2012 song
"
Shia LaBeouf
" is a 2012 song by singer-songwriter
Rob Cantor
that portrays Hollywood actor
Shia LaBeouf
as a
cannibal
. In 2014, Cantor released an expanded music video with a cameo from LaBeouf himself.
Development
[
edit
]
After a friend began "dramatically whispering" the name of actor
Shia LaBeouf
,
[1]
Los Angeles
-based singer-songwriter
Rob Cantor
[2]
wrote "Shia LaBeouf" in 2011, inspired by "nothing but the sheer silliness of imagining Shia LaBeouf, face and clothes smeared with half-dried blood, terrorizing helpless victims in a dark wood." The song describes an encounter and battle with LaBeouf, portrayed as an "actual
cannibal
" who lives in a forest and hunts people for sport. After writing the song, Cantor had hoped
Funny or Die
would be interested in using it in a video featuring the actor, but that arrangement never materialized.
[3]
On March 3, 2012,
[4]
Cantor posted "Shia LaBeouf" to his
SoundCloud
page,
[1]
from where one of his fans found and shared it on
Twitter
. By May that year, both
Boing Boing
and
BuzzFeed
had featured the song, though the eponymous actor had not publicly commented on the work, which was selling at Cantor's site for
US$1
(equivalent to $1.33 in 2023).
[3]
Music video
[
edit
]
"Shia LaBeouf" Live
|
---|
|
Directed by
| Scott Uhlfelder
|
---|
Written by
| Rob Cantor
|
---|
Based on
| "Shia LaBeouf"
by Rob Cantor
|
---|
Music by
| |
---|
Release date
|
- October 21, 2014
(
2014-10-21
)
|
---|
Running time
| 3:27 minutes
[5]
|
---|
Budget
| US$20,000
(eq. $26,000 in 2023)
|
---|
On October 21, 2014, Cantor released a music video for an extended version of "Shia LaBeouf", in which he and an ensemble of artists perform the song on stage. LaBeouf makes a cameo at the end as the only audience member, and gives them a
standing ovation
.
[6]
The
Los Angeles Times
reported that the video?filmed at the
Redondo Beach
Performing Arts Center?was inspired by then-contemporary
incidents where LaBeouf had behaved strangely in public
,
[7]
however Cantor later told
MTV
that he just felt that "
Halloween
was the right time" to fulfill his dream of making the video.
[1]
Personnel
[
edit
]
For this work, Cantor recruited 161 further artists,
[2]
including the
Argus Quartet
, the
West Los Angeles Children's Choir
, the
Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles
,
interpretive dancers
, and stage effects by
Kinetic Theory Theater
.
[7]
Stacy Tookey
choreographed
the dancing troupe in the short film; she and her dancers were only able to begin rehearsing three days before the shoot. The
aerialists
were brought onboard with only two days before filming.
[5]
Cantor already knew LaBeouf was aware of the original song because the actor had
tweeted
the link on Halloween 2013. The songwriter contacted the actor's
talent manager
and laid out his plan for LaBeouf to be the only audience member for the production; LaBeouf agreed to the proposition in less than two days.
[5]
Production
[
edit
]
The stage performance took four months to plan and one day to film.
[2]
Of the juxtaposition of 3D
papercraft
LaBeouf heads (which took 80 man-hours to assemble), professional performers in classical arts, and his absurd song about a cannibalistic Hollywood star, Cantor called the production
bathos
.
[1]
For the expanded version of the song, Greg Nicolett wrote the symphonic arrangement. He convinced Cantor to reduce a planned 50-piece orchestra to a
string quartet
not only for reduced costs, but the latter would increase the pretentiousness and therefore the absurdity in comparison to the subject matter. Scott Uhlfelder, a friend of Cantor's, served as the video's
director
and
cinematographer
.
[5]
Cantor's original budget was
$12,000
(equivalent to $15,444 in 2023), provided by
Maker Studios
. When the production team continued "having more good ideas that we wanted to bring to fruition" like the aerialists and LaBeouf himself, Cantor provided the remaining
$8,000
(equivalent to $10,296 in 2023). The
Redondo Beach
Performing Arts Center was "the nicest theater [Cantor] could afford", and artists began arriving at 6
a.m. The entire music video was never shot as one continuous performance, but was instead broken up into segments, the first of which began at 9
a.m. for cameras. LaBeouf's cameo was the last part filmed.
[5]
Reception
[
edit
]
The Huffington Post
called the production "more ridiculous than ever" and especially impressive given the limitations involved; they opined that the attention given to this release could serve to reinvigorate LaBeouf's celebrity.
[8]
Five years after its premiere, the video had garnered 63.8
million views on YouTube;
[5]
as of June 2024
[update]
, that number was 85.3
million.
[6]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
Fixell, Ethan
(October 27, 2014).
"Here's How You Get Shia LaBeouf in Your Cannibal Music Video"
.
MTV
.
Archived
from the original on November 28, 2020
. Retrieved
March 22,
2021
.
The Creator of "Shia LaBeouf" Explains How This Bizarre Epic Came to Be.
- ^
a
b
c
Ramisetti, Kirthana (October 22, 2014).
"Shia LaBeouf gives his approval to wacky 'cannibal' music video"
.
Daily News
.
OCLC
9541172
.
Archived
from the original on October 18, 2018
. Retrieved
March 22,
2021
.
- ^
a
b
Chaney, Jen (May 2, 2012).
"The Shia LaBeouf cannibal song: The story behind the viral track"
.
The Washington Post
.
ISSN
0190-8286
.
OCLC
2269358
.
Archived
from the original on May 3, 2012
. Retrieved
March 22,
2021
.
- ^
Cantor, Rob
(March 3, 2012).
"Shia Labeouf"
.
Archived
from the original on January 13, 2023
. Retrieved
May 8,
2024
– via
SoundCloud
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
McFarland, Melanie (October 22, 2019).
"
'
"Shia LaBeouf" Live,' an oral history of the Internet's most bombastic meme on its anniversary"
.
Salon
.
OCLC
43916723
.
Archived
from the original on March 21, 2021
. Retrieved
March 23,
2021
.
On a normal Tuesday night for Shia LaBeouf, Salon chats with Rob Cantor about pulling off a viral video masterpiece
- ^
a
b
Cantor, Rob
;
LaBeouf, Shia
(October 21, 2014).
"Shia LaBeouf" Live ? Rob Cantor
(music video)
. Retrieved
April 18,
2024
– via YouTube.
- ^
a
b
Ng, David (October 22, 2014).
"Video: Shia LaBeouf applauds satirical performance piece about himself"
.
Los Angeles Times
.
ISSN
2165-1736
.
OCLC
3638237
.
Archived
from the original on August 5, 2020
. Retrieved
March 22,
2021
.
- ^
Bradley, Bill (October 21, 2014).
"Rob Cantor's 'Shia LaBeouf' Live Could Even Make The Actor Famous Again"
.
The Huffington Post
.
Archived
from the original on September 20, 2019
. Retrieved
May 8,
2024
.
Shia LaBeouf Just Became Famous Again
External links
[
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]
|
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- Rob Cantor
- Joe Hawley
- Andrew Horowitz
- Zubin Sedghi
- Ross Federman
|
Studio albums
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Compilations
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Songs
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Related articles
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Short films and
music videos
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Books
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Related
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