I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Jenna Payne. Jenna is the creator, producer, writer, and director of ZOMPIRE VIXENS FROM PLUTO!, which is a web series of hilarity and sex appeal with a sci-fi twist. Logline: Foxy zombie/vampire hybrids attack Brooklyn in retaliation for the declassification of Pluto as a planet, rendering them ineligible for intergalactic aid.

Read more about the beginnings of this clever web series, watch the teaser, and learn more about the incredible people behind ZOMPIRE VIXENS FROM PLUTO! below.

ZOMBIES IN THE PARK from Jenna Payne on UnleashVideo

1. What’s the story behind you wanting to develop the ZOMPIRE VIXENS FROM PLUTO story into a web series?

ZOMPIRE VIXENS FROM PLUTO! is actually the bastard spawn of a Facebook post. I can’t remember the original post, but it basically devolved into a discussion of zombies and vampires. Then I asked what would a hypothetical hybrid creature be like? We determined that Zompires would be suave but forgetful, unable to heal themselves, craving brainstems, and their Achilles heel, as it were, is getting staked through the ears or doused in alcohol. Their human offspring are called Vambies, and the female of the species is far more deadly than the male. The women come back looking ‘40s vamp, like their Zompire masters, and the men look more like traditional zombies. It’s an indisputable fact that guys don’t learn how to iron even in death. Haha.

I originally had our Zompires hailing from Mars, but Dom King pointed out that that’s way overplayed. I picked Pluto and decided to use its declassification as an essential part of the story arc and the Zompiric quest. The Zompires were forced into the Intergalactic Consortium, that would be our intergalactic governing body, and then given the shaft. They used to roam free across planets, taking prey as they pleased, but then they were required to remain on Pluto upon admission into the IC. The Consortium sent horrible, synthetic, canned brainstems to the Zompires but now refuses even that aid with the declassification of the planet, spearheaded by Dr. Von Tron.

The Empress of Pluto sends three charming Vixens to Brooklyn to persuade Dr. Von Tron to restore Pluto’s planetary status, but Elmyra and Roxy have other plans (i.e. fresh human brainstems!). Trixie tries to keep her superiors on task, but she’s not really leadership material. So our Zompires and our humanoids square off in a battle for Brooklyn. I think we all know who comes out on top, but we’re going to have a hell of a lot of fun getting there.

As far as my desire to work on this project (aside from the fact that it’s AWESOME), I have a feature-length slasher that I’ve written involving a pregnant teen and a disgruntled auto worker in Flint, Michigan, but that costs more money and is basically just more difficult. I keep sitting down to write a script that will cost zero dollars and can be made in NYC on weekends with friends. And I fail every time. Anyway, ZOMPIRE VIXENS FROM PLUTO! was originally supposed to be that no budget project. It’s ballooned into something a little more expensive but still an excellent stepping stone before making a feature.

After first coming up with the concept for ZOMPIRE VIXENS, I decided to gear it toward the web instead of a no budget feature because the gratification is relatively more instantaneous. You shoot a feature and you’re lucky if you get it into festivals within two years, not to mention distribution. I wanted to do something that didn’t require someone else’s permission to screen my work, which led me to the web series idea. Then I was mulling over how to fund a web series, and there are some really great advertising opportunities online. I haven’t had cable in years, so I’m always shocked by how bad commercials on TV are when I actually see them. I wanted to channel some of the really unique, super refreshing ad ideas that have been coming out online, though, and use ZOMPIRE VIXENS FROM PLUTO! as an incredible platform to partner with a brand or brands that I believe in, as well as an opportunity to get our story made. That was an incredibly long overview of the whole project I think. Haha.

