film would get scored. So, I think the attention to detail and the love of the game that went into it is what took the video to the Webby.

Beyond the numbers, what do you want to be remembered for? 

I would love to be remembered as someone that made wonderful things. But in terms of what inspired me, what I would love to be known for is making things that shock and awe and surprise and delight. I think that’s at the heart of storytelling, narrative or not, fiction or not. I would love to be remembered in the same breath as, you know, Bong Joon Ho or Zach Cregger or Charlie Kaufman, and especially where it pertains to the internet.

I think if I sign off in however long, you know, hopefully like 60, 70 years when I’ve made my last short film or my last show I hope that people remember seeing something that I made, putting the phone down, leaving a theater, and thinking, “I didn’t know you could do that.” If someone thinks, “I didn’t know you could do that,” when they think of me, I’ll be more than happy.

 What did you see online this year that stayed with you, and why? 

This year people were making stuff that was made for the internet, not to get off the internet, but really exploring the internet as its own distinct medium— I think when that intentionality changes and the shift around platform versus medium changes, you get really interesting novel work that wouldn’t exist anywhere else, or it wouldn’t be as good anywhere else. Like, it’s meant to be on the internet.

When you have that framing in mind, like, what kind of shots do you take that wouldn’t make sense for a horizontal medium? What kind of stories can you tell that wouldn’t make sense anywhere else, like over 30 minutes? They actually, like, are meant to be told in two minutes. How do you beautifully compose a shot for the vertical frame, right?

And I think we’re getting a lot of stuff on the internet that feels super distinct. I hope to be a part of it. But I think we’ll keep seeing it and the internet will only evolve to be a more and more legitimate platform, and with that legitimacy comes really novel concepts and executions.

In an internet built to capture attention, what makes work last? 

I think what gets lost in that discussion [of the internet and making work that lasts] is that the algorithm, like, there are rankings implemented by these platforms that affect certain kinds of reach. But ultimately, the algorithm is people. It’s not like a stand-up club where you get to the people reacting to your work in real time or, you can’t sneak into the back of a movie theater and watch people experience your work. You have to remember that there are people on the other side of that phone, and you have to treat them with respect and love because I think a lot of people approach making work for the internet, like, “it’s like internet slop.” No, this is people’s attention regardless of where it’s being spent.

I think if you make something that people love and it shocks, awes, and surprises and delights them, they will remember it because you’re giving them a feeling, and people won’t always remember necessarily what you did or what you said or what you made, but they will remember how you made them feel. And that was a quote from Max Zabidow by way of Maya Angelou. [laughs].

What does a Webby win mean to you?

Winning a Webby Award was not only exciting but very validating [and] legitimizing. A big part of winning the Webby Award for me was the fact that the award I won was Best Short-Form Video of the Year, because there’s, as you might know, quite a few short-form videos uploaded on an annual basis in the world, and it was cool to be, numero uno.

It was the second year that the Webbys were doing Creator awards. As the profile of the internet and the legitimacy of the things people create for the internet rises, I think it’ll sort retroactively be even cooler. Like, how cool was it to win the second Oscar for Best Picture or the second Emmy for best actor in a drama? But I was stoked to win it now and was excited to win it even if this is as cool as it ever gets. It gave people something to rally around and be excited about, which is always nice.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Early Entry Deadline is October 30

Submit your projects by the Early Entry Deadline on Friday, October 30 to secure the best pricing of the season. Explore our categories, including brand-new honors in Creator Business and Creator Excellence, such as Branded Entertainment, Real-Time Collaboration, and Best Visual Effects.