We are back with one of our best Spidcast episodes to date this month (listen in below and subscribe on iTunes) with a focus on web series, acting, getting lucky, and other interesting stuff. January’s Spidcast features the incredible individuals Tom Konkle and America Young. They are our amazing guests for Spidcast 14, January 2012 which you can listen to below.

Our Guests

Tom Konkle is a professional actor and writer who has also done sketch comedy for over ten years. Tom is the founding member of the sketch troupe Lester McFwap, and has performed hundreds of original shows around the country as well as having completed the television pilot, McFwap!

Tom has starred in the short films “Who Makes Movies,” and “Sanctuary” to name only two. He has appeared in comedy films with David Beeler including “Seat Fillers!,” “The Animal In Us All,” “The Secret To Happiness,” “A Paid Advertisement” “Destiny’s Stop” and “The Argument Clinic.”

Tom has written three screenplays including Village of the Darned and Last Breath. He has also written for television, short films, and industrials.

You may have also seen Tom in commercials, guest star roles on television and independent films. His stage career is extensive with shows including The Real Inspector Hound, Beyond The Fringe, Clare and Tom: A One Woman Show, Loot, Nevermore: The Black Cat, Good Night, Britcom, Double Act and many others.

The remaining Monty Python members asked him to direct, perform and ruin their never before seen sketches live in a show called Owl-Stretching Time. Tom was a series regular on NBC’s Spy TV, Sci-Fi Channel’s Scare Tactics and Fox’s The Orlando Jones Show, Arrested Development, NBC’s The Office, Back to You, Secret Life of the American Teenager and CW’s The Game. Tom stars in four episodes of Comedy Gumbo for Sony Pictures Television and is the voice of the cup in the film Behind the Cup.

Tom recently wrote for and starred in a two man sketch show with John Cleese called The Art of Football. Tom is starring in, co-writing and co-producing the comedy horror film, Quarter Cool Cthulu.

America Young helped start the Feel Good Film Festival in 2008 where it ran until May 2011, while it was at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Her titles were Executive Director and co-Programmer. America is behind the web series Geek Therapy which is where non-geeks go to find their inner geek, and geeks go to cope with geek-related problems. She has collaborated on many online video projects, and she has been involved with many traditional films as well including Abandoned.

We thank Tom and America for being such amazing guests!

If you’re interested in sponsoring next month’s Spidcast show with a product or service you sell that’s filmmaking related, then please get in touch. If you have something to say with regards to what Tom and America talked about, then please post a comment below to continue the conversation. Thanks for listening, and be sure to share this show with anyone in your network who can get value from its content!

Full Transcript Below

INTRO

Michael London: Hi, I’m Michael London. Welcome to Spidcast, the Future of Collaborative Video Production brought to you by Spidvid.com. On this episode, we’re visiting with Tom Konkle. He’s an actor, director and co-owner of Pith-e Productions. And Thomas moved into the new media space and will tell us all about that. Then we’ll visit with a lady who has a kind of unusually hyphenated title you don’t often hear. A director-stuntwoman, America Young will be here. She has a wonderful outlook on this business and some great insights as well.

But first up is Tom Konkle. Tom, we’ve seen your face, I know we have. It’s all over TV. Tell us a little bit about your story.

Tom Konkle: I started as a professional actor and director in Los Angeles in the early ‘90s and obviously in traditional media. But I also had a background in sketch comedy. I love performing live. I had a sketch troupe for a long time. We toured many places in the world and around the US, ended up partnering up with Dave Beeler and doing a two-man sketch show as British guys. Our hook was that we would British comedy American made and we started a comedy called Pith-e Productions. Pith-e meaning when the internet, at least when it was first starting, everything had to be very short because of bandwidths and storage so we were short and pithy. So, we’re Pith-e so like email Pith-e Productions, myself and Dave and we started filming our sketches.

And I would take stuff that I would make in traditional media and I’d roll through that money very much like something like Orson Welles would do. He’d work on a studio film and then he’d do his passion project as independent project. He’d roll some of that money into it and we did a very similar thing where we took a leap and made shows like “Invention” with Brian Forbes and “Safety Geeks.”

So, my background really is as a filmmaker and actor who finally found the internet as a way of combining those disciplines.

Michael London: So, take us through that process of you venturing into internet production.

Tom Konkle: Well, the story behind me, I was very fortunate. I came out and I really had a passion for acting and directing. I came out from—I actually moved here from Virginia because I went to college at American University in DC and got a degree in Cinema and Theatre from there and I kind of moved here knowing nothing or anyone and lived in a truck and I found a place on the last day before I had to turn the truck in and have my stuff on the street. I found an apartment somewhere in Glendale, California; lovely Glendale and from there, began working getting an agent doing commercials.

I’ve probably 50, 60 commercials. It’s been a really nice way to free me up to do other creative pursuits and then I’ve always had a passion for writing and directing. I’ve done a lot of short films and short form things; beginning to develop now some features because I’ve made the connections I need to make but really I’m a unique animal and that I’m an actor who understands the technical side, the post production and production side intimately because I’ve been doing it for 17 years.

Michael London: Well, you know what, nothing speaks like experience, that’s for sure and you’ve had a lot of experience in commercials. I know you might not want about them. We want to hear about them. Where have we seen your face?

Tom Konkle: Okay, well, commercially, at the moment I have a Coca-Cola running which runs a lot during American Idol. I have a pretty famous internet meme once where I play Brahms in a thing called Raisin Brahms and I think there’s about 100 little mini-fan films where people have corrupted and changed my spot into something else. So, it’s a very bizarre spot and it’s kind of wonderful. I’ve done spots for Quiznos, most major car companies. ING right now is running where I’m up in a hedge, so there’s a bunch, I usually have four or five at any given year. So, that’s been a real boon to keeping the acting career going.

Michael London: What does that feel like? What does it feel like to be the focus of a (parity)?

Tom Konkle: I have to admit, I love it. The Raisin Brahms one with Guten Tag, I have some of them myself that I’ve saved. There’s one guy who did a screensaver of me doing Guten Tag and it’s actually me saying, “Guten Tag” for full two minutes. I was like “Guten Taaaag” it just cracks me up. I love—everything is a remix and everything is a sort of reformulation and what’s cool about the internet is it’s cross pollinating in everything that happens. We didn’t have that in the ‘90s. We didn’t have that happening and now, I can put something up on YouTube or Blip or KoldCast or wherever and it might inspire something else or I might see it reformulated and then come back to me and I love that.

Michael London: Oh, that’s great. Now, you mentioned earlier that you are a hybrid, the talent and techie and that you really put that into play on Safety Geeks: SVI, right?

