Hopefully, Buzz Aldrin’s words to Homer Simpson will help us feel a little better.
The latest episode of “The Youth Room,” our video parody series of “The Office,” didn’t win the grand prize at MoreThanDodgeball.com but we’re in the running for second place. Joshua’s readers are voting for who walks away with the next prize this week and who knows, it just might end up being us. Cross your fingers and toes. I’m not sure how I feel about asking you, dear reader, to vote for our video because the whole approach of “Hey, everyone I know, go to this website and vote for us more than other contest entrants who are attempting the same tactic!” ultimately bugs me. I mean I get why that approach works and why it’s popular, but it sure doesn’t seem to reward the true winners, in my humble opinion, and that is whether I think we deserve a prize or not.
As for “The Youth Room” series, I’m definitely in the mood to create more of these. Our youth group is fast figuring out what it takes to make a good video as well as an accurate parody. We have a few other originals to get webborne* but I doubt Episode 02: Sack Chairs is the last viewers will see of me as “Michael” and the youth group playing various rolling-eye roles. In fact, some of the actors in our videos don’t even watch The Office and still pull off their roles really well (the young woman who plays Pam is perfect for someone who doesn’t watch the show). Of course, coming up with a good script, then gathering people together, then getting the shoot done before parents pick up actors, then editing, editing, editing all adds up to quite a chunk of time. So far, however, it all seems worth it.
I’ll keep you posted on whether or not we take second prize.
-nm
* “webborne” is a new word I though I just made up but apparently it is just as real as it is awkward. What does it mean? You know when there’s an airplane sitting on the ground and then when it takes off it becomes airborne? Well, if there’s a video sitting on a hard drive and then it gets uploaded to the web, it becomes webborne. Brilliant!