2. What have been your biggest challenges and struggles to date?

Making a living in the arts is always difficult. Period. It requires really creative problem solving, excellent stress management, and a willingness to basically live in a cardboard box if you have to. It’s not something I would encourage anyone to do unless a normal job makes you want to kill people. Or yourself. That was really my situation. I was working at a law firm a few years ago and about to get on a plane returning from a vacation. I suddenly realized that I didn’t want to go home, which felt so horribly wrong because I love New York. I just couldn’t stay at my job much longer and knew that I needed to stop trying to write a novel and just make a damn movie already. I shot my award-winning short FELINE FRENZY three months later. Fast forward to now, my last day off prior to May 5th was April 7th. I’m totally addicted to my line of work and have no problem working 14 hours a day or more, like I was while cutting the latest ZOMPIRE VIXENS FROM PLUTO! teaser. It has its pros and cons, of course. My life is definitely unpredictable and sometimes I don’t even have time to pick up my laundry, but regardless, I love what I do and wouldn’t have it any other way, cardboard box or not.

ZOMPIRE VIXENS FROM PLUTO! really only has one challenge at the moment. That, of course, is finding the right brands to partner with and make this crazy, campy baby. Sometimes I envy painters or musicians because there seems to be a lot more you can do with a lot less money, but the truth is that it’s just my imagination that dreams up the somewhat more costly (and cool!) plots and effects. I don’t want to make dramatic gold with two people talking in a room. If there aren’t buckets of fake blood involved, then it’s not my movie.

3. This series will be all about branded entertainment, how do you plan on incorporating brands into your story?

Product placement is a little passé. Everyone on the internet is fully aware of product placement, so I think that it loses its potency and maybe even slightly insults the savvy consumer. It is what it is, and I’ll certainly take it. However, I think there’s something really satisfying about being up front and in your face with sponsorships.

ZOMPIRE VIXENS FROM PLUTO! is already so over the top about everything else that I thought it would be the perfect vehicle for an edgier brand with a sense of humor. To that end, I wrote each episode with a completely shameless plug for our main sponsor. The plot literally stops while we take a few moments to offer up some lip service. As the show progresses, we even start making jokes about how we couldn’t fit the plug in this episode, so we’re going to have everyone in the room freeze while we pay homage. It’s pretty hysterical. We’re aiming for a liquor brand, but the show is really so zany that it could applaud a number of different products. In the case of the liquor brand, though, we have a featured cocktail of the week that will go online with a recipe as part of the social media marketing and tons of fun extras like that. Also, that goes back to the Zompires having horrible reactions to alcohol, which we certainly use to full effect within the series.

4. Who and how many people are behind the series?

The ZOMPIRE VIXENS FROM PLUTO! team is not fully assembled, but we’re close. The incredible Tina Cesa Ward, writer/director/producer of the most watched dramatic web series ever ANYONE BUT ME, has been an amazing asset to the project as Consulting Producer. She’s provided me with some truly invaluable advice and just been fantastically supportive. I just signed on Armin Houshmandi and Ayal Kushner as producers to work with me in shepherding the series through pre-pro and into a worldwide phenomenon (fingers crossed!). The full cast and crew is on our website in the branded content proposal, but just a quick rundown are the following awesomely talented individuals:

Che Broadnax – Director of Photography

Horatio Han – Production Designer

Michele Mulkey – HMU/SFX

Angela Harner – Wardrobe

Bob Denatale – Editor

Lenny Gonzalez – Music

Marion Elaine – Olivia

Tyler Cook – Chase

Sophia Remolde – Elmyra

Nylda Mark – Roxy

Emily Bennett – Trixie

Mark Byrne – Oscar

Richard Brundage – Dr. Von Tron

Walker Hare – Rob

Karen Teune – Iris

5. Where do you see the web series industry in 5 years from now?

As I said, I’m looking to move from the web and into making features, for better or worse, but web series will increasingly proliferate and hopefully have not only the audience but also the cashflow for these incredible individuals to keep making the projects that they love and that we love to watch. I definitely think that transmedia is the wave of the future and that more and more filmmakers should be thinking about how to incorporate their audience in the decision making. That said, I’m totally ignoring my own advice and not offering a huge input component as far as storyline for ZOMPIRE VIXENS FROM PLUTO! I do want to bring in the audience on forums and maybe even four wall the completed series and do a little tour with the Vixens. I think the time is ripe for an audience participation movie along the lines of ROCKY HORROR PICTURE show and would love to offer that up with a ZOMPIRE VIXENS screening. That would be so much fun!

