This is not the movie star, this is an attractive lass in a blue wig and a whipped cream bra with cherries on top. More on her in a bit.
I thought I would give you some literal eye candy before revealing who our mystery celebrity is.
Four hints: Casino, A Few Good Men, William Shatner and (a personal favorite) The Usual Suspects...
It's Kevin Pollak!
I spoke with Mr. Pollak for the Fast Company fall web television preview issue out now. If you're not aware, there are a ton of great original online shows, it just takes a bit more effort cutting the wheat from the chaf than say flipping on MTV for the riveting new "reality" series Brainless Assholes Live up to The Stereotype.
Babelgum
The first channel I looked at is Babelgum.com, which actually pays talented folks to deliver original programming. The second season of Pollak's funny series Vamped Out is coming soon, but you catch up on season one of this worthy office time-waster right here.
Vamped Out is the story of a middle-aged 162-year-old vampire/actor who can't find steady work --or a non-violent sustainable blood source-- in a Twilight world. It's just one of a number of quality shows on Babelgum. It's not TV. It's the future of TV.
VAMPED OUT: "Because we're not stupid," says Kevin Pollack of his vampire spoof on babelgum.com, "there will be more famous faces in season two, for sure." | Photograph Courtesy of Babelgum
Publishers of each of Babelgum's five channels -- including Vodka Empire's home, Metropolis, which is devoted to art, design, fashion, and urban culture -- are given budgets to commission original content creators who do their own thing. "We've basically had more creative freedom and control than anything I've worked on in my entire career," says actor Kevin Pollak, who wrote and directed the spoof Vamped Out for Babelgum's comedy channel. Babelgum splits ad revenue after deals earn out their advance. This talent-friendly setup has attracted both serious and comedic artists, such as Michael Showalter, who goes behind-the-scenes of familiar TV ads on The Making Of....
(For more of "Babelgum Actually -- Gasps -- Pays Users to Create Videos" click right here)
_____________________________________________________________________
More With Kevin Pollak:
FC: When will the second season of Vamped Out debut?
KP: The "when" is hard to say, as we're still writing the scripts. I can say that the first season went awfully quickly, though, from pitch to premiere, about 5 months. Best case, we're shooting in 6 to 8 weeks, it's only a week-long shoot, then post production for a month, or so, and the second season could premiere as early as, October. Hey, maybe a Halloween premiere... Oooooh... Feel it?
FC: Can you give us a bit of a preview of what to expect in season two? And how many episodes are you doing?
KP: The story picks up just a week or so after last season ended. Our core characters are back with the addition of a few new ones. The one big difference is that my character, along with our audience, now knows for certain that "Al" is a vampire. Antoon (my co-creator who stars as "Al") and I received such a great response from our famous friends who saw it and loved it, that we've written in several cameos for them. So, because we're not stupid, there will be more famous faces in season 2, for sure. No, I won't say which faces just yet. As for how many episodes we're doing this go around, we've written 6 as we did in season 2, but we anticipate that they'll each be a bit longer.
(For more of "Kevin Pollak Reinvents Himself With Web Video" click right here)
____________________________________________________________________
Next New Networks
Next New Networks takes the opposite tact, preferring to go with low-fi programs, often plucked from YouTubers with a decent following. The site is probably best known for Obama Girl, the always entertaining Backyard FX (for those who want a DIY lightsaber) and the millions-upon-millions-of-hits Weird Al 2.0 song channel Key of Awesome. It's where you'll find Ms. Candyland up top, that's from the Katy Perry California Gurls parody. She's got nothing on Tron Girl!
My favorite NNN show is Freezer Burns, in which the self-proclaimed "frozen food master" eats monstrosities like Hungry-Man Boneless Pork Ribs and Bob Evans Biscuit Stuffers so we don't have to. It's a thankless job and actually nobody had to do it, so God Bless You frozen food master.
THE KEY OF AWESOME: Pop-culture parodies, as in this Katy Perry -- inspired vid, have scored 125 million -- plus views. | Photograph Courtesy of barelydigital.com
To get there, Ng joined Next New Networks last spring. Freezer Burns had built a small YouTube following (500 to 800 views per show), but as part of NNN's Hungry Nation channel -- Food Network for the starving and ironic -- Ng's show is heating up. A frozen burgers exposé got 135,000 views.
(To read more of "NNN Takes Grassroots YouTube Talent to Next Level"click right here)
Fast Company September 2010
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
