[UPDATE — JUNE 2026]
The success of this project caught me off guard. The pessimist in me figured a few hundred people would watch it before getting buried in the mess of videos on YouTube.
That wasn’t our fate.
We uploaded on December 1, 2017 and reached our first million views on June 30, 2018. We hit two million on July 10, 2018 and three million on July 19, 2018.
I stole those stats from a post I made in 2018, but as I write this update on June 11, 2026, we’ve accumulated a staggering 52,087,062 views.
Clearly our video struck a chord with audiences.
What truly boggles my mind is that it’s almost impossible to find the video organically. YouTube’s algorithm buried it for some reason. This lame audio-only version has 22M views. Their audience would’ve presumably gone to us if we were secured top search result instead. I wish I knew how or why this happened.
As a fan of Ed’s, our writer/director, Jarod Einsohn, had a solid instinct about “Kiss Me,” which currently has 513 million Spotify streams and is ranked #27 among Ed Sheeran’s songs.
…and now the OG Post
Just a few months after we screened our short film, Long Walk Home at the Netflix theater, Jarod sent an email to the film’s star, Alex Sgambati, and me about another passion project.
Jarod revealed to us that he’s wanted to make a video for the 11th track off of Sheeran’s debut album, “+” since the album’s release in 2011. I’ll admit that I was a naysayer initially. In my mind, it felt like a waste of time to make a video on spec for such a prominent artist. I doubted that Ed would promote, let alone watch our video. Why put so much effort into someone who doesn’t need our help when there are so many great musicians who would be thrilled to have a talented team behind their next original video?
Unable to convince Jarod to track down another artist–which isn’t exactly an easy task–I decided to just trust him. When your friends want to get together to make something for fun, sometimes you just have to go with it. We shot on October 12, 2017 while our New York actress found herself in LA for meetings.
The video ended up being a reunion with the wonderful principals of the short film that we shot in April: Director: Jarod Einsohn, Stars: Alex Sgambati and Ryan Rottman, Producer: Katie Curtright, and Editor: Kyle Tekiela. Linking the music video and the short is an interesting exercise since Long Walk Home is tragic and this is hopeful. They can’t exist on the same timeline, but “Kiss Me” offers the happy ending some audiences would’ve appreciated. I recommend starting with the short and ending with the video.
Our friend, Ramsey Krull, generously lent us the use of his nearby Burbank restaurants: The New Deal & Romancing the Bean. It should also be noted that we used his house for Alex’s bathroom and living room on Long Walk Home. Jarod is always resourceful when making films and his generosity is reciprocated by his friends.
We used my Sony FS7 with a set of rented Leica R photo lenses. I’ve been searching for a prime lens set to elevate my work and I’m leaning towards a set of Contax Zeiss lenses because I’ve always loved Super Speeds. Given the R’s reputation, this seemed like a great project to demo them. The results speak for themselves and I would consider buying them if a set becomes available. [Four months later, in February 2018, I acquired a great set of GL Optics rehoused Contax Zeiss lenses. In February 2022, I made my dreams come true and purchased a set of Zeiss Super Speeds to pair with my ARRI Alexa 35.]
Jarod predominantly responds to cinema vérité and a documentary approach to camera and lighting, which is why we love collaborating. I eschewed film lights whenever possible and wanted it to feel unlit. Working with the FS7 and a Metabones SpeedBooster gave us a working ISO of 3200, which really accommodates using “natural light.” I rate the camera at 1600 natively and the Booster adds an extra stop of sensitivity.
To subtly separate the flashbacks from present day, I suggested that we shoot the restaurant scenes at 24FPS and everything else at 36FPS. I love how the effect is barely perceptible while still registering to the subconscious. Jarod is more of a “show-me” kind of guy and he quickly agreed after seeing the results on monitor.
We only needed to shoot a couple of scenes and since there was no playback or dialogue, we moved really quickly. Shooting an MOS short film is a fun exercise for all the creatives and a nice challenge for strictly visual storytelling. It also helped that our locations were pretty contained within the San Fernando Valley.
Do you have a favorite song that deserves a proper music video? Jarod proved that passion for the right track can find a massive audience. I’d still love to make one for Atmosphere’s hip-hop classic, “The Woman with the Tattooed Hands.”