Most Popular
Second Blog! (of Sean Gransee)
Posted October 24th, 2007 by Sean Gransee
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I copied the title from Aaron. Sue me.
As you can see, the new website has officially launched. It's got some great new features, and even more will be rolling out in the future. It's still a work in progress. In the next few weeks I will be fooling with a couple design ideas and adding some more color to the site. The site isn't done yet, but I decided to launch it early because of all the exciting news with Crackle (see left sidebar.)
The response to the new (half-finished) website has been pretty incredible. 3 out of the 3 people I've talked to seem to absolutely love it. I think the most exciting new feature is the way the blog is integrated with the rest of the site. It allows for better communication between the team at Britethorn and the loyal fans.
Soon to come.... a free email newsletter than will alert subscribers when a new video is released. Check the site frequently for more updates.
Now I'd like to know what the Britethorn fans think of the new website. Type your comments in the box below (you don't need to sign up for anything.) As always, feel free to contact us via the contact page by clicking the link at the top of this page.
I'll probably write here again as the site progresses, but don't expect many blog posts from me. I'll save the space for Sam's blog, which should be pretty interesting.
First Blog of Sam (George W. Bush) Locke!!!
Posted October 23rd, 2007 by Sam Locke
Sam Locke here!
Some of you may know me as President Bush, in the American Ranger series, or Jordan from Marx and Sun. Now I've been promoted to "Blogger" status here at Britethorn!
I'm pretty excited about this, and figure I'll do some wilder posts in the future, but I thought I should start by letting you all get to know me, so that you'll know who you're reading the jumbled thoughts of.
I grew up in Rockwood, Tennessee, a small town between Nashville and Knoxville (closer to Knoxville), with my parents, Jim and Jan, and my brother, Jimmy (who is ten years older than me). When I was seven years old, I began playing mandolin, and doing impressions. I played with a band with my dad, called "Southern Comfort", where I played mandolin, and told little jokes to entertain the crowd between the songs (mostly at the expense of banjo players).
My senior year of highschool, I began putting my impressions to good use, impersonating teachers for sketches and announcements.
I went for one year at Austin Peay State University, in Clarksville, Tennessee, (Yes the town the Monkees sang about) because of their sketch comedy (TAPED) series, "Campus Wild" which only lasted until the end of my first semester, which led me to leave after the second semester.
I moved back to Rockwood, and worked in Radio for about a year, doing commercials/producing/sketches on the air, as well as tech.
I moved to Chicago, in January of 2004, to take improv classes at the Second City. I got a job at the Second City, first as a host, then as the cook (aka kitchen manager), where I met John Kramer and Aaron Sjoholm, who later founded Britethorn.
One year ago, I put in my two weeks notice at Second City, so I could focus on performing at The Annoyance Theater, where I have performed ever since.
Well, that's me. I know it was long, and boring, but that's what they say, "The First Blog is always the dullest". Now that you know me, I can focus on the fun stuff!
Write to you soon!
Is Hillary Clinton Abusing YouTube?
Respectfully, Britethorn would like to know if Sen. Clinton is using YouTube as a free advertising space or if she is actually paying attention to the responses to her videos. And if so, is it Cool to do so?
Fireside Chat With George W. Bush
Pres. Bush explains Fear.
Directed by John T. Kramer. Written by John T. Kramer and Sam Locke.
First Blog! (of Aaron Sjoholm)
Posted October 23rd, 2007 by Aaron Sjoholm
I just wanted to jump on and make sure all appropriate kudos go to John for being the best darn CEO in the world. Out of the 58 things we have on our youtube channel now, he has been intimately and fully involved with the creation of every single one. He treats this work with absolute dedication & passion, and it's been a pleasure to work with him for what is now going on three years (screenplay time + britethorn time).
I'd also like to add my personal thanks to everyone we know. Over the last few days since the contest win was announced, the overwhelming support from our friends, co-workers & loved ones has been non-stop. I hope we can live up to everyone's very kind words!
