Today we’d like to introduce you to Brendan Sullivan.
Brendan, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I remember watching the television show Jackass as a kid and thinking “man I could do that if I had a video camera!” Eventually, my parents bought me my first camera when I was around 10 and I had fallen in love. I filmed everything I could but back then it was all on tape. Fast forward to the digital era, here I am in middle school and high school learning how to edit short films.
Eventually, every cell phone had a camera and more and more social media Apps are being released to showcase what you could do with them. So I made a Vine account. I was addicted to Vine but I couldn’t get the formula down. I had a few thousand followers but my most popular Vine was with a couple of musicians named Kalin and Myles at the AMP Radio studio and it had only reached about 13k likes. In the middle of the Vine craze I had been shipped off to Boot Camp with the military and by the time I got out Vine wasn’t “hip” anymore but I kept at it anyway.
During the Super Bowl 50 hype in 2016, I saw that a popular Viner Logan Paul had advertised a contest for Doritos. They were giving away $50,000 to whoever could come up with the best video advertisement in under 6 seconds, so of course, I entered. I submitted just a 6 second Vine titled “When you Wish for it to Rain Doritos but it Doesn’t Happen Right Away.” (Lol.) It starts off with me making a wish and blowing out Birthday candles and ends with me crying and Doritos raining from the sky. I ended up winning the contest, I was shocked.
So I used the prize money to buy all of this professional production gear and editing software and started making actual short films. I brought some of my Vine characters into 4K comedy shorts on Facebook and Instagram, I shot music videos for my friends in the Lowell, MA band Ebonhart and my boys in Nuphsaid out of Brockton, MA that ended up being finalists in a couple film festivals.
But my most successful short film is a parody of the SAW franchise, it’s called SEEN. I won’t say much about it because you have to go and watch it but it was also a finalist in about 5 film festivals one being international allowing it to be viewed in countries all over the world. I recently had to take a break from the production after attending the Fire Academy but I can promise something big is coming soon!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No road is ever smooth when it comes to entertainment. Going from the kid in the playground filming his friend fall off of a swing to being viewed by thousands all over the world saw many barriers including work, personal life, writing, equipment. Nothing ever goes right but that’s why you don’t give up.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Brendan Edwards – what should we know?
Like I mentioned I try and create comedy shorts that I think are funny, in hopes that some people out there will think the same. Whether it be me starring as myself or a crazy character I’ve created. But I love doing music videos also.
You get to meet this band who created this music, worked so hard and now want to express it through visual art, it could get to be such an experience. But comedy, funny vidzz is my thang.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Perseverance is key. A ‘funny guy’ using such a phrase sounds funny as it is but it’s the truth. Even though there are people that tell me I’m crazy and my videos are ridiculous I still try and try over again. Not every video will be the next viral hit but my small taste of success left me hungry for more.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realbrendanedwards/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RealBrendanEdwards/
- Other: https://mashable.com/2016/02/11/doritos-tweet-winners-super-bowl/#PhOmaYIK_uqu
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