UPDATED: We 'Vamp Out' With Kevin Pollak and Jason Antoon
With anything popular, there is an inevitable backlash. Frankly, I am surprised that it took this long for vampires to be spoofed.
Technically, Vamped Out is not a direct spoof of Twilight and The Vampire Diaries, but it was born of them. Let me back up a bit. Vamped Out is the new comedic webseries from actors Kevin Pollak and Jason Antoon. Jason stars as Alowisus, a real-life vampire who, despite the glut of vampire entertainment, cannot get a job on a vampire TV show. Pollak plays a filmmaker who is making a documentary about the plight of the “modern” vampire. Vamped Out also marks Pollak’s directorial debut.
“I was with some friends at a party - slightly inebriated,” Antoon explains. “I was chewing gum and formed it into a single fang, and said, ‘What if you were a vampire with only one fang?’ We came up with this stupid story, and I took notes on my iPhone - I still have them. A week later, I was having lunch with Kevin and his girlfriend, Jamie, and I mentioned the idea when they were bemoaning the notion of another romantic vampire project.”
Pollak picks up the story from there: “Can you imagine if you were a real vampire and you couldn’t get hired to be on any of these vampire shows? Jamie said it would be a great bit for my comedy act, but I said, “No. That’s a great bit for the web.’ Prior to this, I had no intentions of doing a web series.” Vamped Out was always intended to be a web series. If no one picked it up, the two planned to make it on their own.
Pollak and Antoon got started on the script the following week, and had six scripts in three weeks time. Babelgum.com snatched up the script right away. “I have been a member of the Writer’s Guild since 1987, and I have never worked with an executive who gave me this much creative freedom or ownership of a product.”
Creativity, freedom, and ownership are the ups of low-low budget web shows; what are the downs? “The money,” Antoon confirms. “The actors don’t get paid what they deserve, and there isn’t a lot of time for reshoots.” They shot for five days straight, 8-9 hours each day, on two HD cameras.
The idea behind Vamped Out is that Alowisus fed Bram Stoker false vampire information - they burn in the sunlight, sleep in coffins, are allergic to holy water and garlic, etc. - to make Stoker a laughing stock. When Stoker’s Dracula became legend, Alowisus inadvertently became a savior to his people. No one suspects a person of vampirism if they meet you for pizza at noon. It is a great premise with a hilarious execution. Vamped Out is the funniest web series since The Guild.
Watch Episode 1 of Vamped Out on Babelgum.com below.
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