Someone's in the house. He's watching. He's creeping round, only you can't see him. He's watching you from the walls. He's right behind you now. Looking over your shoulder. He wants the remote control. He's a bad boy. He wants to watch bad movies. Bad bad Ronald...
One of the great YouTube success stories is set to burst off your laptop screen and onto theater screens and TV screens across the country. Sunshine Girl is someone I've spoken about many times, with her self-recorded quirkiness and Scooby Gang ghost hunting antics (which can been viewed on her YouTube channel The Haunting of Sunshine Girl). Her mini adventures run the gamut of fresh and silly teen girl vlogging, to some real jump-from-your-computer-chair frights. There's ghosts and demons and paranormal mayhem. But mostly, there's Sunshine herself.
I got word from Sunshine that she's gotten herself into a bit of a paranormal pickle. She's been out investigating the phenomenon known as Black Eyed Kids (otherwise known as BEKs), and trying to hunt some down. Only problem is... she found some. Yikes!!!
The up side is, she's sharing her BEK adventures with the world in a new feature film Sunshine Girl and the Hunt for Black Eyed Kids. Sunshine dropped this trailer off to me with a message, warning that people need to see this now!
"Bad Ronald rocks for sharing the trailer to my new movie, Sunshine Girl
and the Hunt for BEKs. I can't wait to share it with everyone and be on
the look out for some exclusive pics from my movie coming to Bad Ronald
blog very soon!"
The BEK movie will be released 12-21-12 on DVD and VOD. Check the Sunshine Movie website for updates and make sure to jump on the newsletter.
I don't know if you guys have been noticing, but the webernets are chock full of great original programming. It used to be that so much of the web "television" shows either came off like a cable community access show, or worse, like a half-rate cable community access show.
Shattering the Looking Glass
YouTube has done its share of star making from the song and dance end of the world, but now there looks to be a concerted effort to find some real bonafide screen talent. Type in webseries and you'll find yourself a list full of shows, from comedy bits to real, down and dirty action and thrillers. One of my favorites has been The Haunting of Sunshine Girl. After discovering that last year, I checked out the sidebar suggestions and found the teaser for a new upcoming program Malice: The WebSeries. Instantly, upon seeing the open shot of Alice (played by Brittany Martz), a sweet looking teenage girl, dressed in some goth-punk grrl outfit and an awesome black rabbit ears cap, perched on a rooftop with an assault rifle in hand, and weird creatures approaching her from the distance -- I was ready for more. When the series finally arrived, earlier this year, the pay off was satisfying -- a mix of sci fi/fantasy and horror, with some After School Special teenage angst, to boot.
Brittany takes on the lead role with ease and charm. She's angsty in a John Hughes misunderstood teen kinda way -- cute and awkward, with a tomboy edge. And then, after the spooky stuff flies, she turns all kickass, with her freaky bunny gear. She's definitely a treat to watch. With Rebekka Johnson as her older sister, and Mark Hyde and Leanna Chamish as their parents, the cast rounds out pretty solidly.It's a terrific show that sometimes shows it's budget. But, that's to be expected when the show is pretty much run and operated by the one-man-band Philip Cook. I certainly don't rag on that notion, either, since Cook and his gang pull off an amazing show. small budget or not. This really is worth the while.
And speaking of budgets, the creator and star of the series, Bittany Martz, have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the money to continue producing the Internet series. I had the opportunity to chat with Brittany about her role in the series, and got some great behind the scenes knowledge.
BadRonald: For those who haven't had the good fortune of seeing
Malice, yet, can you describe it for them?
Brittany Martz: Malice is the story of the Turner family who inherits late
grandma's house in rural Virginia.
The move reveals some cracks in the already shaky family dynamic. As soon as
they move in a bad energy seems to hit the air. Dad starts acting tense, Mom's
drinking problems come to the surface, and Abby and Alice cannot get along. A creepy feeling
pervades and soon strange things start happening, the most disturbing of which
is family members disappearing. Suddenly it's up to Alice, the youngest, to solve the mystery of
the house and rescue the rest of the Turners.
BadRonald: How to did you get yourself in Malice?
Brittany Martz: I actually found out about Malice through Craigslist. Crazy
right? Phil put a post up in the talent section and I found it, contacted him,
made sure he was legitimate (Craigslist can be creepy), and ended up
auditioning for him all within the course of a week.
