With Halloween approaching, DCTV Creator Daryn Strauss hit up DeFranco Inc. producer Jenni Powell for the scoop on what the creepy horror show has in store for the most wicked holiday of the year!
DARYN: Congratulations on the series! Last I checked, you had close to 200,000 subscribers on YouTube. Did you expect such a response in such a short period of time?
JENNI: We actually JUST passed 200,000! We were absolutely blown away. I mean, I had been a big fan of Phil [DeFranco, who starred in Episode 1] for years before meeting him on the “Do Over” shoot, and had been aware that he himself brings a lot of audience with him automatically. But it became clear really early that although Phil’s involvement was able to open the door, it was the content people were staying for and subscribing to the channel for. And with each episode, the fan base becomes more vocal and more supportive and actually started creating original content around the show. And that inspires us to want to do even more to integrate them into the channel, as people will see with our latest BlackBoxTV extra. We’re asking fans to submit ideas of actual haunted places the crew can visit and an opportunity for our fans to get involved.
DARYN: Each episode of Black Box TV features new guest stars, but the common threads are Creator Tony Valenzuela and Cinematographer Joe Nation. How did each of you get involved?
JENNI: I can’t fully speak for Tony and Joe since they already knew each other before we met, but the story I hear is that they met at a party at Olga Kay’s house and quickly realized they would like to work with each other and BlackBoxTV was the perfect opportunity. Tony and I actually met a while back at a Tubefilter event and stayed in touch ever since. We both had backgrounds in common, having both worked for Eqal on different projects — me on lonelygirl15 and him on Harper’s Globe– and I had been a big fan of his series 2009: A True Story, which is actually how Phil and Tony met as well. Tony had enjoyed my writing on Tubefilter and originally asked me to come on as a writer for the BlackBoxTV blog (www.blackboxtelevision.com). I asked if I could be on set for the first few episodes and shoot BTS and generate ideas for my blog posts and on iJustine’s episode. After a very, very long night of talking in the Graham Parson’s Suite in the Joshua Tree Inn, we realized we should be working together in a more collaborative way, which eventually evolved into me becoming the Staff Producer at DeFranco Inc.
DARYN: So, how old were you when you saw your first horror film?
JENNI: I wasn’t allowed to watch horror films until I was in the 3rd grade! I never did figure out how that was the arbitrary time when it was deemed “okay” at the babysitter I went to as a kid, but I remember my friends telling me the plots of both Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, since that was the only way I could find out what they were about. It was funny later watching the movies and seeing how much my friends embellished the stories! Honestly, I think they were even more terrifying having them told to me then watching them on the screen because I’ve always had a very vivid imagination and find that I can scare myself more effectively than any filmmaker can. That’s why I enjoy the subtler horror movies, films like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, where not as much is shown, and you have to fill in the blanks with your own subconscious and what terrifies you personally. One the other hand, I am weirdly addicted to the Saw films, which are extremely visual, but at the same time, they have a great mythology behind them, which not a lot of people take the time to appreciate.
DARYN: Are there any horror films that you still can’t shake?
JENNI: I’ll never get some of the visuals of The Sixth Sense out of my head. Most specifically (SPOILER ALERT!), the little boy with the back of his head blown out and the little girl throwing up under the blanket. There is something not only terrifying but heartwrenching about the ghosts of children that really, really gets to me.
DARYN: OK, I’ve noticed a recurring theme within Black Box TV: technology being a vehicle of supernatural horror. Is that intentional?
JENNI: Again, Tony could speak on this much better than myself but having heard Tony describe the show, I always felt that had been intentional, at least in the beginning. You can see us moving away from it in certain episodes, like the one with Onision and Melanie Merkosky, which is a story of possession with a twist, and Toby Turner’s episode “This Is For You Baby”, in which the only piece of “technology” involved was the garage clicker that Casey McKinnon’s character sadly never got the chance to use. BlackBoxTV is still in flux and focuses more on exploring fear from every angle imaginable. But with that said, Tony is a big fan of technology and a lot of this is coming from a very personal place to him, so it makes logical sense that technology shows up a lot. It also makes the stories personal to the YouTube audience we’re creating for.
DARYN: A divide has seemingly existed between the Web TV world and the “YouTubers,” but Black Box TV merges the two by using both Web TV stars (Taryn Southern, Melanie Merkosky) and YouTubers (iJustine) as guest stars. Can you tease any of the guest stars you’ve got lined up in future episodes?
JENNI: See, I think this is something that Tony and I both have trouble with! Because neither one of us sees that divide. Okay, that’s naïve. Of course we’re aware of its presence but for me, it’s always been an arbitrary divide. The first show I worked on lived exclusively on YouTube. Some of the other shows I’ve worked on have been shown on online networks such as Atom.com but wherever the show calls home, the talent behind it remains the same. These creators are all artists, whether they choose to express their art through a camera pointed directly at themselves as they let you into their daily lives, or through a comedic sketch that makes you laugh, or in a narrative storyline that seeks to entertain and reach into your emotions. Creators are creators no matter what form your creation takes. There is room for all of these shows in all their forms because there are all different kinds of people seeking different forms of
entertainment. So why does there need to be a “divide”?
DARYN: You have a very specific release schedule for BlackBoxTV. Can you talk a little bit about the release schedule and how often you guys shoot? Are you always in production, or do you shoot several episodes at a time?
JENNI: Our production schedule is another thing that is in flux although our release schedule is pretty much set. We do three episodes followed by an “Extra”, which can be an interview with a horror film director, such as we did with Wes Craven, or a documentary-style episode where we visit a haunted place, which we plan to do, or it can even be us announcing a contest or an opportunity, like we did recently with the casting call. After that, we go dark for two weeks as we prepare for the next cycle of episodes and extras. Our first couple of episodes were a pretty hectic schedule of shooting, editing, releasing /
shooting, editing, releasing. The second cycle we actually shot all three episodes in a week and a half time period and edited them in a block. We’re not quite sure yet which production schedule we like better and may try out some other options before we find what works for us. That’s the challenge and the fun of working in the short-form medium… there is not yet a “right” way of doing it so we’re free to play.
DARYN: Alright, what creepy things do you have in store for Halloween?
JENNI: BlackBoxTV is producing an Interactive Halloween Special with Shane Dawson and Totally Sketch’s Michael Gallagher that is going to premiere online on both BlackBoxTV and Shane’s channel on October 30th. It features some awesome talent: Brittani Louise Taylor, Kristin Findley, iJustine, Bree Essrig, Steve Greene, Jason Horton, Richard Ryan, Billy St. John, Tay Zonday, and Shane himself. Michael directed and it was shot by Joey Anderton (BamBamJoey) and Joe Nation.
You can check out the trailer here:
