http://spidcast.com/tag/tom-konkle/ Brittney Powell is a talented and beautiful actress who was born in Würzburg, Germany. She has appeared in many TV shows and films including: Airborne, Safety Geeks: SVI, Invention with Brian Forbes and countless others. Michael London: Hi, I’m Michael London. Welcome to Spidcast, the Future of Collaborative Video Production brought to you by Spidvid.com and sponsored this week by Indie Source Magazine where they believe free is better and you know what? I think they got a point. On this episode, we are talking with Brittney Powell, an actress you’ve seen plenty on episodic TV and movies too and lots of other things. Also, David Beeler will be here. He’s an actor, writer and web creator. David is certainly one of the pioneers of the new media and he has a great story to tell us and will take us to at least two continents. First up is, well, ladies first. She’s an actress, producer and I’m told an all-around awesome chick. Brittney, thanks for being with us today. Brittney Powell: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I’m looking forward to this. Michael London: So, tell us a little bit about Brittney. Brittney Powell: Well, I’m an army brat. I’ve traveled the world just in being an army brat because that’s what we do and I would say that translates into why, one of the reasons why I moved to Los Angeles, the career path of an actor is very much a person who has to fit into new environments quickly and make themselves at home and make new friends randomly and get sent across the world to go on location and so forth. So, I find that being an army brat was good training for being an actor. Michael London: Well, I can see that. So, where was the very last place you were right before Hollywood? Brittney Powell: The very last place I was before I came to Hollywood was a little town in Texas, right outside of Dallas, Fort Worth which has grown exponentially since I’ve moved away and that was, well, I won’t say how many years ago that was because I’m still only 29 years old. Michael London: And what is the name of that little town? Brittney Powell: It’s Mansfield, Texas. In fact, I just found out from my parents that Kelly Clarkson now lives in Mansfield, Texas. I knew that she had been from Burleson but I had no idea that she went ahead and made the big move to Mansfield. Michael London: Well, you have to fight her now for hometown girl billboard space. Brittney Powell: I know. When I come to town, she better scoot aside because I want to be on the front page of the newspaper. Michael London: I don’t blame you. So, tell us about that path, army brat lived in 10 or so places, new school every year? Brittney Powell: Well, actually, when I was about six, I would say, I started—my father was an officer, so he would always get options of where we were going to be stationed next and I swear to God, that’s when I would pull out a map and a ruler and whatever was closest to LA, that’s the one that got my vote. So, when we had the opportunity, I was born in Germany, but then we moved back to the States and traveled a bit. When we had opportunity to go back to Germany, of course, that’s the one my parents chose but I’m thinking, no, no, I think Phoenix is a better option. Phoenix because it’s closer to LA. Michael London: Good thinking and what about early performing opportunities? Brittney Powell: Mostly, I started just doing family stuff whenever we would have family functions. I would write little plays and I would enlist the help of the friends and families that were there, and make them perform and then I would get, I didn’t understand when they would get nervous in front of their parents. I’m like, we’re just acting and they’re your parents, they love you. Just do it. Then I would get all frustrated if they got all nervous. And then I started doing community theater. I would UIL competitions and they were One-Act Play competitions in high school and what I realized was that I would win and I loved getting the ribbons and the trophies and stuff but I realized very quickly that if I moved to Los Angeles and did this as a living that I could get as little green bio survival tickets that we called dollar bills and those were my trophies that I preferred. So, I just went ahead and I was like, I’m moving to LA. I’m going to make my living doing this. Michael London: All right, all about the Benjamins. What is UIL competition? Brittney Powell: UIL competitions, they’re One-Act Play, so you’ll take an entire play and you’ll go through it and just start editing down lines or even scenes and turn the entire play into one act and then you perform them starting at just the little district level and then you would move to Regionals and if your entire cast continues to win, then you go on to state and so forth. Our cast never actually made it to State. We were always beaten by Martin High School so I’m going to go back and punch them. Michael London: Darn those Martin High Goons. So, we fast forward a bit and you finally land in Hollywood. What do you think? Brittney Powell: I loved it. I originally came out to Hollywood because I accidentally was in Playboy, the girls kind of things, just one those little side picture once they do and the editor saw that, asked me to be a playmate so they started flying me out to Los Angeles a lot and when I was out here, I was meeting agents and they told me point blank that I’m marketable, that I’m talented and that if I would just move out here that I could actually start booking work. So, that’s what I did. I just packed up my little car and tripped it on out here and I started booking work right away. They were right. So, that’s what brought me to Los Angeles and then once I got out here, really, I started booking work right away, lots of commercials and a lot of episodic television, anything that Aaron Spelling had done. Michael London: Wait, wait, wait, tell us where we’ve seen you. Brittney Powell: Oh, my goodness, anything Aaron Spelling has ever done, I’ve been either a recurring role for half a season or I’ve been the series regular for like “Pacific Palisades”. I was a series regular on that. Then Stu Segall Productions, he would do all of the “Silk Stalkings” and “Renegade” all those kind of shows and so they