1. This is the new Bessina Maker Short! I personally think it’s one of my best, so please enjoy.

2. This short is entered in a contest in which I am part of the final four. I implore you to vote for me here: http://www.youtube.com/kiasoul

Click on and vote for my video, REMAKE. Vote every day. Monday through Thursday (Sept
6-9)

And now it’s time for the break down. When it comes to my art I usually like the work to speak for itself. I have never been big into the gimmicks and tricks, and I do not generally enter contests. Nothing against people who do, they just aren’t for me. The reasons I entered this one are as follows:

First and foremost I saw the grand prize was $10,000. Now I realize that it’s not life changing money, but you have to understand my finacial situation at the moment. I’m paying back taxes on two feature films, neither which have made me a cent yet (knock on wood they soon will), not to mention I’ve been in regular debt for years. Add rent, food and other bullshit on top of it and $10,000 starts looking like Scrooge McDucks money pool. “Oh shut up. We all have problems, Travis.” Yeah, I know, but it’s my blog so they’re my tears to spread! So all that said, I would love to be able to balance my debt and have a fresh start.

The other reason I decided to put my paper story skills to use was to broaden my fan base. With Lo gaining traction on DVD and The Dead Inside set to travel around next year, along with Ward Robert’s new movie, Dust Up, which I have a lead role in, I have a lot of projects to promote. When you work as independently as we do you need all the help you can get to spread the word. Youtube has been an amazing part of my sucess as a filmmaker and I don’t take that lightly. I use my Receptionist platform as a way to make people aware of my other work, therefore gaining more subscribers is a very helpful thing for my career. Don’t misunderstand, I do the Bessina Maker Shorts because I adore doing them. They are the perfect low budget projects to tell these mini stories with and I have an absolute blast making them. This contest has a focus on promoting the winner and letting more people know about the channel. I would love to double my audience and maybe someday get out from behind this desk that has helped propel me (oddly enough) to where I am today. The soul screams.

The last reason I’m involved in the quest for fame and fortune through online voting, is that it’s actually a great kick in the ass to force me to make more shorts. I’ve been very busy lately but have been dying to get back to my YouTube content. With deadlines and prizes dangled before me it put a little fire under my sitting cushion. This new video, Remake: The Prequel to the Sequel, is one of my finer shorts (so says I), and I might not have worked so hard on it had it not been for a bit of structure. I’d like to thank my friends Amber Benson and Devin barry for supplying the extra needed voices and my lovely girlfriend Shannon for bringing such dramatic lighting to my construction paper fake movie trailer.

The contest is sponsored by Kia and their new car, The Soul. I wanted to mention them, not as an advertisement, but simply because it is their contest and they have given me this opportunity to make more of my career. So thanks, Kia! Your hamster commercials are actually very entertaining.

There were over 1,000 submissions and I was narrowed down as part of the top eight by YouTube Celebs Smosh, ShayCarl and LisaNova. Smosh and LisaNova have been around as long as I have on the Tubes, but they have reached larger audience. It’s weird to watch the kids you grew up alongside shoot up to the top while you remain more underground and in the wings. I am in no way upset about this, I just find it interesting. Here we are, years later and those same people are now promoting my videos through the judging of this contest. Strange how it works. To them I want to say thank you for recgonizing my work by choosing me to compete in the top eight.

I am now in the top four and it will be an uphill battle for sure. One of my competitors has over 20,000 more subscribers to me and a much better views to subs ratio. This means he has more people that he has direct access to to tell them to go and vote for him. This is something I have to seriously consider when approaching my submissions. My content has to be top notch in order to push me over the top. I have to sway people to vote for me with the quality of my video to make up for lost numbers. So I made this new one and I do hope you enjoy it. And I also hope that you will vote for me and tell others to vote for me.

In the end…even if I don’t win, it’s been fun and I did get some promotion from it. I will never stop creating, as it is in the very center of my bones, this means that when I’m someday a skeleton I will still have the want to create. Hell, just look at Del Close!

Much Love

Travis

Related Posts:

This year I am trying to take my little web series to the next level. That level is winning an award for my hard work and humor. The Streamy’s is basically the Academy Awards for web shows. It would be just dandy if you take a very short breath from your life, click the link and nominate me! The cool thing is, if you’re really dedicated you can do this once a day…but I’ll be more than happy with just the one nom.

Here’s all the info you will need:

Click HERE

Category : Best Comedy Series

Series Name: THE RECEPTIONIST

Series URL: www.youtube.com/thereceptionist

To all who help me I sincerely thank you. I could not ask for a cooler and more supportive audience.

Much love

Travis

Related Posts:

Much love

Travis

Related Posts:

Much love

Travis

Related Posts:

Much love

Travis

Related Posts:

My first paid gig as The Receptionist was nearly 3 years ago when I had just started my channel on YouTube. Back then there weren’t as many personalities and people clawing tooth and nail to be popular. It was much easier to build an audience and a small group of devoted people had found me. An advertising representative recognized my tiny audience and paper-laced madness and contacted me and a few others to create online promo’s for their new movie, Let’s Go to Prison. We were to basically do a video in our own style with the idea of presenting tips on surviving prison life. I was paid a small fee which gassed up my car and got me a few nights of Taco Bell. Here is that video:

After that, my channel continued to grow. It was never a subscriber behemoth or anything, but people were discovering my shorts every day and I was developing a bigger audience. So I kept on making um! Suddenly, I am contacted by Comedy Central. They love The Receptionist and are looking to buy content for their web division (which later became atom.com). The CC bought 5 of my old episodes and commissioned me to create 5 new ones as well. This was a very exciting opportunity as I was making these shorts just like I was before, only now I was being paid. The money was nice and allowed me to pay some bills and move out of my 1 room apartment and into a place with dividing walls and rooms with names like, bedroom and kitchen. Here’s an episode I made specifically for Comedy Central:

The Receptionist: Frog Sucks

When I finished the new 5 for CC, they did not hire me to make any more. They played on T.V. a few times but eventually (like most web content) they were forgotten. I went back to YouTube and brushed the cobwebs off the channel. I never started making these for money, and money wasn’t going to stop me from continuing to make them. Thus began, what I call, The Receptionist: Season 2. I was back in production and the episodes were larger in scope, using more of my world and sprinkling in more music than before. Sure I was now a YouTube partner, but anyone who is a partner can tell you (aside from a few choice and lucky individuals) that the money barely exists. If you’re a partner for the money then you are in big trouble. So, recently YouTube contacted me (and a few other’s) to create a promotional piece for HP. They were holding a contest and needed example videos. They would pay me to make a 1 minute video about anything I wanted. I just had to be creative and not show my face. I was going to be making a new video anyway, so why not get a little greenback for it? I created this video for YouTube and HP:

3 years running, and The Receptionist is still the champ for money brought in from artistic endeavour. Perhaps someday I will be paid to make feature films, but until that black magical day arrives, I will be enjoying the process of the construction paper short…and if it happens to pay a bill here and there….so be it.

Much love

Travis

Related Posts: