Could a DIY movie maker take home an Academy Award?
Erik Beck, the MacGyver of no-budget movies, thinks so. As the creator of the hit web show, "Backyard FX," he teaches viewers how to make special effects, like swamp thing costumes, on the cheap.
It's a talent, he says, that will win one of his viewers an Oscar someday.
The movie makers at Indy Mogul create monsters and swamp things with items you can find at home.
But until that day comes, he's content to teach his viewers how to use the contents of their kitchen junk drawers to create everything from ninja swords and werewolves to stop-motion puppets and beating human hearts — all for $50 or less.
Beck and his weekly "Backyard FX" are at the heart of the guerilla filmmaking channel Indy Mogul, where a new breed of young moviemakers are using the web to learn how to create and distribute their own content. Less than a year old, Indy Mogul is pulling in roughly two million viewers a month — as well as ad dollars from big Hollywood studios pushing films like Rambo and Sweeney Todd.
Beck shoots sample videos to highlight his creations.
Beck, 26, has only worked on low-budget films, never on what he calls a "real production." But his passion for film is real. By the sixth grade, he was building replicas of Star Wars ships from shoe boxes and asking teachers how he might pursue a career in special effects.
His family moved frequently, spurring Beck's hobbies. "I didn't have tons of friends," he says, "so I was forced to kind of entertain myself. When you don't have a lot of friends, and you have cardboard boxes lying around, you can make robots and they're your friends."
He was a political science major in college but spent much of his time making movies that featured his home-made robots and other creations. (In fact, he used a financial aid check to buy a camera.) Another aspiring filmmaker, Justin Johnson, saw Beck's clips, and the two became friends.
Years later, Beck was temping at a loan office in Oakland. Johnson, by then a producer for NextNewNetworks, which owns Indy Mogul and nearly a dozen other web channels, contacted Beck with an unusual offer.
"I said, "Erik, I need you to make a show,'" says Johnson, "'I know you hate your job. I know you hate your life. This will make you happy. Make me a show about making things.'"
Now Beck creates a Backyard FX show each week, along with two other programs. Coming up with new ideas, creating the effects, then acting, shooting and editing is an endless treadmill of work — but still a dream come true.
Erik Beck is the host of "Backyard FX" on indymogul.com.
"Erik only drinks Red Bull," says Johnson. "He actually doesn't drink water."
On a recent afternoon, at the request of several fans, Beck creates a swamp monster effect, transforming Indy Mogul associate producer Steve Nelson with nothing more than disposable painter's pants, packing foam, paper towels and green paint.
The do-it-yourself part of Backyard FX is just half the fun. Each episode also includes a short test film showing what the effect looks like in action. The premises of the test films can be as absurd as they are hilarious.
In this case, the film is a parody of a Saturday Night Live video, "Lazy Sunday," in which Johnson and Nelson gangster-rap about the mundane pleasures of the city. The scene ends with Nelson getting a bottle of blue-cheese dressing poured over his head.
It's clever and silly at the same time, but the three commit to the scene with the same intensity as if they were re-making "Citizen Kane."
Undoubtedly, it's important to them because they know how lucky they are to be making a living doing what they love--being creative and telling their stories any way they can — while inspiring others to do the same.
Getting the chance to make something, says Johnson, "no matter how simple or stupid or silly it is, the rush, the feeling I get, truly is a high."
Producer: Erin Green
Video Editor: Steve Neilson
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