6. Do you have any tips for creating and producing a web series?

Work your ass off! It’s all about producing, in my opinion. Making movies is such an intense and amazing collaborative effort that you really are only as good as your relationships, especially on no budgets. I’m running out of favors to collect (someone sponsor us, please!), but you really need a good core group of people who are willing to donate their time, their effort, and their positive thinking to your project. And you had better do the same for theirs. After you have some people working with you and eager to help you succeed, then you can get down to the actual making of the movie. Shot lists are relatively easy compared to organizing an unpaid shoot with a cast and crew of 15 on a Saturday in a park. Seriously.

7. Where can we watch the early beginnings of your series?

You can find all things Zompire-related through our site, Facebook, and often on my Twitter feed.

Enjoy this insightful interview? Great! Then subscribe to our blog via email as we will be doing more of these fun interviews in the future with other amazingly talented video creators and producers.

And if you are a web series creator or producer and want your story featured here, then reach out to us and lets discuss.

Jeremy Campbell Lists, community, interview, resources branded entertainment, film production, filmmaker, human, internet show, interview, new media, online show, online video, sci fi, screenwriter, sex sells, sponsors, story, Vambie, video creator, video production, vixens, web series, web series creator, web series production, web show, ZOMBIE VIXENS FROM PLUTO, Zompire

The new VideoStudio Pro X5 is AMAZING video editing software which launched just recently. I reached out to Corel, who created the software, and asked if they would be interested in doing a giveaway to our Spidvid members.

I explained how our community’s filmmakers, video creators, editors, directors, producers, and other creative individuals would love to learn about the powerful product, and how I enjoy creating online contests to give fun, valuable stuff away. They were on board immediately, and were happy to get involved.

We’ve had many discussions for what this contest should consist of, and came up with the campaign as laid out below.

Win VideoStudio Pro X5 by doing the activities below:

1. Download the free trial of the software.

2. Create a screencast video, or edit another video project using Pro X5.

3. Upload your video to YouTube and/or Vimeo.

4. Share the link to the video on Twitter by using #WinProX5 and/or use the same hash tag in the video’s description.

We will watch and judge all video entries, and pick the top 5 videos. The winning 5 video creators will each receive a free boxed copy of the software, promotion for their video, Spidvid stickers, and bragging rights!

Videos will be judged as follows:

1. By their creativity, production value, and entertainment value.

2. By their metadata. So good titles, descriptions, and tags are important.

Bonus: 3. VideoStudio Pro X5 and Spidvid branding. Earn bonus points for including Pro X5 and/or Spidvid visuals or messaging in your video, and/or in its metadata.

This contest ends on Thursday, May 31st, at 11:59pm EST. So be sure to get your entry in ASAP as we also value early submissions. If you have any questions you can comment below, or email us.

Visual demo video of VideoStudio Pro X5 below

Features of Pro X5:

• Timeline View – Drag your media and graphics onto the Timeline, then add effects, transitions and more. Reveal or hide tracks, zoom in and out, or customize the Timeline.
• 21 Tracks – Make content-rich video productions with 21 tracks for media, graphics and titles.
• Stop Motion Animation – Have fun creating animated movies featuring people, toys or objects.
• Time-lapse Effect – Accelerate your footage to create unique effects.
• Chroma Key – Combine with your green screen to shoot subjects in front of one background, then place them in another setting.
• Record Your Screen – Capture and share slideshows, presentations, product demos, gameplay or tutorials.
• Share Online – Get your video onto the web fast with integrated export to YouTube™, Facebook® and Flickr®, or build your own website via HTML5.
• HTML Authoring – Create interactive content for websites and online videos with integrated hyperlinks, onscreen graphics and titles using this new web standard.
• Show On Devices – Share your movies on iPad®, iPhone®, PSP® and other mobile devices.
• Copy, Convert, and Burn – Import a large variety of video formats—from disc, device or file—and convert, resize or edit with widely customizable, high-speed transcoding.
• DVD and Blue-ray Authoring – Edit and create titles and subtitles, burn from ISO disc image and more thanks to advanced disc authoring tools.

To stay updated on all new contests, posts and articles, and Spidvid community and site updates, subscribe to our blog.

