A Valiant Effort

[PierceVoice]

Gang,

I almost made it onto national tv... and you'll never believe the audition process.

I used to do tha Myspace, but have long since abandoned it-- against my better judgement. Well, recently, my wife gave me a heads up on a project released through one of her "Friends": A contest to create the best promo for the new season of a Cartoon Network show we both follow to be judged by the producers.

I read the Myspace bulletin that the posters... uh... posted (the folks from the program), and the requirements were certainly within my limits. We were to create a unique show-related :30 tv commercial, upload it to YouTube & email the link. So I did.

That contest just ended, the prize eluded me. Sucks, too, cause the winner's going on-air (unpaid, but you never know what can happen with this kinda stuff).

One thing I DID get outta the whole thing is a phone call from the producers/director to let me know how much they liked the piece I put together. Huh. Well, not TOO horrible. It wasn't what they were looking for, but I was the ONLY one they called from the hundred or so entrants. COOL!!

I spent about 10 hours on the project.

Within a week I had 1500 views.

Got some attention from within the Myspace/YouTube community

Snagged a nice compliment from the peeps who make the show.


All in all, worth the effort, time, and creative energy since (even though it bummed me out to lose) it gave me a good kick in the butt to get back into the mindset that chances are popping up all the time-- chances to really do something great-- and if you're not there to hear the call, you might miss something big.

Thanks for the time... hope this can be of service.


Chadd

[Claired]

Hi Chadd!
Can you post the link? Now I want to watch it!

[Emorgan_Voiceovers]

Chadd, you did a hell of a job on that promo. I am surprised you didn't win. Your video work is awesome. Nice job.

[PierceVoice]

Here's where to catch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMPOfEykgKI
If I'd been smarter, I would have included some VO just in case I won... so I could claim it on the resume. Be sure to catch the actual phone call posted as a response. Cool of them to extend the courtesy.

Thanks for the kind words, Eric!

[Claired]

Yay! Well done! But I was surprised not to hear your voice on it!

[SilverSurfer3001]

Great job, Chadd! What a lame excuse from the producers. You didn't use any footage from Season 3? How completely disjointed from reality can these guys be? Of course you didn't use any new footage! You don't have access to the new footage!!!!

So that's why they can't use the promo?

Makes perfect sense to me - IN BIZARRO WORLD!!!!

I know that you have to be grateful since they called you - but frankly I think they have no clue what they were really looking for - that's why they are going by the "vote of the people" of the bloggoshpere. You maybe should have asked them to send you all the footage from season three and you would recut the thing. Then see what they have to say about it. Or better yet, put you on the payroll, since they like your mad skills so much so that you can wow them every week. But frankly, given their apparent thought process (or lack thereof) you will probably be better off indy for a while longer!

I thought it was fantastic work. I have always thought that that show was a bit on the freakishly creepy side, but the promo was drop dead funny! Awesome work!

[JoeActor]

Nice Chadd - that was awesome!

Very "Adult Swim" style...

At least you got some free marketing and even some contact out of it...
Joe J Thomas
www.JoeActor.com

[PierceVoice]

Jody: I am now... kinda scared of you. Kidding! Muchas appreciation for the compliments.

Joe/All: You have mentioned exactly the point of my posting the story here. Sure, it's a nice ego stroke from all you talented talents, but moreover the idea behind participation is what I really wanna make sure I drive home (cause I'm supposed to be some sort of branding expert). You never know where or when some oddball opportunity is going to pop up and give you the chance... for a chance! I found out these guys had a song contest recently, too-- missed opportunity to have fun and express talents!

As actors, we should be heavily embracing media distribution sites like YouTube. With new media constantly evolving, so does marketing. Should we be putting our audio demos up to video? OH YEAH! If only in a simple Windows Movie Maker file that just shows your logo the whole time. Any questions about how to do this-- just ask!

Any time you can put yourself in front of something like this wacky contest-- no matter what your skillset-- is at WORST practice, at BEST... who knows?

And silly producers calling from the office... I have caller ID :)

[Chrisrice]

Dude, that's great stuff! Totally fits that show and channel. But I disagree about the lack of v-o. I think you made a good choice not to include any, it wouldn't have fit the Adult Swim vibe.