Episode 4: Location, Location, Location

The next several episodes feature guest stars as superhero applicants and, later, villains.  The first applicant, Graviator, was played by rising star Conner Marx, who brought a delightful awkwardness to the role.  We've all been in the position of interviewing in a situation where the company is not well prepared, and that lack of preparation somehow reflects badly on the person who doesn't even work there.  There is also a reference to being put on the spot and tested on one's skills (and being unprepared to do so).

This episode not only marks the change of location, but also of a shift-around in some crew positions, and a step up in production value.

Episode 3.5: Moving Day

So, right after we shot the first three episodes of The Collectibles back in August 2011, Arc Media lost their lease, leaving us without an office in which to shoot.  Fortunately, through connections with our Ultrafemme actress, we were able to secure Chubb Security in Bothell, WA for episodes 4 through 10.

To ease the shock of a totally different environment in episode 4, we were able to shoot a brief scene in the Arc Media space literally days before they moved out, and wrote the office move into the next batch of episodes.

Episode 3: The Views Expressed...

Rob and Joel (Kyle and Jim of Kirby Krackle) are back as guest stars in the third episode.  In a sequence reminiscent of Office Space, the team members of the Power Posse meet with the corporate tools to justify their jobs.  And no, we're not too proud to go for the pee joke.

Episode 2: Tool Time

For this episode, we enlisted the talents of Jim Demonakos and Kyle Stevens of Seattle nerd rock band Kirby Krackle to portray Joel Bradavky and Rob Schufeld, a couple of tools from upstairs at "corporate" (meaning where the actual decisions regarding the Power Posse are made).

Some trivia:

• Kirby Krackle are responsible for the end title track on each episode of The Collectibles.  "I Wanna Live in a World Full of Heroes" is exactly the vibe we wanted for the show, as it's about throwing off the mundane yoke of an office job or flipping burgers for the exciting world of superhero crime fighting.
• Jim Demonakos has done some improv, but has no formal acting experience, and it is his rehearsed delivery that makes him so painfully believable as a corporate manager.
• As the chief songwriter and front man for Kirby Krackle, Kyle Stevens is the literal voice of the band, while lyricist Jim Demonakos stays more behind the scenes.  For episodes 2 & 3 of The Collectibles, we reversed their roles.  Jim does the talking while Kyle remains silent.
• Jim's character, Joel Bradavky - what does it mean?  "Joel" is a reference to Joel Schumacher, the movie director who many Batman fans say ruined the 1990s movie franchise.  Batman the Animated Series contained an episode where an overly-flamboyant kid is fantasizing about how he would tell his Batman story, to which the other kids reply, "Shut up, Joel."  This has become comic book jargon for addressing any bad idea.  Among Schumacher's many perceived sins was putting nipples on the batsuit.  "Bradavky" is nipples in Czech.
• Kyle's character, Rob Schufeld - what does it mean?  "Rob" is a reference to Rob Liefeld, a comic book artist in the 1990s whose hyper-stylized drawing bore little to no resemblance to the human form.  "Schufeld" is an amalgam of Schumaker and Liefeld, two extremely divisive personalities in comic book franchise history.

The Collectibles Goes Live

I can't believe I haven't posted anything new since Sam's birthday, but I assure you there was good reason.  The Collectibles premiered at Emerald City Comicon on April 1st, and went live on the interwebs the next day.  We're releasing a new episode every Monday.

As great as the reaction has been, some friends and family are hesitant to jump in because they "don't get" superheroes or comic books or that kind of thing.  But The Collectibles is not about comic book superheroes.  It's about every cube farm in which you've ever worked, and the co-workers just happen to be superheroes.  You don't watch shows like The Office because you work in commercial paper sales.  You watch it because everyone has had a boss like Michael or a co-worker like Dwight.  If you've ever worked in a soul-sucking corporate environment (show of hands?), you'll "get" The Collectibles.

Here's the pilot: