The End Of Brandon Generator…

It's kind of appropriate that I can't actually remember how I first heard about Brandon Generator. Whether it was an email from the PR company or reading about it on a website, or by word of mouth.

I say "appropriate" because the story centres on a writer, Brandon, who is "blocked" and, after consuming an inordinate amount of coffee, passes out, only to discover that he's been left mysterious voice messages, drawings and ideas in his amnesiac stupor. Those messages have been left by the general public, suggesting to the team which direction to take the story. This led to all sorts of bizarre tangents, such as the deadly coffee monster, "Caffeinedo."

The whole project was a fascinating part-movie/part-storyboard/part-animation/part-motion comic/interactive experiment. Written by Edgar (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) Wright and illustrated by Tommy Lee (Turf, Golden Age) Edwards, the exercise could have fallen flat on its bearded, bespectacled face, but it worked brilliantly. I was intrigued by the idea and contributed a few story ideas and got a credit in Issue 3. With The Mighty Boosh's Julian Barratt providing the narration and superstar DJ/Producer David Holmes on music; Brandon's story was small, but fascinating, funny, and always left you wanting more.

It was funded by Microsoft to promote their new browser, Explorer 9, and hats off to them for funding this—and hopefully more arts projects. God knows, with the government hacking budgets the arts need to get their funding from somewhere.

Last night I went up to Smithfield's in London for the launch of the fourth and final part of this brilliantly interactive artwork.

Funnily enough the whole event was held in the very same warehouse, where, a few years earlier, I'd played a superhero on Channel 4's Zero to Hero. Fortunately that episode was only ever aired once, and I've never seen it. We spent 3 days filming there, so the venue and event felt a bit like a homecoming.

It was nice spending some time with comics journalists Joel Meadows, of Tripwire, and Alex Fitch, of Resonance FM, over a few glasses of gratis vino. Microsoft screened all four episodes back to back and then Mark Kermode interviewed the collaborators. It was an evening spent with one of my favourite directors, Wright, one of my favourite musician/ producers, Holmes, one of my favourite comedians, Julian Barratt and one of my favourite comic artists, Tommy Lee Edwards. All hosted by my favourite film critic, Kermode. Plus free food and booze. How could it go wrong?

 

Best of all they're really lovely, lovely guys! Top blokes all round and very generous with their time. Not an overinflated ego insight, which was so refreshing to see.

I managed to make a tit of myself, naturally, with a "joke" that fell flat on its face, and got into a verbal tussle in the Q&A with Kermode, who accused my black shirt of being blue, but the hosts were gracious and witty. Wright confessed that the whole project was in fact a cry for help over his coffee addiction and joked that the event was just a big intervention. They all discussed how easy it was to put the project together despite living in different parts of the world, and how incredibly fast they had to work (it was only conceived in January 2012). When asked what he'd learnt from the experience, Holmes amusingly replied "Absolutely nothing."

Below are some terribly blurry pics of the the evening (I blame the combination of alcohol and a crappy old iPhone):

 

 

So forget Kickstarter for crowd-funded comics, the future is crowd-generated comics!