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Technoculture

Fun with Photoshop

Thursday, May. 01, 2008 By JOSH QUITTNER



Troy Hitch, left, and Matt Bledsoe have just been revealed as the co-creators of the hit Web series You Suck at Photoshop.


Five hundred Gazillion Web video channels and nothing good on? Google this: You Suck at Photoshop. Narrated by the fictional Donnie Hoyle--an angry, sarcastic, cuckolded Photoshop expert--it was launched in late December and ended 10 episodes later, in April, when Donnie mysteriously disappeared. Not that you ever saw him. In the videos, the camera remains centered on a computer desktop and follows Donnie's cursor as he conducts mock tutorials on how to use the photo-altering application. Sound obscure? Maybe not. With the explosion of blogging and do-it-yourself publishing, Photoshop has become one of the Web generation's indispensable tools. Accordingly, the Donnie series has been viewed nearly 8 million times and is up for two 2008 Webby Awards: Best Comedy and Best How-To Video.

How a goof became a phenomenon is a Web-age love story almost as sweet as Donnie is bitter. Many fans believed the video series had to have been made by a professional comedian; Dane Cook was a favorite suspect. But it turns out to be the work of Troy Hitch, 37, and Matt Bledsoe, 39, both of Covington, Ky.--two former ad-agency guys who met while recording a radio commercial in nearby Cincinnati, Ohio. They buddied up, started writing funny bits and launched a new-media-centric creative agency called Big Fat Institute in 2005.

That's where Rob Barnett discovered them. A show-biz guy who had worked at MTV and VH1 before spending two years at the helm of CBS Radio, Barnett had decided to become a Web-video impresario. He found Big Fat Institute while looking for someone to design his website. You Suck at Photoshop "was hysterical," Barnett recalled recently. "I was instantly engaged and e-mailed them: 'WHO are you?' In 38 seconds, I get a response: 'Who are YOU?' We started flirting." The e-mail led to phone calls and an invitation to visit Barnett in New Jersey. "A few days later, they jumped on a plane to Newark, and we fell in love," he says. Barnett signed the guys to build his video-entertainment website, MyDamnChannel.com and then produce comedy videos for it. You Suck at Photoshop was their first baby.

Hitch and Bledsoe had long nurtured an idea for a character they thought of as the Angry Photoshop Guy. Explains Bledsoe: "We had both been in the agency business so long that after a while we'd seen every kind of person in the advertising world." One of those stereotypes, he says, was the "insane designer, basically. He has horrible social skills and horrible things going on in his life, and the only thing he has going for him is he can out-Photoshop the guy in the cube next to him." It took 2 1/2 hours to complete Episode 1. "The vast majority is improvised by Troy," says Bledsoe. "I hate him for that." Hitch adds, "It was meant to be a one-off thing." But within a few weeks, the blogosphere discovered it, and the series began racking up page views.

In my favorite episode, Donnie shows viewers how to seamlessly remove the wedding band from a picture of his cheating wife's finger. "We actually really put the ring up for sale on eBay, and within four hours, 30,000 people had come by to look or bid on it," Hitch tells me. "The ring was bid up to $760." But eBay shut down the auction after discovering the performance art--a violation of the terms of service, apparently.

The team emerged from anonymity in April to launch a sequel, Snatchbuckler's Second Chance. It's filmed in a fictional, virtual world called Peopleburg.com Snatchbuckler, Donnie's erstwhile partner in the online game World of Warcraft, has gone there to shake off his Internet addiction. The video debuted on MyDamnChannel.com in late April, and it looks pretty cool. But I miss Donnie and wish I could Photoshop him back into my life.

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TIME MAGAZINE

Matt Bledsoe & Troy Hitch

We’re launching our newest MY DAMN CHANNEL series today from the men who brought you “You Suck at Photoshop” (YSAP). Big Fat Brain is: Matt (Bledsoe) & Troy (Hitch) - one vowel away from South Park and please add Amy Austin to your consciousness - since every male lobe needs a brilliant woman behind them...or something like that.

YSAP is nominated twice by the WEBBY AWARDS for Best Comedy Series and for Best How-To Series. 7 WEBBY nods in all, for our artists & our site.

From Genesis to Revelation & from “YSAP” to “Sn4tchbuck3r’s Second Chance”

Here’s the first exclusive interview with Big Fat Brain by TIME magazine’s Josh Quittner

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HEADLINING VEGAS

Thanks to the NAB and especially to Ashley Howell, Chris Marlowe, and Rochelle Winters for inviting us to present in Vegas yesterday. Thanks to Jon Healey from the LA Times for moderating - and to Harry Shearer & Andy Milonakis for making the trip.

We filled a room of about 350-400 humans and started by showing a few of our original videos. Fun seeing hundreds LOL at YSAP - up on a huge megascreen - and cool to see a crowd feel the bass of music produced by Don Was.

Harry Shearer made news - announcing "THE ALPHAS" - a project he's been developing for 10 years - and the most ambitious new work making its way to My Damn Channel.