Tom Konkle: Absolutely. With Safety Geeks: SVI, that was really, I wanted to see the show. I really love Adult Swim and the Adult Swim sense of humor but I always thought with the human face, being an actor, (I was) like, there’s nothing more expressive than a human face. What if you took the sensibility of Adult Swim and (married it) with actual people and of course, I couldn’t destroy a (Costco), I couldn’t do all the same stuff they do so me and Mike Smith and Thor Melsted and Dave Beeler and Brittney Powell, we all got together. We’re all friends that are professionals and said, how can we learn? What’s our learning curve to create a universe build? How do you make it effects latent comedy because there aren’t a lot of, (in fact), heavy ones and we were really groundbreaking.

We started a company called Lumen Actus which was a subcompany and Lumen Actus really is a visual FX and even 3D company and I know the post process. I’ve worked in the studio system as well and I’ve had to deliver films and television shows and I know how to cut them and if I don’t know how to physical do the mix, I know how to supervise it. And so, Safety Geeks was all these disciplines coming together into a sort of passion project of what would make us laugh, how silly can we be and how can we build a world and the effects are part of the joke and so the acting is there and the writing hopefully is there but what’s cool about is without a filter unfettered by a middle man or anything else, right or wrong, very much like putting up a play in a 99-seat theatre, you rise or fall on your own decisions and I really like that about Safety Geeks. And I think Safety Geeks are groundbreaking because it’s the first 3D web series in the world.

Michael London: You got to love that. No brag, just fact. Now, take us a bit deeper into that somewhat uncertain world of 3D.

Tom Konkle: Well, there’s been slower adoption than was predicted and I think part of that is mistakes made on both side. I think there’s still a stigma that somehow it’s a fad or a gimmick which actually came up as an objection when sound was introduced to film like, “Ah, sound will never last,” and then when color came in, they’re like, “It’s not necessary. I like my black and white TV.” But with 3D used properly, it can immerse you further into it.

I think the problem is the studios paid lip service to the company that make it but we have all hardware and not enough software, not enough shows to watch it on so I think we’re kind of upside down. It’s ironic to me the most successful 3D film in history Avatar is not available on 3D Blu-Ray which, I think, is very odd and we’ve been working to get Safety Geeks out on 3D Blu-Ray through our distributor named Yabazam. It’s a division of DDD, Digital Dynamic Depth and I think as people adopt the television and get more comfortable and hopefully, we’re getting into glasses free 3D, I think that for Indies like us, that becomes special. It becomes almost the hook, the niche is, oh, here’s some 3D content where they won’t go, “Is Will Farrell in this comedy or we won’t take it?”

In this case, well, hey, it’s in 3D. The 3D is decent. It’s good. It doesn’t need to have star names in it, big names. We have certainly some great credits because it’s in 3D, it open doors that we wouldn’t normally have opened. We never would have gotten a deal to have a 3D Blu-Ray of our web series had it not been in 3D.

Michael London: Well, that is a perfect example of collaboration as technologies helped you and you have helped pushed technology with your creative work, right?

Tom Konkle: Absolutely, yes. We broke a lot of ground with it when we started Geeks in 2009. There was really no—there wasn’t even a standard for 3D and originally, we delivered it in 2D to KoldCast who helped with some of the negative costs of creating it and it had 7,000 composite shots which is more than the first three Star Wars, the original Star Wars movies combined. Every single shot is an effect shot in Safety Geeks.

Unless you’re physically touching something and nothing is there and as a filmmaker, I was like wow, it’s an interesting challenge plus I’m in it, plus I wrote it plus I’m worrying about bringing the sandwiches. So, for me, any studio project or if I step on to a television thing, I recently did a little guest spot on community or something, it’s like taking weights off my ankles because I’m like, “Really? I don’t have to pick up the cable?” It’s kind of nice.

Michael London: I bet. And that brings me to one of the main points here today and that’s all about collaboration. I’m certain that you found along the way how valuable collaboration is.

Tom Konkle: I think collaboration is really the most important part of the creative process. Unless you’re a novelist or a painter, it is a team effort. Certainly, you have to have your own vision and people will march in the same direction with you if they feel like you know what you’re talking about but I couldn’t do it without the, they’re frankly friends, without the very dear friends that happened to be artists. We call it friendship with a purpose. Most friends get together and go to the bar, well, we, our friends all get together and go, “Okay, let’s make a show.”

And what’s nice about that is I try and bring out the best in myself and in them by enthusiasm and them knowing if I say I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it and in this town in Los Angeles in particular, a lot of people have a lot of plans and a lot of things they’re going to do but what I pride myself in is with myself or Dave and I or me or Brittney, we’ve worked on some things. If we say we’re going to do it, by golly, we go and do it and people know that it will be fruitful and that they’ll be respected and that their contribution will be considered important and for me, that’s the most exciting thing. Collaborating with people that make your game better, it’s like tennis. You want to play with people as good or better than you.

Michael London: Tom, that is such valuable advice. If you say you’re going to do it, just do it. Great stuff. Now, you might have answered a part of this next question, but what advice can you offer to those just starting out?

Tom Konkle: If you were just starting, I would say have the courage of your conviction and what I mean by that is pick a project that’s scalable that will present you and you must know thyself, you are the expert on you and if you know yourself as an artist and where your strengths are, pick a project that is scalable that you can actually do. Don’t have the helicopters coming over the hill, that’s not your first project. That’s your 50th and pick several actually and take those projects and see them through and assume you’re going to learn a lot and fall and fail and be okay with it because a perfectionist will never start and for me, the first few steps into this world, well, you copy what you like. You learn from it. Like I said, earlier, you remix and reformulate something. Make what you want to see. If no one else agrees with you, get out of the business.

Michael London: I love the advice of picking scalable projects. Now, for the beginners, Tom, how hard do they dig their heels in for what they believe?

Tom Konkle: Well, when you’re starting out, there are places what I called the heel you want to die on. If you dig your heels in and you really feel passionate about it, it’s a double edged sword. People respect that and yes, you will have a singular vision come through but make sure that’s the who you want to die on. If you’re digging your heels in because it has to be this particular store, because it has blue in it, that’s not a battle you want to fight. Where you want to dig your heels in is the integrity of the project. Is it being fundamentally altered so this is no longer yours or worse, many people fall in the trap of doing what they think someone else might want? They’re given a brief like, “Well, someone else will find this funnier. I believe this to be commercial. Or I believe this is what other people want.”

You should be your own audience. You should really develop that compass, that internal compass of taste and your own artistic limitations and say, this is to scale, this is what I can do right now really, really well and present that. It’s great to overreach a little bit, push yourself a little bit, but you’ll never start if it seems so overwhelming or if you really fundamentally don’t believe it.

And last thought on that, this comes from experience. I’ve been doing this for very long time and I’ll say half the sets I’ve been on, with all the money flying around. You’re going to have a million dollar commercial. You’re going to have a television show, you could tell when no one on that show believes in what they’re doing. They’re collecting a paycheck or it’s a machine and it’s running through the machine and it’s reflected in the art. So, it may be a (solo) piece, it may be a commercial piece, it may be fluff. But when you’re on a project and there’s an energy and everyone believes in what’s going on, it transcends even its own limitations. If you have, for example, technique but no feeling, well, then it’s like watching a virtuoso but he’s playing with no feeling.

If you have no technique but a lot of feeling, well, then you have potential there but you’re not executing it. The perfection of art is matching technique and feeling so that what you’re doing is reaching the audience that you intended for which includes you but has a technique where you can execute the idea.

Michael London: And you have indeed reached your intended audience. Where can we see your stuff?

Tom Konkle: There’s a couple of places you can see it. One is really easy, I can’t believe we got this domain name, if you want to see the Dave and Tom stuff, some of its double act which is the British comedy that we do, the sketch show, you go to www.daveandtom.com and that’s AND spelled out so daveandtom.com. Also, it has Invention with Brian Forbes which is a show that has been critically, just chugging along. We call it the little show that could; safetygeekssvi.com, you can see Safety Geeks. If you want to see it in 3D, you go to yabazam.com and I’ll spell that, that’s yabazam.com. You can download it. You can take a look at it. Stream it if you have a 3D TV or computer and the other show that I’m doing is Ask Grim.

If you put in, Ask Grim in YouTube, you’ll see a very funny show that I do with Sandra Payne and all those are there and I have an upcoming series that I’m going to be doing with Brittney Powell called Rom Com which is kind of an edgy romantic comedy which will also be on YouTube. So, any of those places you can find me. And if you’re interested in visual effects or 3D work, lumenactus.com and I’ll spell that out, lumenactus.com and that is my production company and visual effects company.

Michael London: We will meet you there. And how about a parting shot for us to take away?

Tom Konkle: A parting shot would basically be this, take a real assessment of who you want to be as an artist and how you want to present yourself. Have a very real sense of your own audience and what you are capable of creating in this moment, not I want to or I will but where you are right now and know that that art that you create now, you’ll look back and it won’t be, that will be early stage you but it’s okay. So, have the courage of your conviction. Go for it, start, begin. There’s a great quote that I’ll leave you with. I believe it was Somerset Maugham who said, “I only do something when inspiration strikes.” Fortunately, inspiration strikes every morning at 9:00 am.

Michael London: Thank you, Tom Konkle for joining us today on Spidcast.

Tom Konkle: All right, take care. Thank you so much.

Operator: Spidcast.

Michael London: Next stop is director, stuntwoman, America Young. America, thank you so much for joining us today on Spidcast.

America Young: Well, thank you very much. I’m happy to be here.

Michael London: And for the benefit of those listening who haven’t yet heard your name, they will. Fill us in. Tell us a bit about your story.

America Young: My story, I’ve been living out in LA for a few years now. I’ve moved out here to be an actress and while I was out there, I also discovered that I also like bossing people around which naturally lead to producing and directing and I’ve also been doing a lot of stunt work in the last couple of years. So, basically, my story is I’m a storyteller.

Michael London: So, how do we know if you’re telling stories right now?

America Young: I’m always telling a story. Sometimes, they’re true then sometimes they’re not.

Michael London: Well, I say, good for you then. Hey, where have we seen some of your stunts?

America Young: I was actually just in Transformers 3 doing stunt work in Washington DC and I just filmed on John Carter of Mars which is a new Pixar movie coming out and I do a lot of stunt work in a TV show called Goodnight Burbank which is on Hulu and was on HDNet.

Michael London: Oh, we recently had Hayden Black, Goodnight Burbank creator on Spidcast. So, America, how or why did you make the jump to online media?

America Young: Because I was bored and I was not creatively fulfilled by the projects I was working on. A lot of the times, you take projects that pay the bills that you aren’t necessarily proud that you’re a part of or you don’t find them particularly interesting. So, I started just doing stuff online because then you get to tell the stories that you want to tell and the way you want to tell them.

Michael London: So, you’ve kind of taken a different path than most we’ve talked to and that you already had a traditional film career, then you got involved in this new media. Has that helped or hindered you?

America Young: I think it’s only helped jumping from film to new media. I know it does seem a little bit backwards but the truth of the matter is more and more are doing it because of the creative control they get over their own projects and because of the things that they get to create. When you’re working on a film, you’re hindered and helped. I mean, granted you’re helped by the studio and their money but you’re also hindered by the fact that they’re still pulling the strings and that you’re telling the story that they want to tell.

The new media online, you are the boss and you get to do what you do, money restricted, of course, and that helps so much. It helped with my creativity, it helped with my learning of all aspects because we’re doing independent film. You’re doing every aspects of filmmaking possible and I think the more you learn about filmmaking, the better it makes you at whatever you want to be.

If you’re an actor and you learn what it is to produce something, then that makes you a better actor because you know what you’re stepping into. If you’re a director and you have to teach yourself how to edit, that absolutely makes you a better director because then you know how to shoot for the editing room. So, in every single way, it’s like an intensive course on filmmaking.

Michael London: I love everything you just said. I trust there was lots of note taking going on as well. This is terrific insight, America. We appreciate it. Tell us your experience with collaboration.

America Young: The barter system is alive and well in Los Angeles. I’ll work on yours if you work on mine and that has helped so much because there’s no better way to learn than by doing it yourself, by doing it with people who know how to do it better than you and that’s what happened is. You work on somebody’s projects for them doing what you do best. I’ll get hired on someone’s project to do stunt work because that’s something that I do well and I can coordinate and as in return of a favor, then I’ll bring them on to my project to do what they do best and then I learn from them.

So, collaboration is the best way to do this and a lot of new media is not paid or if it’s paid, it’s peanuts. What you’re learning, what you get is so much more valuable because you’re learning and you’re getting the experience.

Michael London: At times, there are things more valuable than the mighty dollar. Now, you touched on so many good points and you may have answered part of this but what are some tips for those just starting out.

America Young: I say, just do it, man. Just jump in and do it. It’s terrifying at first. it’s overwhelming at first but you learn as you go and that’s the best way to go. So, find a story whether it’s a short one-minute video that you want to go viral or if it’s a web series that you want to tell that you think hasn’t been told or hasn’t been told in this way and find somebody who’s a friend of yours who’s a writer and say, “Hey, how do this and do that?” And then once it’s written, get your favorite actor friend that you know or hold auditions and meet a brand new group of talented people and just do it.

It’s a step by step by step and reach out to people in your lives that you know that know what they’re doing or have experience and something that you have questions on. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t have too much ego to not admit that you don’t know what you’re doing and just do it. And your first project most likely will be awful. They’ll be so many things with it that you wish you had done differently but that’s the best way to learn is looking back on that and going, “Oh, my god, I really wish I had done this or wow, we really needed a sound guy on that or next time, we’re definitely having a makeup artist.” And then as you go, you learn what’s important to you for telling your story. But that’s the only way you can do it is to do it.

Michael London: Excellent, love it, just do it. So, where can we see some of the things that you have done?

America Young: Well, I’ve done a lot of work with Comediva. It’s comediva.com. It’s COMEDIVA and it’s a website that’s like a funny or die college humor specifically geared towards female comedy and I’ve done a lot of work with them creating shows and directing things and writing things. So, there’s a lot of stuff of mine on there and you could always follow me on twitter and that’s @america_young and then my website, I usually update. I’m a little behind updating because I’m so busy which is a great excuse to not update but americayoung.com. I usually eventually post links everything I’m working on.

Right before the holidays, I directed a video that was a light saber duo between Christmas elves and you can se that on YouTube. It’s called Elf Sabers and Teal Sherer was actors in it who produced it. It’s on her YouTube channel, My Gimpy Life and I also just directed a web series presentation pilot called Wrestling with Parenthood and it’s basically Mr.Mom in the professional wrestling world so we have some real professional wrestlers who are in it and that’s pretty exciting. So, I’ll be posting updates about that on my website and on Twitter.

Michael London: Lots of cool things to check out so if somebody’s listening and you want them to say, “I was listening to this pod cast and this girl named America Young said blank,” what would you like them to remember?

America Young: Bite off more than you can chew and then chew it. Jump in the deep end and learn how to swim really fast. Just do it. if you want it and this is what you want more than anything in the world, don’t let anything stop you except the law but even law can stop you but other than that.

Michael London: You know, I once had a guy tell me that there’s a wall that I never want you to go over, luckily, it’s made of rubber and I won’t respect you unless you run and hit that wall as hard as you can every now and again.

America Young: I love that. That’s a wonderful expression because it’s true, you do have to hit the wall sometimes and it sucks, man, but it’s worth it because you learn from that and it makes you stronger and if you can survive hitting the wall, you can survive almost anything.

Michael London: America Young, thank you so much for joining us today on Spidcast. It’s been a delight.

America Young: Well, thanks so much for having me. This is really fun.

Michael London: And thank you for listening to our Spidcast show. We appreciate your time and attention. You can now join the conversation at Spidvid.com on our Spidvid blog and you can join on our collaborative filmmaking community at Spidvid.com. Tune in next month for another entertaining and informative episode of Spidcast.

Jeremy Campbell community, interview, resources actors, America Young, Dave and Tom, filmmakers, filmmaking, filmmaking podcast, filmmaking show, Geek Therapy, Hollywood, Los Angeles, new media, podcast, podcast show, Safety Geeks, show, spidcast, Tom Konkle, video creators, videomaking podcast, videomaking show

So long 2011, 2012 is here! 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 December. 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 November’s just in case you missed them.

1. FedEx Guy Throwing My Computer Monitor – Most of us have horror stories to tell of product deliveries gone horribly wrong! Unfortunately most of us don’t have these experiences on video though like the one captured below. This computer monitor likely traveled for hundreds or even thousands of miles to arrive to the customer’s doorstep, only to be thrown on the owner’s property, who by the way was home at the time. Brutal FedEx, just brutal! The views aren’t brutal though as this video has racked up over 8 million views already. Video production tip: Keep those video cameras rolling because you never know when you will catch something out of the ordinary.

2. Flyboard Zapata - This is perhaps the coolest product ever for water enthusiasts that allows you to soar through the air like a flying fish in a Mario Bros. video game. Amazing, and as for the video itself it has earned over 3 million views since December 3rd. Video production tip: Find the most remarkable product you can and give an insane video demo.

3. Most Insane Immersive Movie Experience EVER - Check out this guy’s room totally change into the movie he is actually watching! No SFX, no post production, no cuts, everything you see here is 100% for real. This could be the future of movie experiences in the home, which would give you yet another reason not to go to the movie theater! Bonus: There are more of these incredible videos at GreatFilmsFillRooms. Video production tip: Lighting is key for video production as we all know, but use light in new and creative ways to build environments that are out of this world.

4. Singing Christmas Hedgehogs – OK so Christmas 2011 may be over, but the Christmas spirit lives on with these cute little singing hedgehogs, courtesy of Birdbox. Online video is getting more and more interactive and this video is an excellent case study for the new media initiative. Video production tip: By making your videos more interactive and engaging, you also make them more memorable for your viewers.

5. Hello Little Printer - This little social printer lives in your home, bringing you news, puzzles and gossip from your friends. Use your smartphone to set up subscriptions and Little Printer will gather them together to create a timely, beautiful mini-newspaper. Cool product, but bad news for trees and the environment at large. This little social printer is launching sometime this year, and is already supported by Google, Foursquare, Nike, and other big name companies. Video production tip: Interesting products breed interesting videos, just keep it simple and make viewers think “wow, how cool, I want it.”

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, resources Christmas hedgehog, FedEx, filmmakers, filmmaking, flyboard zapata, little printer, movie experience, production tips, products, social printer, video, video creators, video tips, videomaking, viral, viral video

We’ve been getting lots of positive and a couple negative pieces of feedback over the last couple months for collaborating with talent on Spidvid. For the most part video creators, filmmakers, actors, and other talent are having excellent experiences on our collaborative platform which is great to hear, but a couple of issues have come up including payment to talent who didn’t complete the work, and lack of communication and involvement.

Below are 3 tips to get the most out of talent on Spidvid

1. Talk to them – The most effective way to build solid relationships with users on our site is to speak to them directly. Whether that’s in person (which is ideal), over the phone, or on Skype, make sure that you establish verbal communication before any formal collaboration begins.

2. Outline objectives and goals – Before doing anything be sure that everyone on the team is on the same page. If an editor is to edit a video then the elements which need to be completed should be clearly laid out on the table up front. If the editor can’t do everything needed, then an alternative individual should be attracted. Establish milestones, which lead up to the end goal of getting the video or film completed and ready for distribution.

3. Be careful with financial compensation – If you intend on paying someone who you’ve connected with on Spidvid, first be sure that a firm deal is in place. We don’t yet have a payment solution in place inside of Spidvid, so if you are paying someone via PayPal or on another third party payment site, you may want to have signed papers in place to protect yourself. So when the work gets done, you pay. Or maybe you pay 50% up front, and the other 50% when it gets completed. We will eventually be accountable for financial transactions between our community members when our internal payment solution is implemented, but right now we can’t be as all deals are externally happening outside our site.