Dig that bunny cap
BadRonald: Malice starts out seemingly as a sort of haunted house
type of story, with Alice
discovering some weirdness going on in the house. And of course, no one believes her... And
then, things kinda get... Medieval. And, with some wild FX, too! How crazy can fans expect this story to get,
as it continues?
Brittany Martz: As the story continues it only gets crazier! I think a lot
of people who are already watching might be formulating some ideas about what
exactly is going on, but as the story continues, it goes in (what I feel) is a
very unexpected direction. I remember when I first read the script I was
completely shocked when the source of all the Turner's troubles was finally
revealed.
BadRonald: Besides having some great horror/fantasy action, the
story also involves the coming-of-age of the main character, a somewhat
average, somewhat invisible and misunderstood teen girl. What's your insight
into your character? Do you relate to her?
Brittany Martz: I'm actually very different from Alice. I am incredibly girly and sociable. I
am an only child and I get along very well with my family.
However, there are some parts of Alice
that I can definitely relate to: for one, Alice
lives very much in a fantasy land in her head. She has a wild imagination. She's also a bit of an outsider - and as a
theater kid, I can't deny that in a lot of circles I'm considered a little
weird.
I tried to channel a bit more of my younger, angst-y side
into Alice. I
remember being younger, trying to figure out exactly who I was, and getting
frustrated with myself and the world at large. At the end of the day, she's
just a girl trying to figure out her place in the big bad world. I think that's
something we can all relate to.
BadRonald: Alice has a neat
edge to her, besides handling the firearms and cutlery like a pro, she dreams
of passionate fantasies, of romantic trysts in the woods with an unknown young
man. Also, the Battle Bunny gear you
have on for the promotional pics and videos -- there's a real coquettish mood
to it all, but highly playful and innocent overall. It's like Alice wants to grow up, but also doesn't want
to lose her childhood, either. What are
your thoughts on Alice's
coming of age? And of how you portray
her maturity vs. innocence?
Brittany Martz: Actually, those fantasies you speak of, are actually
visions of the past. Alice
has an almost clairvoyant quality to her. That is something the second season
expands on a bit.
Alice
has a particularly rough coming-of-age. Does she want to grow up? Yes and no.
Yes, she wants people to take her seriously. She wants recognition that she is
a capable, respectable person. And she is painfully tired of dealing with the
trite social interactions that being in a high school setting entails.
But growing up means coming to terms with some very
uncomfortable realities for Alice.
Her father, whom she takes after, and idolizes, is not the invincible man she
has always dreamed of. She has always seen him as a king, but "oh how the
mighty fall." She sees that he cannot stop her mother's
"problems" and despite being an ex-Navy Seal, he cannot protect his
family from these strange new things attacking them. Additionally, she must
face the fact that you really cannot rely on anyone but yourself to get through
the toughest things in life. People leave, change their minds, go insane - you
have to be tough to make it through this thing called life.
On top of all of this - Alice is pretty much FORCED to grow up in a
very short amount of time. She becomes the sole protector of her family without
and forewarning.
I did not try to put any emphasis on Alice's maturity. Despite her intellect and
toughness, I did not want to create a super hero. She's a real girl. She's
flawed.
BadRonald: This feeling of halted childhood - or halted maturity, as
well -- is a big theme in Alice
and Wonderland. You guys carry it over
in your story well, not with the stuff we discussed already,
but also in her family relations. Alice looks to become
independent, but also doesn't want to let go of her hard-drinking mom, her sometimes
not-so-understanding dad, and her big sister, who... well, acts like a big
sister. How do you view this family?
Brittany Martz: This family is full of problems, but frankly, I don't think
they're too entirely far from average. Every family has problems. The Turners,
despite their issues, have a strong sense of loyalty that sort of lives
underneath the surface of their interactions.
BadRonald: You guys have a Kickstarter funding campaign going
on. Can you let everyone know know how
important this is to you and the project?
Brittany Martz: Malice has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my
acting career. I'd hate to see it end prematurely.This Kickstarter fundraiser
means the world to me and the Malice family! We have dedicated so much time and
hard work to making this web series as awesome as we possibly can. We would
love to bring more Malice episodes to fruition, but we can't do it without
help!
BadRonald: I've spoken to other webshows that start out as YouTube
productions, but have now moved on to developing into something larger (The
Haunting of Sunshine Girl, for instance).
Are you guys looking to grow, as well??
