Section Toolbar: Homepage News Sports B-Section Editorial/Op-ed Features

Issue date: 5/3/07

Media Credit: Courtney Collins Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan of Blame Society Productions flank the mask of Chad Vader.

Among the biggest Internet stars, such as a skateboarding bulldog, Tom from MySpace, and the Numa Numa Guy, lives Chad Vader.

"Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager" is a Web series that follows the life of a guy who works in a grocery store and happens to be the brother of Darth Vader. The first episode has over four million views on YouTube.com.

But Chad would be nothing without Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan, the short-filmmakers who brought him to life. The comedy-duo makes up Blame Society Productions, which is now so successful they were able to quit their day jobs and concentrate solely on filmmaking.

Yonda plays Chad, but Sloan provides the voice. Sloan's dead-on Darth Vader impression led to LucasArts offering him a job voicing Lord Vader in the Star Wars computer game "Empire at War: Forces of Corruption."

"Chad Vader" was also noticed by Kevin Murphy and Mike Nelson of "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Though MST3K ended in 1999, Murphy and Nelson continue to professionally make fun of films with RiffTrax, mp3s they sell that people can sync up with DVDs to hear the comedians' commentaries on new or classic films. They invited Chad to be a guest on the RiffTrax for "Star Wars Episode II" Attack of the Clones."

"We had a guest spot on the RiffTrax and we also made this promotional video," says Sloan. "It all came about really quickly and it was a great experience to work with those guys, guys who we've admired for years, and get a chance to work with them, and to hang out with them, and drink beer with them. It was a lot of fun."

Other admirers include Tommy Chong, Mr. USA 2005, who sent them an autographed copy of a magazine that he appeared on the cover. Jack Black also expressed to Yonda his admiration for "SuperShooter," a Web series created by Blame Society about an assassin.

The series has also brought Sloan and Yonda attention in their home state of Wisconsin. They started getting recognized on the street, and the mayor of Madison asked if they could find a place for him on an episode of "Chad Vader."

"We've been working at this for several years now, and I think everyone's just really happy that we're getting some recognition and getting a chance to get a lot of positive attention from networks and entities that will be able to support us in the way that we need to really do more extraordinary things and to get a bigger audience," says Sloan. "It's a very exciting time for us, because we're on the verge of doing a lot of really cool stuff." He says they have three significant deals coming up, but they are so early in the process that he is not at liberty to say anything about the projects.

Continued...

Page 1 of 3 next >

Article Tools