Jeremy Campbell Give Aways, Lists, Production Tool, community, product contest, Corel, film editing, film production, film software, filmmaking, free product, free software, online content, Pro X5, production software, spidvid, video content, video editing, video editing product, video editing software, videomaking, VideoStudio Pro X5, win, win this product

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Charles Pearce. Charles is the creator, and director of The Mechanicals, which is a surreal Twitch-Com series about horrible horrible robot roommates. The premise: An avant-garde comic-strip-in-a-can video series all on your intertubes of the webspace surflands.

Read more about about this fascinating web series, watch the teaser, and learn more about the incredible people behind it below.

1. What’s the story behind you and your team wanting to develop The Mechanicals story into a web series?

I can’t really tell you where the stories or ideas came from. Part of it were attempts to solve technical circumstances, part is just where my brain goes when I’m not bound by the limitations of others. I’ve always loved the early days of Adult Swim and late night cartoons on MTV. You often got a sense there was an inside joke you were not to be included in on. Something about that style and sense of comedy really stuck with me over the years, and ultimately informed much of this series.

I have always been a big fan of the fringe YouTube Poop editing that sits online, and I expect more and more visible editing styles will become part of narrative storytelling, but beyond that I really think it’s fascinating when we live in urban environments all the homes and residences that live behind closed curtains, and what might or might not happen in those private spaces. Sure, this is an experimental exaggeration of that perspective, but who knows? Perhaps there really are people out there that feel more comfortable living in cardboard than in their own skin.

The Mechanicals sat on my hard drive as a series of written scripts since 2010 and my last days in college. I had very much wanted to turn it into an animated series right after graduation, and actually spent almost 6 months working in Illustrator and Flash, but I wasn’t satisfied with where things were going, and life came along and sidelined the project for far too long.

Then I met up with longtime friend Douglas Burbank (playing The Red One) over another project, conversations opened up about doing something relatively easy from a production standpoint, and it clicked. These scripts I had would be equally, if not more effective as live action. With that last technical component coming into alignment, the rest was just scheduling.

2. What have been your biggest production challenges and struggles to date? How did you overcome them?

Most of our challenges have been technical, but with a story this weird, you can’t just go on set and riff the production. You may not see it in the final product, but we often would discuss if a certain behavior or scene was appropriate for these characters. We had to decide if you would see them eating food, if so, what kind of food. Are they ever going to leave their residence or are all location shots interior? Are they robots or are they humans that wear robot costumes, is it even relevant? Why or why not?

And it wasn’t that we sat around and wrote a term paper on the matter, but if you decide one component of how your characters and world function, you have to commit to it with such a surreal narrative. Something has to stay grounded and deliberate in order for the weird to stay accepted. We spent a lot of our early production time making those kinds of decisions.

On set, when all three characters are in costume, that becomes difficult, just from a space and mobility angle, the terribly flat angles on the cardboard sometimes give us lighting headaches as well.

3. Who and how many people are behind the series?

There are three of us principally behind the project. Myself, Charles R. Pearce, the creator of the series, who also functions as an independent filmmaker in Chicago. I play The Blue One.

Douglas Burbank, who has performed in several independent shorts and takes a lead role in the soon to be released online Student Seven (check it out), he plays The Red One and often runs the secondary camera when I am in a scene.

Sara Cashman Pearce, my lovely wife, plays The Orange One. She’s also the principal producer for all our projects. Her sense of scheduling and logistical timing have proven impeccable over the years.

I also have several friends that help and support the production indirectly.

During editing I often FTP the roughs to Alex Chod in Indiana for Sound Design review. His emphasis on quality and interesting audio has been invaluable to the entire series.

Sam Sher, is another independent director and close friend of mine, has helped review several of the early script drafts, and hone them into much sharper bits.

4. What does the future hold for your series?

That’s a good question. I don’t really know. I’m still not sure how it’s going to be received when we release at the end of the May. I have a feeling I’m either on the path of something really interesting and refreshing, or I’ve 100% missed the mark and this is a decent exercise. I’m just not sure.

But beyond The Mechanicals, it’s given me production momentum that’s quite exciting, I’m already in pre-production for a substantially more dramatic short, I’m working with a Character Designer for a very dark cartoon series (that will probably be several years in process), and I’m already peaking over the horizon to the things beyond.

5. Where do you see the web series industry in 5 years from now?

It depends. I think the issue is in distribution, not content creation. I think about how movies like Star Wars and Easy Rider were released, they sat in some theaters for months, it was part of their long time in theater that allowed kids to watch Star Wars every weekend over and over and over again, some movies were sleepers till word of mouth spread.

Today you have 3 days in a weekend to make or break a property that’s released. But on the web it’s different. It’s much more like those earlier days. So all the sites that we, as content creators, upload to those are our theaters but the run time is infinite. The fight is to be noticed.

There is a sea of content out there that’s painfully difficult to stand out in. You’re seeing more and more services that are standing up saying they’ll curate good works for the web and only deliver you exactly what you want, but they face the same problem everyone else has, now there’s a sea of curated content to sift through… and the truth is it doesn’t matter, it’s trying to solve the wrong problem.

The right problem to solve is getting all the ‘Normals” the folks that don’t live and breath indie cinema to see our works, that’s the magnitude of views necessary for this new industry to migrate to a sustainable model… and that means getting in living rooms and on TVs.

I see the future of webseries tied with the future of services like Netflix, or App based delivery for streaming to media boxes.

I think we’re about 5 years from the rest of America and the wealthier Western World consuming media in such a manner. Cable subscriptions are declining, Smartphone usage is rising. Time shifting of content viewing is now the norm, and the television is just another screen in the home that can present whatever we want.

I’m very excited for where things can go, and I’m betting my career on it. This is a great window to shake things up.

6. Do you have any tips for creating and producing a web series?

Oh goodness. Yes.

You often hear that all it takes is an idea and a camera and you can shoot something, throw it on the web and magic. You’re a filmmaker. It’s both true and false. Yeah, you are a filmmaker, but most people don’t want to be just a filmmaker, they want to be a good filmmaker, and I think there’s a significant difference in what you do, how you do it, and how you work with people.

When you want to start getting good at filmmaking you have to be really open to working with a large number of people that won’t always see or meet your specific vision you have in your head. A good filmmaker needs to have the courage and faith in their project to know additional input will only strengthen the work.

You should pay strong attention to the technical details of production, good sound design, 3 point lighting setups, conflict and resolution in the script, camera gear, setting focus… the fundamentals. These are the building blocks, and the more shortcuts you take at this level the more it shows in your final project.

“We’ll fix it in post.” is a lie. You always will see and hear bad work.

Be patient, diligent, and thoughtful with your production work and be prepared for it to sometimes take several years before you even make one project. There are a huge number of external factors you have to be able to bring together through whatever people skills and connections you have. Sometimes it’s a battle, sometimes it’s burning out your mistakes, sometimes you hit it out of the park at the beginning, usually it’s a long road of incremental improvement. Be ready for that long term journey.

7. Where can we watch the early beginnings of your series?

We’re leveraging social platforms. I don’t believe in building a website for people to visit, when I can participate in existing spheres. Our updates, interactions, and behind the scenes news is on Facebook and while we’re working to upload to a huge number of media sites, our largest presence is on YouTube. We also sustain a production company website with a press blog at buhudesign.com.

Enjoy this insightful interview? Great! Then subscribe to our blog via email as we will be doing more of these fun interviews in the future with other amazingly talented video creators and producers.

And if you are a web series creator or producer and want your story featured here, then reach out to us and lets discuss.

Jeremy Campbell Lists, interview, resources film director, human, internet show, interview, new media, online show, Pillars, sci fi, screenwriter, story, The Mechanicals, video creator, web series, web series creator, web show

My entrepreneurial friend Garin Kilpatrick is an expert Facebook marketer! I have benefited from many valuable tips from him over the last few months, and to show my appreciation I offered to post a helpful tip article here today. If you want to get more likes, value, and sales from your Facebook page, then check out Garin’s Facebook Power – How To Build a Powerful Facebook Presence now!