"THE ALPHAS" is motion-capture animation of the highest quality (Beowulf) - done in the fastest turnaround ever achieved (less than 5 day production cycles). Here's more:

Imagine seeing the best-known people in politics and the media, every week, in hilariously private situations. Not actors in makeup, but what looks and sounds like the real President, candidates, anchors, and the rest. That’s the idea behind “The Alphas”, a revolutionary new concept in topical sketch comedy. Written and performed by Harry Shearer, who’s notched more than two decades as a creator of topical satire on his weekly public radio broadcast, “Le Show”, along with two memorable seasons on “Saturday Night Live”, “The Alphas” includes no makeup, no celebrity cameos. Instead, utlizing a trio of cutting-edge motion-capture technologies--harnessed for the first time to a “week-of-air” production schedule, “The Alphas” features startlingly realistic computer-animated versions of the movers, shakers and yakkers. They’re not lifelike--thanks to the technology and Shearer’s performances, they’re alive. And every week, they’re deftly and drolly revealed for all their pretensions, resentments, jealousies and anxieties--all the good stuff, online just days after production.

Here's the first news coverage from the LA Times and the Digital Content Producer Magazine with thanks for the 'ink' & correction to Michael Goldman.

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WEBBY AWARDS SHOCKER

The NY Times calls the WEBBY AWARDS "the Oscars of the web."

Over 10,000 entries from over 60 countries & today's WEBBY announcements blew us away today with 7 honors in all.

4 nominations & 3 Honors. Only 5 others have more nominations.



Here's the list:

1. My Damn Channel (Honoree for Best Humor Site)

2. Harry Shearer - Found Objects / Katie Couric (Honoree for Best Viral Video)

3. Wainy Days - Episode 10 - The Future (Honoree for Best Indiv. Comedy Episode)

4. Wainy Days (Nominated for Best Comedy Series)

5. Big Fat Brain's You Suck At Photoshop (Nominated for Best Comedy Series)

6. Big Fat Brain's You Suck at Photoshop (Nominated for Best How-To / DIY Series)

7. Harry Shearer - "Waterboardin', USA" (Nominated for Best Music Video)

Nominations are decided by judges....and by you - so please vote!

A bit of a bitch - but it only takes a minute - here's how:

Click here - then register

Go to Online Film & Video

Find COMEDY LONG FORM OR SERIES (& vote for WAINY DAYS or YSAP)

Find MUSIC (& vote for HARRY SHEARER)

Find HOW-TO/DIY (& vote for YSAP)

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48 HOURS TO 'VANISHING POINT'

Be here Friday morning at 4a pt/7a et.

That is all.

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YOU SUCK

at PHOTOSHOP

episode 8 premieres today

over 5 million of you have sucked so far

and now...your weekend can begin:

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CO-CONS

We coined the phrase CO-CON at the start of our idea to launch this brand. In our quest for mass distribution, artistic freedom & more coin - we're always looking for legit co-conspirators to bring heat. Big Fat Brain's Matt Bledsoe & Troy Hitch were two of the first co-cons at My Damn Channel. We stumbled onto their homesite by chance when Holly Cara Price - the first CO-CON - handed me a list of about 40 urls. There'd be no THIS without BFB. There'd be no "You Suck at Photoshop" either. In a world filled with wannabes - Big Fat Brain is everything you want.

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VIDEO PREMIERES WEEK OF 2/25

Monday 2/25:

HORRIBLE PEOPLE - episode 3 - the evil soap opera continues

Tuesday 2/26:

HARRY SHEARER's FOUND OBJECTS - BILL O'REILLY / ANN COULTER / KATIE COURIC.

(O'Reilly is too beautiful for words. Coulter has an ugly addiction. We still love Katie.)

Wednesday 2/27: COOKIN' with COOLIO - episode 3

ANDY MILONAKIS presents ANDY MILONAKIS

Thursday 2/28:

CARNIVAL of STUFF presents INVASION - episode 3

DON WAS presents NEW MUSIC from the LA SKA BAND, COMMON SENSE

Friday 2/29:

BIG FAT BRAIN presents "YOU SUCK AT PHOTOSHOP" - episode 8 (it's comin - it's comin)

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SANDY

"The aurora is risin' behind us" (7/4, Asbury Park)

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VIDEO PREMIERES THIS WEEK

A lot of video sites wish they could be YouTube. We don't. We're true to our plan to premiere at least one major video every day.

Here's a cheat sheet for the week ahead:

Monday/President's Day:

HORRIBLE PEOPLE - episode 2 - our brand new evil soap opera continues

Tuesday: HARRY SHEARER's FOUND OBJECTS - MIKE HUCKABEE - Caught on Tape

Wednesday: COOKIN' WITH COOLIO - episode 2 - SHAKA ZULU!

Thursday: CARNIVAL of STUFF CHANNEL - INVASION - episode 2 - our damn animation....and.....more NEW music from DON WAS & THE WASMOPOLITAN CAVALCADE OF RECORDED MUSIC

Friday: BIG FAT BRAIN CHANNEL - YOU SUCK AT PHOTOSHOP - no....you really suck.

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