And thanks again to Sean (who I've never met in the flesh) for all his work on this site & for not telling John he created me a blog account so I could write this.
It's an exciting time, with Sam in place to keep this website's content fresh, the contest stuff, and the 20+ videos that are already underway for the remainder of this year. I'm particularly excited for the next three episodes of American Ranger, which will be available soon.
If you've read this far, thank you for indulging my longwindedness. And check back with this bee-utiful website often! The inner workings of Sam's twisted little mind are not to be missed.
White House Halloween 1: Where's Condi?
George W. Bush Holds a Special Halloween Conference at the White House. Written by John T. Kramer & Aaron Sjoholm. Starring Sam Locke and John T. Kramer. The other 4 videos in this series will be coming out between now and National Eat Candy Day.
WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted October 22nd, 2007 by John Kramer
On Thursday afternoon, October 18th, I received a telephone call from Josh Felser, the CEO of Crackle.com, informed me that Britehorn's film, "Hit Men" had been chosen as the FIRST WINNER in the Crackle.com's SHORTS CONTEST. Our winning film is "Hit Men," and was written by myself and Directed by our friend Johnny Bruder. Our stars were Matt Craig as the Average Democrat, Andy St. Clair as the pollster with Glasses, and Alex Fendrich as the Second pollster. We recieved a great deal of help on this film from several people. Mike and Dorothy Conway gave us the greatest push to make the film, and were there when we needed help getting it onto tape. Our friends Sherman Edwards, Adam Yencho, Marty Shutter, Laura F. and Megan Gilbert were all super helpful on the set during the shoot. And Chad Kruger did an amazing job on the film's original score.
The prize from Crackle and SONY includes $15,000, a trip for Aaron and Myself to LA, two pitch meetings to produce original content for Crackle.com and a Screenplay pitch meeting with Columbia Studios.
Needless to say, Aaron and I couldn't be happier and are working tirelessly to ensure that Britethorn takes full advantage of this amazing opportunity to do better and better films, and to help out more and more of our actor,writer, and director friends.
We LOVE Crackle.com and are looking forward to working with them to create some truly outstanding films -- and to have fun doing it!!
And Kudos to Sean Gransee for whipping the website into shape so quickly!!
"Opportunities Multiply as they are Seized"
Sun Tzu
Super big thank you, to Sean!
Posted October 23rd, 2007 by Sam Locke
Hey wanted to send out a super big thank you to Sean for setting me up the account so I can blog here! Can't wait to really dig in!
Video Comments Stuff
Posted January 8th, 2008 by John Kramer
It's very interesting how the comments on our videos on YouTube have evolved over the past year.. . . When we first started posting stuff (the Democrat/Republican series) we mostly got cracks like "you guys are gay" or "you guys are liberal jerks." But when we moved onto the Clinton/Obama series, things started to change. We now get as many comments accusing us of being conservatives or anti-Hillary as there are ones calling us liberals. I'd call that progress.
The watershed video for us, comments wise, "Is Hillary Clinton Abusing YouTube?" We've had over a quater of a million views of the video, and more than 2,000 comments on it. For months after we put that one up the comments were overwhelmingly anti-Hillary. The comments were so brutally negative towards her that I found myself repeatedly defending her. I really think she's been a great Senator, even though she is not my first choice in the Presidential election.
But where were all the Hilary supporters? The video was Featured and Promoted on YouTube for several days. It had tons of traffic on it, but almost no one took her side in the discussion. NOW, however, when her support is beginning to vanish at the pols, Hillary supporters have suddenly begun to leap to her defense.
Very interesting. When she was riding high, no one bothered to come to her aid. But now, with things falling apart, people are leaping to her defense.
On another note, the Ron Paul comments have started to vanish. It used to be that every time we put a video up, we'd get inundated with Ron Paul spam. No more, now that he's getting creamed in the elections.