would bring me down and just keep constantly casting me in those shows and then night time episodic was the majority of my career and then films. I had a little, not a little film, it was one of Icon Pictures, first venture into feature films. That’s Mel Gibson’s production company and that was a movie called “Airborne” which is a coming of age movie and I was the lead female in that. Just the (cutest little) movie and I still meet people today, kids who are still addicted to it. In fact, I rented a car the other way and the guy behind the counter, I walked in and he looked me and he goes, “Airborne, right?” How do you know this? I’m like ancient compared to those days, how do you even still recognize me? Michael London: So, he says, “Airborne” and your first word should have been, “Upgrade” right? Brittney Powell: Oh, yes, and don’t think I didn’t. I got the upgrade. Michael London: Good for you. So, you’re really living the working actor’s dream. You’re working a lot. You’re being seen. You’re making your contacts all in traditional media. Then you take a sharp right into the web world. Tell us about that. Brittney Powell: Ah, this I owe to my business partner, writing partner, acting partner, best friend, Tom Konkle. I was at an audition for a commercial and I was just kind of being a little smartass kind of in my own little world but funny, I don’t know, it’s kind of quirky and I realized there was a human being very close to me who was laughing at all of the twisted things that I would say out loud to myself and so he and I started saying weird things out loud to each other and after the audition, I followed him to the parking lot and I told him that I have to know him and we became friends and he had been working on a script called “Safety Geeks: SVI” and very Monty Python-esque but in getting to me, he realized that I was the lead female that he had written. And that started our ventures into the web world. It got a wonderful reception. Immediately, we were one of the first web series that was actually funded by an outside source. So, it was a platform called (Cold Cast). They went ahead and paid for it and it went crazy. We started winning awards, nominated for Streamy Awards and LA Web Fest Awards. It got an amazing reception and that’s when we realized we’re really on to something and then Tom had also in the past had worked with John Cleese who saw it and decided that he wants to be in our—we’re not going to call it a second season. We’re going to call it a sequel because we’re turning that actually into a feature film instead of a web series but it will be on the web as well so John Cleese, we have him on board. Virginia Hey wants to be in it. It’s so silly and it’s ridiculous, it’s so our humor. So, that got us going. Then we decided based on that, other people were asking us to be in theirs doing cameos and so we were doing that. That’s when we realized that we’re going to start our own YouTube channel which we’ve recently launched. It’s RomComtTheSeries, so you can find that at YouTube/romcomtheseries and it is going to be Tom and I playing different characters, romantic comedy, just silly stuff, our humor, the one thing that we did notice with that is that we posted some of what we find to be romantic comedy and in researching the demographics, we’re realizing that we’re serving an underserved market which is people our age watching the internet, looking for more mature romantic comedy. So, we started posting a few things up and when we first put, we just put up a silly sex scene, really fun, romantic but a bit off the wall and we were getting about a thousand hits an hour when we first put it up and it’s continuing to grow. Michael London: Goodness gracious, it sounds like it. Now, John Cleese decidedly silly and then romantic comedy, who exactly is your audience? Brittney Powell: Females love what we’re doing. The main genre, we’re serving it right now, our demographic on there is 60% female within the ages of 18 through 54. So, what we want, actually is for people to email us at tomandbrit384@gmail.com and start emailing us some of their ideas of what they would like to see like if they actually did have the weirdest little romantic scenario in their life, we want to recreate that. We want to write it and put our own spin on it but we want their ideas, what they find to be funny and romantic and then we’re going to put those up as well and we fortunately found that people are finding it funny as well which is nice because sometimes, you put something up that you think is funny and they just run the other direction but they seem to like our weirdness which is cool. Michael London: And you’ll know, you’ll know right away like you’ve seen before with the hits. Brittney Powell: Yes, and I’m very, very fortunate to have Tom as my business partner because he loves computers so he has all the different spreadsheets and everything that are telling us what countries are from, for instance, “Safety Geeks”, when it first launched, we were very big in the United States, but now, we’re finding Saudi Arabia. We’re spiking in Saudi Arabia right now and we can’t exactly explain it. We aren’t going to complain about it. Michael London: Yes, no need to explain it, just enjoy it. So, honest question time, all right? You’re doing well. Your career seems to be on the (uptake), features, episodic TV, you meet Tom. Tom approaches you and says, “Hey, want to do some stuff for the web?” Really, now, what do you think? Brittney Powell: I’ll tell you what, what first caught my attention to say yes was the interaction that I had with Tom and I knew that we could create something that was unique and I knew that we could create something that made me happy. It was our product. We had control over what we were putting out and we had control over how it was put out. That got my attention because a lot of times, you’ll go into a sitcom and you have to do exactly what those writers said and they might not have quite your same personality but you do it because it’s your job and I love my job. However, I love being able to tell Tom, “Can we twist it in this direction as well and have it still be as funny?” And then we can mull it over. We can twist it and tweak it and do that sort until we make it what