To commemorate the release of the BloodSpell DVD, here’s the story behind the (in some circles) infamous mock newscast I did on the overcast back in episode #008 in July, 2006.

When Hugh talks about his magnum opus feature film, BloodSpell, it’s hard to contain his enthusiasm. But believe it or not, to hear him talk and write about it now, what you’re seeing is a slightly restrained version of that excitement. His verbiage is nowadays tempered a bit, this in large part due to how initial promotional efforts of the film were received. That reception, at least in the inner circles of the machinima community, ranged from quiet disdain to inflamed hostility. In fact, at times the zeal of the criticism eclipsed the promotion strategy being criticized… Hugh was called arrogant, full of himself, delusional, and worse.

All in a day’s work for a man hopelessly in love with filmmaking.

Throughout it all, working with him on the movie I got to see a side of Hugh that he didn’t drag out into the public square - the side of Hugh that is one thick-skinned tolerant essobie. He took it all in stride, cast aside the ad hominem and listened intently to the meaningful criticisms, and he adapted his approach. I must confess, I’d have been tempted to either wilt under those kinds of attacks, or lash out in anger; he did neither. And the great respect I already had for Hugh Hancock grew even more.

While I never formally presented it to him as such, my encapsulating the situation in comedy was my gift to my friend during what was certainly a trying time though he took great pains to never wear it on his sleeve. Here, then, is the “BloodSpell is Bigger Than Jesus” comedy skit. Of all the kinds of satire I’ve played with over the years in both the podcast and in my films, this remains one of my favorites, where it just really seemed to work even better than I intended.

The theme on which the skit is built will be obvious to those in my age bracket and older, and perhaps less so for those of you younger than I. Back in 1966, controversy erupted surrounding The Beatles (and John Lennon in particular) when John stated in an interview that he thought The Beatles were more popular than Jesus, a remark he later tried to explain away. Reaction in parts of the U.S. included some campaigns to get together and burn the band’s records. You can read more about it at Wikipedia if you’re not familiar with the story. That’s the context from which this skit emerged, satirically comparing the hysterical reactions to Lennon’s statement to that of those reacting to Hugh.

A good deal of the remainder of the skit is a series of tributes to Strange Company’s crew and history which might elude the uninitiated:

• Johnnie Ingram was quick to correct me on my butchering of the pronunciation of Edinburgh… “It’s ED-in-BREH”. I’ve never missed it since.
• The DVD burning protest scene was intended to mimic the record-burning incidents from The Beatles story… but of course at that time there was no BloodSpell DVD, thus the funny interview.
• Ross Bambrey really is the film editor for BloodSpell and The Guardian is of course a real newspaper. Not his voice though; all the voices in this skit were me, as if the bad British accents didn’t give it away.
• The whole fat Americans segment had a two-fold inspiration: 1) The trend, particularly in European media, to portray America as a seething mass of obesity, and 2) A tribute to a hilarious American comic, Zach Galifianakis, who describes himself as looking like a “fat Jesus” and is rumored to be working on a movie of the same name. Example of Zach’s humor (NSFW): “Tough Crowd”)
• The bit with Johnnie Ingram, since I’d not yet heard Johnnie’s voice, was greatly inspired by Karl Pilkington of The Ricky Gervais Show, which I’d been listening to religiously at that time. The subsequent “stalker” line was a reference to how Hugh and Johnnie joke about the way they met and how Johnnie came to work at Strange Company. They talk about it in a bit more detail in their interview in overcast #016a.
• Alasdair Watson is truly the Creative Consultant for BloodSpell, though I actually know very little about him. I do know that he wrote op-ed pieces for Machinima.com in the very early days, is unafraid to speak his mind bluntly, and that he is a long-time friend of Hugh. So the bit about him mooning the approaching press was improvisational on my part, having imagined him as this kind of anti-establishment Allen Ginsberg kind of rebel. I don’t know where that conception came from. Again, I know next to nothing about him, but somehow that’s the impression that I’d formed, that he’d be a fierce friend and unflapped about offending someone he didn’t respect.

If you’d like to hear how the skit was originally aired, it’s at the beginning of overcast #008, which you can listen to here.