Brian Kameoka's blog

The Guild - Mucho Grande Burrito (a social media success story)

A couple of weeks ago a fan on Jeff Lewis's Facebook Fan Page asked, "has anyone else seen the Taco Bell training video that Jeff starred in?" Jeff replied that he was "speechless" as the video was probably ten years old.  According to Robert (the fan), he worked at Taco Bell at one point and thought this video was hilarious so he asked his manager if he could have the extra copy that had been sent to his store.  This was long before there was a web series called The Guild or a character named Vork.  Unfortunately, Robert had no way to convert & upload this gem from VHS.  So I messaged him and said "hey, I do have a way to convert & upload - if you send it to me I'll get it up on YouTube and mail it back to you."  So, through the magic of an Elgato Video Capture Device, social networking, a super cool fan of The Guild, this brilliant gem can now be shared.

I know that social media has made it's mark on global politics, changed the way we communicate, and done things like help an independent show like The Guild reach new audiences daily.  But it also helps unearth such rare gems like this Mucho Grande Burrito video.  Remember, it is by far the largest burrito on our menu:

Shows to See in Sacramento

Here are some shows in Sacramento I recommend seeing:

• FINAL WEEKEND: Bat Boy: The Musical at Sacramento State.  I wrote a review on my blog here. Amanda Morish and Peter J. Carroll are great, and you can get tickets for as cheap as $5 this weekend.

• I Am My Own Wife at B Street Theatre (closes 11/7). Bee critic Marcus Crowder calls it a "riveting production" with an "astonishing performance by Greg Alexander" and I totally agree.

• tick, tick... BOOM! at New Helvetia Theatre (through 11/14).  A great production of Jonathan Larson's pre-Rent musical. Patti Roberts in the News & Review says it has a "winning combination of a superbly talented cast, a strong and inventive directing team, and a first-rate live cabaret band. [full disclosure: I helped with publicity for this show and took their press photos]

Upcoming (shows I'm planning on seeing):

• Capital Stage's Speech & Debate (through 11/8)

• New interns have arrived at the B Street Theatre, so I plan on checking out their weekly Wednesday post-show performances, which I blogged about previously here because I believe it's Sacramento's best theatre bargain.  These performances should resume 11/11, but call the B Street box office at (916) 443-5300 to confirm.

• Broadway Sacramento presents Spring Awakening (11/4 through 11/15).  I mentioned this on Facebook and Twitter, since I know almost nothing about the show.  Consensus was, "go see it!" so I am.... here's a promo video for the show:
  
   
  

Also, for one of the best online guides to what's playing in town, check out Sacramento365.com.

Sacramentjoe Episode 2: California State Fair

Just posted Episode 2 of 'Sacramentjoe' - Joe and I trekked out to the California State Fair for this one. What resulted includes cinnamon roles, livestock, bellydancing, and a terrible Schwarzenegger impression. Oh, and Joe hits on a Pea (you gotta see it to understand).

Here's the episode:

Come check out 'Sacramentjoe' - 2 episodes so far plus a few "vlogs" (video blogs), all of which are available on our YouTube Channel.  Hope you'll subscribe on YouTube, and we'd also love it if you would connect with us on the various social networking sites:

http://myspace.com/sacramentjoe
http://facebook.com/sacramentjoe
http://twitter.com/sacramentjoe

There was a delay between episodes 1 and 2, but episode 3 is actually ready to go.  We'll leave it up to our viewers - once we get 500 hits for episode 2 we'll post 3.  Enjoy!  Thanks for watching...

The Guild - Season 3, Episode 1: Expansion Time

Season 3 of the popular web series 'The Guild' has launched on the web via MSN video (check out the embedded player below to watch the episode)

<p><br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&vid=6f31eb66-4360-439a-ad62-f2bdf28f550e" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Episode 1: Expansion Time">Video: Season 3 - Episode 1: Expansion Time</a></p>

I'll be blogging over the next week or so about this great web series and some of the work I have been doing for/with them.

More from Comic-Con: Pictures and Video

I was really looking forward to using my new camera on the trip to Comic-Con and I was able to grab a bunch of great pictures.  There was so much to see and photograph, and you can check out my Flickr sets for many of the photos I took.  One of my favorites is this one of Belle Chere as Red Sonja.  While at Comic-Con I posted my photos to several groups (this is one of the great powers of the social networking features of photo-hosting sites, being able to tag and share content from live events can instantly give you a worldwide audience).  Very quickly this photo became viewed by the hundreds, and then thousands, favorited, commented, etc.  What's even cooler to me is that someone commented asking if that was Belle Chere.  I had no idea who she was - but before long Belle Chere herself posted a comment saying "That's me!" and asking if she could use the photo on her site.  Turns out she's a well-known cosplayer and works by day as a theatrical costumer.  Pretty awesome - if you'd like to see more of her amazing costume work, check out her webpage here.

In addition, I spent some time hanging with Greg Benson of Mediocre Films and helped him to shoot some stuff.  We filmed a bunch of stuff walking around, but the first thing that made it up to his YouTube channel was this prank about throwing away handbills:

I loved this prank and had a hard time suppressing my laughter as we shot it.  Greg was actually drawing a crowd as he did this.  The next day, the video had something like 40,000 hits - I was amazed, but Greg said that with those numbers, for him, it hadn't gone viral, it wasn't really hitting and people weren't passing it around.  It was fascinating hanging out with him and learning some of the nitty gritty of YouTube videos.  The other video I filmed was the famed "stripper bus" that was transportation for the cast of The Guild on the day of the panel:

Fun stuff.  Greg is a YouTube star and I love his stuff.  He has two channels on YouTube - Mediocre Films and Mediocre Films2 and I recommend subscribing to his stuff (you can also be a fan on Facebook here).

Sacramentjoe - new web series about Sacramento

Check out 'Sacramentjoe' - a web series I created with Joe Styron.  We just finished and posted episode 1 to YouTube.  Hope you'll subscribe on YouTube, and we'd also love it if you would connect with us on the various social networking sites:

http://myspace.com/sacramentjoe
http://facebook.com/sacramentjoe
http://twitter.com/sacramentjoe

Here's the trailer, and below that is episode 1.

Goodbye, Gorgeous!

I heard the other day via Twitter that Sony did not renew the fabulous web series Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show (GTCMS)- boo, Sony!  I'm sad to see it go, having enjoyed it from the beginning, but I'm excited to see what GTCMS creator Kim Evey (who I'm honored to call a longtime friend) will come up with next.  Congrats to Kim and all the GTCMS cast and crew for a great run - I believe this show will be remembered as one of the greats from the first wave of original web programming.  Oh, and I'm also rooting for Pogo Saito (also a friend) to win the art direction award at this year's First Annual Streamy Awards (list of nominees here).

To keep up with new stuff from Kim, I recommend following her on Twitter, and while you're at it, subscribing to the Youtube page of Mediocre Films.

There are so many great episodes of this show (if you like guest celebrities, check out these GTCMS episodes with Wil Wheaton, Adam Arkin and Ron Jeremy).  But I think my all time favorite is the very first episode: