Before I break it down for you, I’m gonna get two things out of the way up front.

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

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