50in50‘s Brent Rose Needs Help to Keep Creating Characters
In my initial coverage of actor Brent Rose’s 50in50 project last April, I was enthusiastic but concerned that the strain of showcasing a new character a week in a 3- to 5-minute short film would be too much for a working actor holding down a full-time job. Twenty-four episodes later, Rose dropped me a line to say that I was right — which was why he was turning to his fans for help, via the fundraising web site Kickstarter. Via IM, we talked about how the project has evolved since its beginnings, brainstormed a new idea for a pledge reward, and discussed how 50in50 connects to Rose’s dream of being a Saturday Night Live cast member. An edited transcript follows.
NewTeeVee: How have you found the experience creatively?
Rose: I’ve loved it. I was deathly afraid when I started that I would run out of ideas after 10 weeks or so. But the opposite has happened, really. I’m seeing ideas for potential characters and stories everywhere now.
NewTeeVee: Have trends emerged in your work that you’ve been surprised by?
Rose: Yeah, I’ve noticed some patterns. As an actor, it’s easy to approach characters as these concepts we have of their limitations. But if you approach them like they’re people, then there is always a ton of room to be surprised. I mean, I’ve never met a person who is only one thing. Anybody, if you get to know them, will surprise you at some point. It would have been really easy to make Lon in The New Freedomland Dancers a “gay cliche,” or Mike in Classic a nerd cliche, but it’s about finding the underlying humanity and what that person is really all about.
NewTeeVee: Why did you decide to turn to Kickstarter?
Rose: When I was in California for a play this summer, I was able to make a few episodes that [took up to] 40 hours to produce, and I suddenly felt like the project had even more potential than I thought. And that was a wonderful discovery, but it was also daunting because I knew when I got back to New York there would be no way I could work 40-45 hours a week and spend 30-40 hours on each week’s episode. I would drive myself into the ground.
I’m sheepish about asking for help, but I’m not asking people to fund a vacation: I’ll still be working part-time. But part-time is very different from full-time, and I just know I could make some killer episodes.
NewTeeVee: How did you approach structuring the rewards system for Kickstarter pledging, which includes DVDs, buttons, photos, and web site credit for even smaller donations?
Rose: I brainstormed and then started trying to rate them, combine them, and put them in some kind of order. I also looked at what other successful projects had done in the past. I think the rewards I have set for $25 and $50 are pretty sweet, and those amounts have made up most of the pledges so far.
NewTeeVee: Did you at any point consider offering an impersonation — you know, of a pledgee or their boss or loved one?
Rose: I wonder if I could get sued for that, but yeah, good idea.
NewTeeVee: Given the amount of creative control you’d be ceding in that case, where would you price it?
Rose: I think I’d price it around $1,000, and I’d probably have a stipulation that it was going to be a caricature — like one of the street artists in Paris would do.
NewTeeVee: Beyond that, what are you up to?
Rose: My current goal (beyond 50in50) is to work for Saturday Night Live. They don’t just take auditions for performers — they have to find you. But for writing, you can submit packets of sketches you’ve written. So I’m writing more, and trying to put more stuff out there, doing a little improv here and there, and…I dunno. That’s just about every move I’ve got.
NewTeeVee: Have you thought about tailoring 50in50 as an SNL audition?
Rose: I’ve considered it, because I do want to work there, and from a business stand-point, that would probably be smart. But 50in50 has its own unique thing that I really love, and I wouldn’t want to diminish that in order to try to appeal to another show. But, if I can appeal to more people WITHOUT diminishing what the show is at its heart, then that’s certainly not a bad thing.
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