These are 3 simple things to keep in mind when collaborating on video projects via Spidvid, and elsewhere on the Internet for that matter. Understanding them will ensure a smoother Spidvid experience, and ultimately projects getting completed safer and more quickly.

Keep updated on tips for getting more out of Spidvid, have our posts delivered to your email inbox. And join the other 11,338 people by following us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.

This article is sponsored by the project management degree program at SMMU.

If you are interested in learning about project management, many universities offer a project management degree online for individuals with a busy schedule.

Jeremy Campbell Lists, Production Tool, Rant, community actors, film, film collaboration, film tips, filmmakers, filmmaking, new media, payment, payment platform, spidvid, team building tips, video, video collaboration, video creators, video production, video project, video project collaboration, video project management, video project tips, video tips

We are back with one of our best Spidcast episodes to date this month (listen in below and subscribe on iTunes) with a focus on web series, acting, getting lucky, and other interesting stuff. December’s Spidcast features the incredible creator of the vampires vs zombies web series Suck and Moan, Joel Bryant, and the producer of hit web and TV show Goodnight Burbank, Hayden Black. They are our amazing guests for Spidcast 13, December 2011 which you can listen to below.

Our Guests

Born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Joel Bryant graduated from Pepperdine University with a BA in Theatre and has lived in LA ever since. He’s been lucky to work in many mediums including film (”The Heartbreak Kid,” “Valkyrie,” “Loaded,” “Gone But Not Forgotten,” among many others), TV (guest stars on “Monk,” “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior,” “The Defenders,” “Las Vegas,” etc., a number of pilots such as “Hillers” with Henry Winkler and Tom Arnold and “Angry Guys”) and New Media (Streamy-nominated for “After Judgment,” “Life From the Inside,” “The Temp Life,” “Elevator” and is co-producer/”Mac” in the award-winning “Suck and Moan”). Among his numerous theatre highlights, he’s been tapped by Neil LaBute to be in “Fat Pig” at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway in 2012. As well, he’s garnered glowing reviews all over L.A. (Knightsbridge Theatre, Hudson Theatre, and Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities) and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Texas Shakespeare Festival and a variety of regional theatres throughout the Southwest, including the world premiere of “Terminal Cafe” with Neil Patrick Harris. Some of his favorite pieces include: “ART,” “Moonlight & Magnolias,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “The Woolgatherer,” “Oleanna”). Trained in improv at The Groundlings, Joel is a co-founder and member of the award-winning comedy duo “Deven & Joel” with comedy partner/wife Deven Green, with whom he has entertained the troops overseas, performed at a series of maximum security prisons, played at colleges and clubs all over the U.S., and have headlined at many places including The Comedy Store, The Icehouse, the Venetian, the Riviera and Bally’s in Las Vegas, Flappers in Burbank, all over L.A. and San Diego, a week of sold out shows at the San Francisco Fringe Festival and won the Best of the Fest at the International Hollywood Comedy Festival. Since starting stand-up comedy at the age of 16, he has performed in such places as The Comedy Store, The Icehouse, The Comedy Union, Laff’s, The Queen Mary, and many clubs in between. Joel is also an accomplished dancer, writer and spoken word artist…and sometimes he even sleeps.

Hailing from Manchester, England, Hayden moved to the US in ’97 because he wanted to better understand the culture that produced five different home shopping networks. Hayden once sang with early ‘90’s new wave band The The The – but they only lasted long enough to put out one single, the ill-fated “I’d Love It If You Loved Me”. Shoving all those dreams into a bottle and burying it somewhere in the garden, Hayden eventually carved out a career in radio shipping news and has used that talent to catapult him to success here in Burbank at Channel 6. He loves Burbank and all nine of its restaurants. Gordon’s divorced, enjoys golf, and quiet weekends avoiding LA traffic. Hayden is also the co-host of the hit web and TV show Goodnight Burbank.

If you’re interested in sponsoring next month’s Spidcast show with a product or service you sell that’s filmmaking related, then please get in touch. If you have something to say with regards to what Joel and Hayden talked about, then please post a comment below to continue the conversation. Thanks for listening, and be sure to share this show with anyone in your network who can get value from its content!

Full Transcript Below

Michael: Hi, I’m Michael London and welcome to Spidcast, the future collaborative video production brought to you by Spidvid.com. On this episode, we’re visiting with Joel Bryant, actor and producer of the web series “Suck and Moan”. He’s also an accomplished standup comic as part of the comedy duo of “Deven & Joel.” We’ll also visit with Hayden Black. He is the writer, producer and co-star of “Goodnight Burbank.” Now, Hayden’s story has a wonderful twist to it that you will not want to miss.

First up is Joel Bryant. Now, tell us a bit about your story?

Joel: Absolutely. I was originally born and raised in Albuquerque in New Mexico. Lived there until I was 18 and came out here for college; actually, started acting in Albuquerque when I was 11 years old. No need to get into the arts because it was because I saw a buddy’s picture on a billboard for a local bank and he did a local commercial and everybody was talking about it and I really thought he was really cool for doing that so I thought this acting thing sounds like a blast.

So, I started looking into acting. I went into some acting classes and as soon as I started getting acting classes, I just got hooked on it. The bug kicked in so I was roped into acting classes and then after that, I started standup when I was 16 years old. I told my mom to take me to a club and to try an open mic, did it and it was great to be the young kid in the club.

I started improv when I was 17 and all that culminated in winning Outstanding Acting Award of the New Mexico Theatre Festival, which kind of cemented the fact that maybe I’m doing the right thing. I went out to Pepperdine University in Malibu on a theatre scholarship and since then, have been living in Los Angeles doing what I do.

Michael: So, my question is then what is the 16-year-old comic’s point of view in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Joel: When he was a 16-year-old at a comedy club, it’s amazing because your voice is so unique. There’s obviously not a lot of 16-year-olds there, so you’re talking about how interesting like girls are and I wonder what sex is, I wonder what drinking is and you’re so innocent and you’re naïve and the people are really on board with you because they’ve all been through that and no one can really represent that voice except coming from a real naïve 16-year-old point of view.

And it was interesting because after college just like a few years off of standup, I got back into it in my late 20’s and I tried to revisit some of those jokes, it didn’t quite fly because when you’re in your late 20’s, you’ve had the drinks, you’ve had the girl, you’ve had all these life experiences. So, it was an interesting obstacle, an interesting mountain to re-climb getting back on stage again and finding out, okay, what is my voice now? Obviously, I can’t be the naïve 16-year-old. I have a driver’s license now and not in school anymore. I have bills to pay. So, that was an interesting thing but I love being the 16-year-old. It was fun to be the kid.

Michael: So, you leave Albuquerque for LA and take us through that journey.

Joel: The reason I came out here for college, I only looked at Los Angeles schools because I always wanted to come to Los Angeles. As soon as I was a kid, I wanted to be an actor. I was in love with the idea of what Los Angeles was and so we came out for a vacation and went to Hollywood and finally realized, it’s not really glamorous there but I was still in love with the idea of it.

And so I just looked at schools out here in Los Angeles. I looked at Pepperdine and a couple of other schools and I just kind of went to the school that would give me the theatre scholarship and the best deal and Pepperdine came through. The reason why I wanted is kind of dipped my toe into Los Angeles and kind of feel it out a little bit while I’m still getting some money from the government, from mom to kind of ease into it as opposed to packing everything in a car and just moving out here not knowing anything.

So, it was a nice introduction to be in college and kind of feel the city out and feel the industry out but then when I actually graduated, they didn’t teach you a lot of the business aspect. They taught you how to act in college and how to do Bertolt Brecht and the existential movement and all that sort of stuff and then when you leave, you have no idea what a headshot is or a resume is or how to network or anything.

So, it took me a number of years in trying to maintain jobs, trying to pay for college, trying to find out what theatre were or what it wasn’t, what was worth taking. So, it took me awhile to navigate the pitfalls of Los Angeles. I think a lot of other people, they got a strong programs or they have a good mentors when they get out and I was kind of on my own a little bit and trying to figure it all out.

So, I use my same black and white headshots from my first theatre gig in college and a resume I half wrote up on paper and pencil. So, it took me a few years to figure it out.

Michael: And Joel, what was your breakthrough moment?

Joel: Oh, the breakthrough. You know that’s an interesting question. It hasn’t really been necessarily a huge breakthrough. It’s been kind of a slow steady build, it’s like I’ve always been a very proactive person, someone who really hustles and finally, in like my late 20’s, all that work start to kind of culminating into consistent work.

One of my first breakthrough, I did a film called, “Life, Death in Mini-Golf” which I was guaranteed, I thought this is going to be a hit. This is going to be huge because the role is written for me. There was a budget. There were some actors who would actually have credits. Actually, Kristen Wiig from Saturday Night Live was actually in it way before Saturday Night Live and everything. So there were all these talented people and now, with the film, I was sure it’s going to be a huge hit so that made me quit my waiting table job. So, I was like, “I’m just going to quit waiting tables. I’m taking the leap of faith now.”

Obviously, that didn’t work out as a hit movie but it did give me the impetus to, “Okay, now, I don’t have a job. Now, I really have to start acting.” Between that and meeting my wife who just has a great business mind. She has the business acumen. She’s the one who taught me that acting isn’t all living in your cars and doing black box theatre and doing three lines and a TV show or doing some small stuff. It’s a business and meeting her and knowing that business is 90% of it and then there’s 10% fun and talent, all the other good stuff that you love about it but really to focus into the business sense. She was the one that really guided me along.

Michael: Well, that’s wonderful that you have a partner that understands and keeps the business in rolling.

Joel Bryant: Absolutely, it’s the best partnership because we get to not only do we have our own individual careers. She has a huge online career. I have an online career as well as traditional media but we also tour around as a comedy duo together so we get to literally tour the world. We went to the troops overseas and performed for them, at Canada, all over the place and it’s so much fun when you get to tour with your spouse/comedy partner as opposed to calling her from the road and saying, “Hey, Italy is great.” You’re experiencing this together, the good and the bad. We did a series of prison shows. I want to do this with my wife, you know what I mean? This is how to actually experience this.

That became the goal for me later on. It was always to win an Oscar by the time I was 24 years old. That was the goal coming out of the gates but the goal slowly merged into, I want to enjoy what I’m doing and have fun doing it and that’s once I started reaching that level, I could finally step back, look around and say, you know what? I kind of make my own schedule. I’m doing things I want to do. I’m doing it with people I want to do it with and I think that became the goal. That’s the place I’m at right now.

Michael: So, then tell us a bit about your web presence. Tell us about “Suck and Moan”.

Joel: “Suck and Moan” is a web series that in the later stages of release, we have two more episodes to release. It’s played a number of festivals and it’s done really well. Got a lot of good awards which really makes me proud and it got some nice notices and reviews across the board.

It was the brainchild of a friend of mine, Brendon Fong who came to me with the idea and he had shot and everything and I’d been in the new media market for a couple of years working at other projects. He said, “I had this project ‘Suck and Moan’.” And so what it is? “Well, it’s zombie or vampires trying to survive during a zombie apocalypse.” I said that’s kind of clever. It takes two big pop cultural horror icons and smashes them together in a very satirical way so it’s kind of “Shawn of the Dead” meets vampire clerks if you will because the vampires are mad because the zombies are eating all the humans and they’re also really loud at night and all this. They’re kind of ruining the peace that these vampires have established for themselves.

It’s very tongue and cheek and it’s very fun but I’ve been in thedia, I got nominated for a Streamy Award for “After Judgment.” I’ve done some other guest spots and that kind of got me in that world and I realized how much of a fun, proactive community it is and how amazing it is that you can just create a project with a friend of yours, have other friends come on board, talented people and kind of shoot all that and meld it all together and make your own project.

So, “Suck and Moan” suckandmoan.com and we just had our big screening of our big rap party/screening of the last two episodes to a packed house up in Burbanks. So, it’s kind of, we’ve put the nail in the coffin, not to use a really bad pun right now, put the nail in the coffin on season 1 and then we’ll see where it goes.

Michael: And Joel, what advice do you have for someone coming from Boise or Springfield of Albuquerque to LA?

Joel: Coming from Albuquerque, there’s been a lot of us actually. Neil Patrick Harris from Albuquerque, Freddie Prinze Jr. Albuquerque, all went to my same high school. The advice coming from a smaller town going to a bigger town is to do everything you can within your small town before you jump into the bigger market. It’s a lot easier to gain credits and experience, be a bigger fish in a small pond before you have to jump into being a smaller fish in the big ponds.

Make your mistakes when the stakes are low. Screw up on stage in a small theatre in Albuquerque before you get cast in a huge equity show in LA and screw up there. I think that’s really the main key and then only come out when you’re ready to come out. I think people are going to want to rush coming out. Take your time. Ease into it. Find a good support system when you get out there when you got to LA or New York or Chicago. Don’t lose your head. I think the main thing is when you start actually working, don’t burn bridges and don’t be an A-hole. Show up early. Be fun to work with, do a good job and then leave a good impression behind.

Michael: Superb advice. So, what is next for Joel Bryant?