Brittany Martz: I, personally, would love to see Malice grow into something
bigger. I don't think people realize just how LITTLE funding we were working
with to create the first six episodes. We already created something pretty
badass (if I do say so). If we had the fan base and the funding to grow even
large, we could create some truly amazing material.
BadRonald: Have you got any hints as to what we can expect from the
next "season" of Malice?
Brittany Martz: Well, I don't to give too much away? But viewers can expect
a real good look at the world of the creepy things haunting the Turners, and
the force behind it all! We're kicking up the action!
BadRonald: Even though Alice totes some mean firepower, she uses
her wits and brains and courage. Can you talk about the importance of creating
and portraying a positive young female image?
Brittany Martz: To be honest, when I began creating Alice I wasn't at all focused on
creating a positive female image. I was just trying to create a believable
person who lives through and must deal with some pretty unbelievable
circumstances. She does so with great bravery and strength, but who wouldn't
muster up such courage when faced with the task of saving one's family?
That being said, I do think it's important that young women (and men) have
positive role models. I think that maybe Alice
can teach people that even when you feel like you're at the end of your rope,
there is a small spark inside of you - if you can tap into it, there's really
no limit to what you can do.
Thank you Brittany! We here at BadRonald wish the production well, and hope it finds the funding it needs to continue. Go contribute! Come on -- how can ylou resist this plea for help!!!
You might already know that the hit YouTube show The Haunting of Sunshine Girl is turning into a feature length movie. The show is done in a vlog format, with cool beans Sunshine Girl videotaping her encounters with ghosts and weird people with pillow cases on their heads and her Moms and her Uncle Tommy and.. ghosts.
Lately, however, Sunshine has been fascinated with the paranormal phenomenon of black eyed kids (BEKs), those freaky little creeps that pop up in Japanese movies and out of closets. Like that one behind you! I kid... he's still hiding in your closet. The past few weeks, Sunshine and her Scooby gang have been digging into some BEK sightings, and have suddenly found themselves way deep in some weird shizznet.Sunshine's a smart little egg, so I think she'll be okay.
Meanwhile, she sent me these exclusive photos from the set of her new Haunted Sunshine Girl film. She also gave me a scoop on a new member of the Scooby gang...
Why can't these BEKs haunt the Bahamas?
Looks like the new kid Andrew might not be around long!
Blah! as it were, sir
The news I'm getting is this is gonna be real creepy. If you've seen The Haunting of Sunshine Girl, you know how fun it can be, and how spooky it gets. But, this new movie she's making looks downright frightening! Stay tuned for more exclusives...
One of the great finds on the Internets, for me, has been the YouTube web series The Haunting of Sunshine Girl. If you haven't watched it, hurry on over and take a look. Trust me, you'll thank me when you do.
I had the great fortune to speak with Sunshine and her mother, Mercedes Rose, a few weeks back -- what a team! They are so much like the TV mother/daughter duo they idolize -- The Gilmore Girls. Sunshine (her real name is a secret) is truly a discovery. Witty, smart, hip and cute, she's a natural in front of the camera. And her mom "Kat," as well, is witty and purty, and quite the presences on camera, heself.
But, "mom" is also one of the creative forces behind the success of Sunshine Girl. Alongside her is the unseen show creator Nick Hagen. It was Nick who approached Mercedes with his idea of a girl who vlogs about the ghosts that haunt he. And together, they created Sunshine, starring Mercedes real life daughter. The rest is web history.
I got to run some questions by Nick, recently.
BadRonald: You did an amazing job with the pacing -- it was like the first batch of episodes was the 1st act, sucking everyone in. What was your thought process as you developed the show?
Nick Hagen: Well the original concept was a video blog so it had to feel natural and in real life things take time to develop, including an audience. But being that I had a clear concept from the beginning I think the first videos didn't seem random, like some projects similar to this have. The point of the vlog was stated in the very first video so people clearly understood what they were watching. Something I felt like Lonleygirl did an awful job at and why I never watched more than a couple episodes of that one. It's also what I feel like projects like Marblehornets do wrong as well. They're very successful and many people are intrigued by their videos but I bet they lose a lot of viewers who just don't have the patience of trying to figure out what the videos are all about. As far as structure going forward, I look at each batch almost like a season so the first 80 or so videos was like season 1, where we had to build up to some sort of climax and resolution but still leave the window open for more to happen down the road.
BR: You already knew Mercedes and Sunshine, correct?