The Most Powerful Part of a Facebook Page

There is a common confusion about Facebook pages that most page owners overlook. The mistake many people make is thinking that just because someone clicks the like button, automatically means they are your fan. It’s true the “like” button used to be a “Become a fan” button a few years ago, but since then the like button has become widespread and many people have clicked “like” thousands of times. Just because someone “likes” your page does not mean that they are automatically a true fan of your brand.

If you want to create the kind of true fans who will want to do business with you, then you will need to earn their trust first by engaging with them and providing cool and valuable content for free. Prove to the people who have joined your page that you are not just out to make money from them, but that you do in fact care about helping them out. A powerful way to help people and build your business at the same time is by creating a free gift that you give them in exchange for their email address.

The custom email opt-in form apps where I give away a free ebook to people who sign up to my newsletter are the most powerful part of my Facebook pages. Even if you don’t know how to code, creating these apps is easy! The email marketing service provider Aweber has a powerful form building tool that comes pre-loaded with dozens of cool designs.

Once you have gotten a snazzy looking subscribe design from them, all you need to do is grab the code that Aweber generates for you automatically, and copy and paste the html into a free Facebook iframe host called a Woobox. Many people like to have step by step instructions with graphics and videos showing exactly how to set this up and that’s why complete custom app building and much more is included within Facebook Power.

For those who want one on one help getting their powerful Facebook page up and running, no worries, Facebook Power has got you covered with complete one on one support to make sure you get the most of the many powerful tips in the program.

Jeremy Campbell Guest Post, product earned attention, entrepreneur, Facebook marketing, Facebook marketing tool, Facebook Power, Facebook promotion, FB Power, Garin Kilpatrick, new media

With each passing month, online videos are getting more creative, more fun to watch, and less expensive to produce which bodes well for our Spidvid community. Below are 5 remarkable viral videos and production tips from April. There are dozens of others likely just as deserving as these, so if you have a favorite please include the link in the comments below. And here are the last viral videos and production tips I featured last month in March if you missed them.

1. Nike Free — I Would Run To You – Love makes people do crazy things. Like run across the country. See how strong running reunites a long distance couple. Note: There was no HTML embed code to use, so click the play button below and you will be taken to the YouTube video page. Video production tip: Viewers are always suckers for a unique love story.

2. Google Maps 8-bit For NES - Google Maps is now available for 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment Systems (NES). Availability in Google Store is TBD but you can try it on your browser by going to http://maps.google.com and clicking “Quest” in the upper right hand corner of the map. This video now has over 5 million views and was an April Fool’s joke by Google this year. Video production tip: Connect old age with new age, and show the impossible.

3. The Magic Of YouTube In Your Hands – Visit YouTube.com/TheYouTubeCollection for ordering details and more information about how you can hold the future of web entertainment in your hands. This video has almost 3 million views now. Video production tip: See tip #2 above.

4. ESPN Michael Jordan Commercial – It’s Not Crazy, It’s Sports – Have you ever wondered what it would be like to share a name with a superstar? Here, we follow an ordinary man who has been saddled with a legendary name. It’s not crazy, it’s sports. Again, there was no HTML code so click on the image below to be taken directly to the YouTube video page. Video production tip: One person’s pain, is another’s pleasure. Just make sure that it’s the viewer who gets the pleasure, and not the pain.

5. Tupac Hologram Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre Perform Coachella Live 2012 – One of the biggest viral sensations this week was the resurrection of a famous rapper, Tupac. The legend made a return at the Coachella music festival. He was revived as a hologram. The projection is estimated to have cost about $400,000 and was made by Dr. Dre and James Cameron’s Digital Domain. Video production tip: Put a bunch of big personal brands together, then do something completely unexpected, and you may have a viral hit on your hands.

Create better quality video entertainment by collaborating with our talented community, be sure to get a Spidvid profile and if you need any help at all just ask us!

Jeremy Campbell Lists, Production Tool Coachella 2012, concert, festival, film tips, Google, James Cameron, Michael Jordan, Nike, Nintendo, production tips, Snoop Dog, sports, Tupac, Tupac hologram, video production, video tips, viral, viral content, viral hit, viral video, YouTube