Joel: Next for Joel—looking for funding for season 2 of “Suck and Moan” and selling that. My wife and I are going to be hitting the road during December to do some holiday shows, comedy shows, private corporate stuff, which is always a nice Christmas bonus.

I also got just a couple of firm projects in the (hop) I’m making the film festival route right now doing two plays here in Los Angeles, one in February and one in March, balancing that out and actually, recently I cast in a broadway show so I’m going to be going out there hopefully, in April, I think. I got to look at the calendar. I like to keep busy, I told you.

Michael: Wonderful to hear. So, where can we keep up to date on your busy schedule?

Joel: You can always go to joelbryant.net. It’s also devengreen.com, same website, devenandjoel.com. It’s all the same website. We have all of our stuff up there. Her videos, my videos, our calendar, some fun stuffs there and Facebook, email, Twitter, all that stuffs on there and we love interacting with people so give a shout.

Michael: And how about a parting shout, Joel, a great nugget to take away?

Joel: The nugget to take away from this, from Joel Bryant, your free nugget of the day, if you will, I think, I actually closed—I was lucky enough to go teach in my alma mater at Pepperdine last year which was kind of a big honor to go talk to the kids and it sounds weird to say kids and the nugget I told them was, constantly redefine your success. I think you always have to do that. There is obviously some major goal that you want but you have to—I think your success should be very fluid. So, when I graduated college, I wanted that Oscar at 24, the Oscar didn’t come so I want to just work by 25. Work didn’t come at 25 so I just wanted to quit my day job by 27.

So, I think, keep realistic goals in mind but realize it’s very fluid and a lot is up to luck. So, you know what? Just have fun on the journey.

Michael: Thank you, Joel Bryant, for joining us today on Spidcast.

Joel: Thanks for having me.

Operator: Spidcast.

Michael: Next up is writer, producer, actor, Hayden Black. Hayden, for the benefit of those listening who haven’t heard your name yet but they will, fill us in. Tell us a bit about your story.

Hayden: A little bit about me, Hayden Black. Well, I’m from England. I come from Manchester, I moved to Florida which is not fun but been in LA for a while and I do a few shows on the web one of which is going to television which is “Goodnight Burbank.” So, I guess, the first thing about me is I identify as a writer, first and foremost.

Michael: So, tell us a bit about the process you take as a writer and also how that role expanded and evolved.

Hayden: Well, the writing is something that I’ve always done since I was in high school and then it was 2006, I was taking a class, an improv class at Upright Citizens Brigade, UCB and somebody there mentioned that they had access to a green screen studio and we should shoot stuff for the web and for mobile and this is 2006.

So, all of us, myself included were basically like, “What’s that all about?” So, I did some research and saw what was coming and I went, wow. This looks amazing. Plus, it’s a great way of letting people producers and whatnot see your stuff. So, I wrote this pilot episode. We shot it a few days later and we kind of hit the ground running but it became so successful, we started to do more and that’s when I found myself not just as a writer any longer but as a producer.

And I hadn’t acted before and I was acting in it so there were just many new hats that I suddenly found myself wearing and because there was no pressure to do the most amazing work that a billion people are going to watch immediately. It allowed me the time to learn the craft better and to do more and that’s what we have over the years.

Michael: Now, you mentioned being involved in online content as far back as 2006 which makes you a bit of a pioneer but your web series has done something quite unique. Share that with us.

Hayden: Well, we started about just over a year ago 2010, I guess it was, took a meeting with Hulu and they suggested doing a half-hour version of “Goodnight Burbank.” Up until that point, we’ve done about 30 odd episodes and just again, learning, learning, learning. And then I went back to England, I haven’t back in years and met with a couple of networks over there and pitched them some ideas one of which was a British half hour version of Burbank and they were very interested in that but they asked the question which kind of threw me. “So, what does a half-hour version look like?”

And I realized, I don’t really know. I’d original had an idea for a half-hour show. I whittled it down to five minutes so it became “Goodnight Burbank” but that was so different to this original half-hour that I’d initially created back in 2005 that it was like starting all over again. So, I then spent two months just working on developing what a half-hour version of Burbank would look like.

And then I started casting it with a new cast. We got the amazing Laura Silverman. We got Dominic Monaghan. People like John Barrowman came on board, Miracle Laurie, Camden Toy, people from the world of Dollhouse and Buffy. It was just phenomenal how just things started filling up. I wrote all six scripts which became the first season and we shot them slowly because our resources were fairly limited because now, I was in a whole new world at this point. Now, I’m producing half-hour, at that time, we couldn’t technically say half hour television but I was producing a half hour show that I’d written.

And so again, big learning curve and when we finished, two things happened. One was a company called Zodiac, the third largest production company/distribution company in the world, they saw a rough cut of the first few episodes and snapped up the global TV distribution rights and then we premiered on Hulu, it was April 25th or this year 2011 and Mark Cuban was watching and he snapped up the show for US cable the next day.

Michael: Wow. That is an amazing story. Now, everybody who gets in this business wants fame or fortune or however they measured their own success and you have achieved that. I’d like for you to tell us how that feels.

Hayden: Like it’s surreal. It’s the first feeling. I mean, it’s funny you should ask this because when we’re doing it, when you’re in the middle of it, you believe in it and you’re constantly striving to make it better and better and better in case you get the chance to go to that next platform. And you pour your heart and soul into it and as does the rest of the cast and crew by the way, this is not a one-man operation.

And so you got all this energy and you’re pouring into it and you’re all hoping and then it happened and I think when it happens, it really made me realize—I do come up with sayings but I came up with an expression that day explaining to my mom what had just happened. I said there are a million reasons to say no to something and only one reason to say yes and that is that you can’t think of a million reasons to say no.

There’s so many—just because Mark was watching the show didn’t mean that he was going to then want to pick it up for his network. So, so many—it’s just unbelievably surreal that he did and making it even more astonishing was that he wanted it immediately.

Michael: So, what were your first thought when he said, “I want to sign this.”

Hayden: Well, I was doing at the time, because I produced this whole show while doing a full time freelance day job. So, it was two careers kind of going on at the same time and I was still at the day job when we premiered and I got the email the following morning and I was then at an open-plan cubicle office over at NBC and I had to contain myself. I don’t know how I did it but I’m sure people probably still heard me jumping up and down.

Michael: That is a wonderful story. Now, knowing what you know today about the whole process, what would you do differently?

Hayden: Well, I think that the only thing that—I’m really, really glad that I put in the time to develop a show, write the scripts, keep rewriting the scripts and then rewrite the scripts more and then to keep rewriting the scripts. That was so important to the process. It was amazing, some of the things I learned as I went like watching how the crew—excuse me, the cast, kind of started jelling and finding their own chemistry. If you watched the six episodes, you can see certainly by episode 3 the cast really starting to find their feet and really starting to come together.

I think some of the pitfalls that we wound up and it’s because we have such low resources, it wasn’t until after we’d shot some of the shows that we found some issues with either sound or we’d shot on P2 cards and I think there were two scenes overall that did not transfer. One we managed to re-shoot because it was very simple and the other, sadly, we couldn’t remount so we had to take the scene as is and edit it completely way down because I think we had one angle and because the other angle was lost and these are things, if I had known, I would have ensured somebody was watching every single P2 card as it was being downloaded on to a computer, stuff like that but just keeping a big eye over things production wise.

Michael: I would guess that each of us has at some point loss some P2 footage, I know I have, right. Now, tell us about how collaboration via places like Spidvid has helped it.

Hayden: Oh, boy, when we started the original, I spoke to a guy over a company called Live Video and they were very, very happy to give us use of their green screen office. Literally, it wasn’t even a green screen studio. That was a space outside their office that was painted green and they allowed us to use that in exchange for I was allowing them to put “Goodnight Burbank” on their platform which I did not have a problem with and I think the collaborative thing is taken every step further when you start producing. You’ve got actors who are bringing their game to the table and their choices of how they deliver the lines and what they can even possibly add.

You’ve also got the crew. You couldn’t do it without a fantastic crew pitching in and taking care of things and keeping an eye out for things that only they can see and certainly stuff I’m not going to see. So, it’s an entirely collaborative medium, entirely collaborative. You couldn’t do it by yourself. Like I said, I was working two jobs. I would come back from the one job, if I’d had a bad day, I had to literally leave that at the door because it’s all trickled down if I was in a bad mood, everybody else is going to be in a crappy mood too. And that would have been the height of unprofessionalism.

So I just really had to go that extra mile sometimes, not all the times, thank god, but sometimes you just don’t have a great day.

Michael: This is great advice for the young filmmakers. Thank you so much. I’d like to know now how you found an audience for “Goodnight Burbank.”

Hayden: Well, the original show in 2006, what happened was we got a couple of reviews and one of the websites apparently was being monitored by the guys over at iTunes who were looking for stuff themselves. They saw the review of “Goodnight, Burbank” again, this is back in 2006 and then put us, they went and watched the show and then put it on the front page.

So, we got very lucky. We were one of the first ones out then we were also one of the firsts to do really well. So, we could take advantage of that. This time around for the half hour version, we have an arrangement with Hulu wherein they give us some promotion and marketing and I think, it’s just so competitive these days with so many people uploading their stuff on a daily basis, it’s not hourly. Any bit of promotion and marketing can really help.

Michael: Well, it certainly can’t hurt. Hayden, where can people see your stuff?

Hayden: They could see “Goodnight Burbank” either at goodnightburbank.com or hulu.com/goodnight-burbank and they can follow the Twitter because I update the Twitter account with jokes taken from the news every single day and that’s @goodniteburbank, with the night spelled, N-I-T-E, in the Twitter account. N-I-G-H-T everywhere else and you can also follow me on Twitter @Haydenblack where I’m writing crazy crap all the time.

Michael: Yes, as you are but it is very entertaining crap. All right, Hayden, our time is short. You’ve had a degree of success. I was wondering if you could pay it forward just a bit. How about some free advice for someone just getting ready to dip their toe into producing web content?

Hayden: I would say, when you’re doing this, this is a fantastic form that’s open to us all. We can all now use the web as a means of distribution but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. It’s a great, to me, like when we started “Goodnight Burbank,” it wasn’t done in a sense of, “Oh, my god, let’s conquer the web. Let’s show the world how brilliant we are.” It was really done more out of a sense of let’s see what we can do and let’s see how we can learn and I see this, it’s a fantastic learning opportunity but I see a lot of people are so terribly impatient and they want everybody to look at what they’ve just done and oftentimes, it’s not there yet. They haven’t spent the time working out the scripts or casting it well or whatever.

And I think that we all have to do those things to learn from them but we shouldn’t be imploring everybody else to watch our mistakes. We should just be learning from them and that’s how we started “Goodnight Burbank.” We didn’t start out perfect. We’re still not perfect but just being patient and really realizing what this medium can truly bring to you. It’s a fantastic lesson, every time you do something and upload it, you’re learning and that’s how—Spielberg still I’m sure learns from every project he’s done and continues making even making better content.

Michael: Hayden, I got to tell you, stories like yours and series like yours is what keeps new filmmakers jumping in and making new and exciting content. We thank you for that. I’m so tickled for your success.

Hayden: Oh, thank you so much. I am too, still feel very surreal.

Michael: As well you should be. Thank you, Hayden Black, for joining us today on Spidcast.

Hayden: It’s my pleasure, Michael.

Michael: Thanks for listening to our Spidcast show. We appreciate your time and attention. You can now join the conversation at spidvid.com or at our Spidvid blog and you can join our collaborative filmmaking community at spidvid.com. Tune in next month for another entertaining and informative episode of Spidcast.

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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 November. 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.

1. Google Chrome: Movember – I can’t add a video to this list without including one that’s Movember related. If you live in a cave under a rock, Movember is where guys grow mustaches in support of raising awareness and research money for fighting prostate cancer. I didn’t grow a mustache this year, but support these guys who did, and thank Google for creating this video. Video production takeaway: Create entertaining videos and release them during emotionally charged times of the year.

2. Catvertising – Cat videos are loved by many, many viewers online, and are often found here on my viral video lists. This video tells the story of a company that offers “catvertainment” inside of branded company videos, brilliant! Video production takeaway: Use cats, dogs, birds, or any kind of cute pet you want in a video, just be sure to tell a story that’s original.

3. Carrie Underwood’s Skin Secrets – This year Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley hooked up to host the CMA Awards, and created a short and sweet promo video for the awards. I wonder if Carrie’s beauty sponsors were on board with this campaign?! Video production takeaway: Celebrities are popular, so try to lure them into starring roles in your videos and films. You won’t likely be able to get someone on the A-list, but call up Screech Powers from Saved By the Bell and see what he’s up to.

4. Jorian Ponomareff Drifting – One of the world’s top freestyle motorcyclists shows off his moves going through a tight track, and getting distracted by a sexy female. The video has been viewed almost 3 million times since November, 11th. Jorian Ponomareff is remarkable! Video production takeaway: Shoot as many angles as you can, the more footage you have for editing the better!

5. Old Spice | Motorcycle – Another motorcycle video! No this video doesn’t have the now infamous Isaiah Mustafa in it, but it’s still pretty clever. Video production takeaway: Be original, think outside the box, and do something that most video creators don’t have the balls to pull off.

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