we want and then we put it up and if people like it, they like it. If they don’t, that’s okay because somebody likes it. There’s not one guy sitting in an office somewhere that it’s his opinion of what’s funny. It’s actually out there for the public to determine and if they like it, they can go to it and watch it. Michael London: Now, you know what? For my money, that is the single most exciting thing about this venue, no gatekeeper. So, literally now, being a pioneer, how about some words of advice for those coming up behind you. Brittney Powell: I think my main bit of advice that I would give to people coming up in the web world would be really pay attention to what you’re writing because you can’t just write something and throw it up and expect it to hit. You’ve got to pay attention to the actual quality of the writing and then pay attention to the quality of production. A lot of people on the web, they’ll have an idea on the weekend and then they’ll shoot it over the weekend and get their friends together and they’re not real actors. They should hire real actors to portray the characters they’ve written instead of saying, “I want to be on TV so I’m going to write something and just put it up there.” Don’t just put it up there. Make sure it’s good enough to represent you as a writer, as an actor and as a producer because that is what, I mean, it’s going to live on the web forever and if you’re just putting up crap, then that’s what people when they do go back 10 years from now and they’re like, “Who’s this person?” And they go back and see it, they’ll be like, “No, they suck. I don’t to watch it.” So, truly pay attention to the quality of what you’re doing and play to your strengths. Michael London: Wonderful words of experience there. So, Playboy, did it hurt or help? Brittney Powell: You know what? Playboy helped, I have to say. It was right around the time when Pamela Anderson was making it okay to be a Playmate and an actress. At that time, I actually turned down Playmate. I’ve shot my centerfold and it was right before Pam made it okay. So, I was noticing that a lot of the other Playmates who were trying to be actresses, they were losing jobs even after having booked the job, they were getting fired off sets once the producers realized that they were Playmates. So, I backed out of the centerfold but what I got out of that was connections. I actually met my first commercial agent through Playboy and we didn’t promote that I was a Playmate or that I had worked for Playboy or anything but I did continue to do the lingerie issues as a way to pay my bills in one day so that the rest of the month, I could be going out on auditions. He was married to Kimberley Heffner at that time and she was very strict at the mansion so when they would bring me out, they would put me up at the mansion and I didn’t have to worry about lecherous old men trying to say, “Well, I can help you, baby, but this is what I like,” and I didn’t have to worry about that because she was like, “Anybody in the swimming pool, you got clothes on. I got a baby running around this house,” or when we would have the Sunday night movie night, it was just his closer friends that they trusted. It wasn’t really just kind of anybody who thought it would be fun to go see a bunch of hot chicks. It was people who actually had integrity and had something to say in the entertainment industry. So, I met some really wonderful people that way and some of whom, I’ve remained in contact with since. So, Playboy I loved and I would do it again. Michael London: Interesting, so what can you tell us about your experience with collaboration? Brittney Powell: I think that what you guys have going with Spidvid is incredibly helpful to the independent producer because we can come to you and say, “Hey, look what we’ve got,” and then you have a whole targeted audience that comes to you guys to say, “I have this to offer but I’m lacking in this area,” and they have that to offer but they’re lacking in that area so it does become very much a collaborative effort and with people of like-mind. So, that to me is invaluable. So, thank you, Spidvid, for existing. It is invaluable what you guys do. Michael London: Very kind words, Brittney. Thank you so much but the only way we exist is because of people like you. Brittney Powell: Oh, well, thank you very much for saying that. Michael London: So, what would be the takeaway message from Brittney Powell today? Brittney Powell: Taking talent and utilizing it along with what would otherwise be considered maybe a more surfaced quality. People do pay attention to my looks and I know that but that doesn’t mean that I have to only use my looks to get ahead. My looks get attention and then from that, people can really go, “Whoa, wait a second, she can walk. Whoa, she’s intelligent.” That is what I appreciate about being on this planet. Michael London: All right, and speaking of looks and talent, where can see everything Brittney. Brittney Powell: Everything Brittney, well, IMDB as my entire resume and that’s of course, Brittney Powell on IMDB. You can find, a lot of the new stuff is going to be on the RomComTheSeries on YouTube. There’s a lot of stuff too on the www.safetygeekssvi.com. In fact, I even have a little bit on “Invention” with Brian Forbes. I have kind of a cameo in that. I’m a guest star on that one, a recurring player. The internet, I mean, anything Brittney, just Google it. Everything will come up. What won’t come up are my photos from Playboy. I don’t know why. I think it was because that was back in the ancient days when they didn’t have digital. Michael London: I just sense a disturbance in the force. Brittney Powell: That’s funny. Well, I’ll go find some of those old pictures and scan them and put them up and then I’ll put them under fake names so that nobody will come after me for copyright infringement. Michael London: You can say, here’s Kelly Clarkson. Brittney Powell: I will say, “Kelly, can you just come here and say a few words standing next to me and then I can pop up under your Google searches too?” Michael London: Always thinking, Brittney Powell. Thank you so much for joining us today on Spidcast. Brittney Powell: Thank you so much for having me. I had a great time talking to you.