NH: I knew Mercedes, not Sunshine. But I had a feeling and luckily she was even more of a talent than I hoped. She's got that "it" quality that people love and in something like this, where you have to build an audience from scratch, that's priceless. And it's extremely rare to find someone at the age of 16 willing to commit so much time and effort into a project they have no idea whether it will be a success or not so I was happy about that as well. But I did know Mercedes and her drive and it (almost :-) matches mine so I knew she could keep up with me.
BR: Did you plan for things to get as wild as they did, from the start? Or did you get inspiration as the fanbase grew?
NH: I planned for things to get big, much bigger if we can getting the funding but I think the tone of the show has been dictated by the fanbase. I always knew I wanted it to be fairly family friendly, appeal to teens, but I think the tone got a little more over the top as we went along. Honestly it was in an effort to allow people to just have fun with the videos and not worry about Sunshine so much. I want that emotional connection from the fanbase but I don't want them losing sleep over the well being of Sunshine so I started making it a little less realistic. But yes, it will hopefully get much bigger and crazier. I've got plans...
BR: How about those fans? What's the wildest accusation you've heard from an irate fan?
NH: Well we get the accusation that we're purposely trying to lie to people to upset them and take advantage of them. That's a pretty common accusation. I'm always surprised by that since I firmly believe we're attempting to do a good thing and bring entertainment and joy into people's lives. I can't imagine putting all this effort into something just to try and upset people. But definitely the wildest thing I heard from a fan was that we were sending them secret messages in our videos and they were going to sell their house to get enough money to travel and see Sunshine.
BR: Those fans who get upset and cry "fake" still stick around anyway (I would guess that they do)?
NH: Yes, we have people calling us fake all the time but there's very few die hard people out there who consistently stick with it. Most of our fake comments come from people who have only watched one or two videos and don't really get what the show is all about. They're often shouted down by our other fans, letting them know that this isn't a secret. At the beginning we had lots of people with what could only be described as a personal vendetta against us. They were bound and determined to prove to the world we were fake, but as time has gone by, the show has gotten more fictional, and Sunshine is so likable, most of these people have let it go.
BR: Did you conceptualize the show as being fairly family friendly? As I was saying to Sunshine and Mercedes, I admired how "clean cut" the show is. No language or violence, and Sunshine is a "normal" kid, not spazzing about fashion and boys and material stuff. It's just a show about a good kid, with a healthy curiosity. How much of that was planned, and how much of that is Sunshine and Mercedes?
NH: Yes I did. I very much knew I wanted to go after that market and that tone. I've got three kids, Mercedes has three kids, we obviously want to teach our kids what is important in life and the typical teen girl character created by Hollywood has it all wrong in my opinion. In our series there's an underlying value of family and following what you think is right and what your passion is. Sunshine listened to the ghosts in her house and found out who she was. The metaphor is clear enough I think. As for actually achieving the family friendly, strong female tone, that's very much Mercedes and Sunshine in real life. They make it a reality.
BR: Are you working from a better budget now? And if so, will Sunshine Girl get into more freaky stuff?
NH: Better would be one way to put it since we started out with very little it doesn't take much to make the budget better. We haven't sought out outside investors for various reasons but it's mostly about control. Our budget is strictly based off YouTube revenue and every penny (and some of our own) goes back into production. So as our audience grows our budget will grow. We will definitely be taking Sunshine on some crazy adventures!
BR: Congratulations on the expansion of your YouTube channel! Do you have any thoughts about expanding Sunshine outside of YouTube?
NH: Thanks! Yes, I think it would work well on TV. A fictionalized reality show like what The Office does with comedy. I really like the freedom that style of filmmaking allows and the ability to break the fourth wall and freak people out. Imagine Sunshine with a documentary crew! Oh, and we're working on a film related to Sunshine as well. It might actually shoot this winter so that's fun.
BR: How about, any other show ideas, for YouTube or otherwise?
NH: YES! I've got two really killer concepts that I think would be a huge hit on YouTube. One requires a decent budget, makeup and effects, and one just requires the time. Oh, I'd also like to do another YouTube channel like Sunshine only gear it toward a little older, male audience, work to keep it as real as possible, and really try to freak people out. And TV, I've got a couple fun concepts I've been trying to get a network to notice for a while now. Here's a pilot for one http://vimeo.com/12270524
BR: Check it out folks! Thanks Nick. Good luck on the further adventures of Sunshine.
NH: Thanks a lot. Good luck on the blog!
NEWS!!
Sunshine's Black Eye Kids movie... they need your support!
