The Dave and Berry Show - A Story of Two Failures Achieving Minor Success In Internet Show Business.
If you are thinking of getting into the internet show Business for whatever fame you desire or just for fun, you've got a long road ahead of you. Well I suppose that all depends on your financial status along with other things. When I started acting, I was performing in independent films written and directed by local aspiring film makers. I would usually help them write, find scene locations and help him cast, it was semi easy.
Once I got into internet show business, it was a completely different game. I needed software, a decent camera, advertising methods, some ideas, and a crew. Luckily for me I was partnered by a very capable person and then we later were joined by a group of guys who were willing and able. Another stroke of luck was that my brother was at the time learning HTML and had a pretty decent computer. Adam (whom is the co-star and provides much of the ideas for the show) was eager as well but we had no real idea what direction we where going to take this.
We filmed one night with his shoebox size video camera and well to put it nicely we sucked big time. All the ideas we found funny while talking turned to crap on camera. It was hard but it was never an option to just quit. We finished the first Episode and at the time we where satisfied with it. We didn't even have any real editing software, I remember us using Bitmaps for scene transitions. Somewhere along the way we wanted to try and send our episode into a internet show website, we created a special episode just for them which later became the "official" episode one . Once we did we were met with heavy criticism, plain and simple they hated us. That was a good thing because it pushed us to have our own website.
Since we had no money and my brother Zach didn't fully know HTML yet. we had to use a host, if I remember correctly it was geocities and I believe it still exists. We even had to use putfile.com to host our videos. We did anything we could to get people to watch our videos. I remember how excited we all got once we had our first episode on Putfile. I think I may have almost peed my pants. We told all three of our friends and that was the beginning of our fan base.
We had all these crazy ideas and we created episode two which was a subtle diss towards gothic people, I love it. After two episodes and a few clips putfile had just about enough of us. It was never official but I have the feeling that putfile banned us from their website because just one night when we tried to put a new episode up and we just couldn't. I guess they hated us too but at that point it came easy to us I mean look we had independent movie websites, other shows, now Putfile all hating us. Not to mention our parents have been hating us for years they're old school when it comes to hating us.
We had completed Episode 3 and we considered it the best thing we have ever done. We pushed our crappy form of humor. The problem was that we had no way of getting it to our now five or six fans. It was time for our own dot com. We searched out a friend of Adam's who knew HTML very well. In a matter of days he had a great website up for us and Episode three was up on the net. The only problem was he lived far away and it was hard for us to communicate. He was great but his interests where never in being webmaster for us. I can understand because we couldn't pay him for his services and we probably bothered him more than he wanted. We finally got my brother Zach to be our full time webmaster and the website looks better every time he works on it. Its just how I imagined in my nightmares.
Around this time we created a clip where Adam's character Berry and my character Dave go dumpster diving. After finding a dead rabbit and then a bloody tampon Berry pulls a living baby out of the dumpster. Well the baby was never actually in dumpster but it looks real and I was anxiously awaiting the hate mail we were sure to receive. We never really got any.......not then anyways.
Episode four came out, we pushed it even further. In the episode berry gets hit by a car and then hit with a halogen light bulb. Well we decided to fake the car crash, against Adam's wishes. Though the hit with light bulb was entirely real. Adam got very hurt, he had a huge welt that spanned across his entire back along with multiple cuts from the glass. He was pretty mad about it, I just found it funny because I had earlier that day convinced him it would not hurt at all. Around this time we started to gain minor fame in our town. I remember going to the gas station one day and some girls wanted a picture of me (Dave).).
This was a good time for us. We were getting somewhat known, more in our own town than on the internet. A bunch of people wanted a part of what we where doing and we were always glad that people wanted in.....almost.
We get a lot of fan mail and we make a conscious effort to reply to all of them because we are incredibly grateful that people enjoy us that much. We then started get emails from a kid who was obviously messed up in the head. He would email us three or four times a day telling us about all of the drawings he would draw of us. I assume that he liked Berry much more than Dave because he would talk of the Berry drawings a lot. I had about enough so I told the poor kid off. I was pretty mean but when someone wants to send you drawings of you, you tend to get a little freaked out. We created Episode seven as another subtle diss this time towards the stalker kid. Well at least I thought of it as one.
This was the time that I most remember because we ran into another show whom was much like ours but also much different. In this I mean our characters where similar but our brands of comedy differ greatly. They assumed we copied them and it started a huge war against the shows. They seemed to enjoy bashing us, it gave them material. We did it because we weren't going to back down, we never would have. I remember responding to multiple hate mails a day from fans of their show. I would have so much fun messing with them, so much that they would stop sending hate mail. After a month or so we finally patched things up or so we thought. They told us they were done but they kept on the bashing of us on their show. Adam keeps in contact with people from a bunch of other shows and he talked to them in particular and things are now squared away. We have now become friends of theirs and I hope to work with them someday.
Things here are the best they have ever been, Episode eight is a stroke of genius, the website looks great, we have many new friends and the best of all is that Adam and I have decided to start a production company. It wont go in effect for a while. right now we are concentrated on other things but once the legal aspect is done it will be official. We are looking for any unknown bands, animators, and especially shows whom would like to join our family and help each other out while getting the recognition they deserve. We also have the chance of appearing on a different internet TV station. You can expect to see us on there, if all goes well.
Now I get recognized at work, at the mall, and Adam often gets spotted at the school he attends. I have been in pictures with people, shook peoples hands, and even had complete strangers come up to me and ask me when the episode will be posted. It all very cool but we never once expected it to catch on as little as it has.
The future looks bleak for Dave and Berry but that's how its always been and we wouldn't have it any other way. we forged our way on our own with no real help from anyone. we gained our small fan base on our own with so many people telling us we sucked. We didn't have any fancy editing software and we still managed to create what we wanted. We also didn't even have our own dot com right away. Right now I am even typing this with Windows Wordpad. Like I said we did it all and continue to do it the hard way. We appreciate ever ounce of success that has been given to us.
The basic idea I am trying to get across is that with so many shows and websites out there on the net it can get hard for someone trying to start something they believe in but you should never give up because if you find your creation or art funny, scary, freaky, or action packed then for sure their will be someone out there who does as well. Remember you have friends here too, we are more than willing to help anyway we can. If your interested in joining our family too we would love that as well. Drop us a line sometime at daveandberryshow@gmail.com
