SDCC 2014: Geekscape Interviews Kristen Nedopak

Most of us know Kristen Nedopak from The Skyrim Parodies, or as the host of ThinkHero TV, or the weekly series onScienceFiction.com. Or maybe as the Producer/Writer of Pucker, a series of irreverent indie comedy shorts. But last year Kristen decided she needed more to do, and founded The Geekie Awards, an award show for geeks, by geeks,  and she sat down with us last week at Comic Com to discuss her newest endeavor.

Q. What led you to create the Geekie Awards?

A. Actually, the best ideas come from things that don’t exist, right? And I’m a creator, I make Sci-Fi/Fantasy stuff, and coming to Comic Con–and I always say this to people–coming to Comic Con, you’re a geek, and you love everything here, but in the outside world, people don’t always take that seriously. They’re like, ‘What’s that costume? What are you doing?’ You know, I’ll go out in cosplay and people will look at me like I have three heads. And in the entertainment industry, we know that these multi-million dollars movie chains like Marvel, they’re huge, but the average everyday person is still like ‘Oh, it’s just fun, everyday entertainment. If something is going to win an Oscar, it’s going to be this drama.’ And I had been talking to agents and going to festivals–because I write and direct my own stuff–and I just kept getting this feedback, that it was such a weird niche, it was too geeky, they weren’t into that. And I would be getting awards, or nominated for awards, but it would only be for costume design. So, I was talking to my publicist, and I said, ‘they’re not really looking at the stories.’ And if this was a geek award, it would be about the story. And that’s kind of how I came up with it. I just, I wished there was something for geeks. And my publicist said, ‘Why don’t you make it?’ and that’s how the idea formed. Of course, it was a lot more work after that.

Q. And how long did it take, from idea to actual show?

A. Well, the show is in its second year, but it was around for a few years before, in development, sort of kicking it around. Trying to get a team involved.

Q. How many entries did you get for each? 

A. We had about 450 entries this year. Last year was about 250. So we basically doubled. Our top categories our Web Series and Podcasts, they’re huge, there’s a lot of material to go through. We’re still trying to reach the video game industry. But all of the entries, they all need to be seen. There’s such talent here.

Q. You mentioned video games. Do you find a lot of resistance in that industry to these awards?

A. Well, I work in entertainment, but video games is kind of its own beast. I wouldn’t say there’s resistance from people in the industry as much as the developers were so burnt out trying to get into the industry that they just felt, ‘oh, this is another show that I’m not going to get into, and it’s just another thing that I don’t know if I have the confidence to do.’ And a lot of the feedback I got was like that. So we really worked hard to encourage those people to enter. And I think once they found out it was indie games, it made them feel like, ‘ok, this is for indie games, I’m not going to go up against Blizzard or Activision.’ It’s not about having millions and millions of dollars, it’s about making a really cool game. That was probably the biggest challenge.

Table-top games, now, they loved it!

Q. The Geekie Awards have a lot of categories…

A. I know! And we only have so much time on the show, and a lot of people ask me, ‘how do you fit all those podcasts or all those webseries into one category?’ But that’s what we do, we really try to give the award to the piece that is the best, of the best, of the best, of its category. We don’t do Best Actor or Best Screenplay, because we’re looking at them as a whole. But we do honors, so after the show we’ll hand out honors to things, like, if the music was exceptional, or if a film was the best sci-fi film, it’ll get an honor. So we do try to make everyone feel like they were awesome.

It’s one of those things, that if you’re good, you’re good, and people are going to see it.

Q. Let’s take podcasts, as an example. Podcasts can run the gamut from a talk show, to a radio play, to a game show. How do you pick the ‘best’ from such radically different formats?

A. That’s pretty much the most asked questions I get from my judges, especially a new judge. They come on board and they say ‘I don’t know how to do this, they’re all so different.’ And we tell them, don’t judge this by comparing it to anything else. Judge it individually. I have a scoring system, so it will be about, how is the production quality, how are the hosts, how is the voice over? And they take all of those pieces into consideration, and then it becomes the best of the best. And you’ll see, with the nominees, that it’s a really good mix. A lot of times, especially with the podcasts, it comes down to the entertainment value. Was I having fun? Was I entertained? Did I learn anything new?

For the films and series, it’s definitely about production and story. And if you’re good, you’re gonna get up there.

Last year, one of the nominees was a gameshow podcast, and it was so random, and they loved it, and that guy ended up using the nomination to get is show booked on a bigger channel. So it’s one of those things, that if you’re good, you’re good, and people are going to see it.

You can catch The Geekie Awards 2014 nominees here and the live show on August 17th, 2014 at the Avalon Hollywood. You can still purchase tickets here, or if Hollywood is just to far to get to (looking at you, South Bay), you can watch the live stream, including the live band pre-show, on the website.

Watch the promo below, and let us know if you’ll be tuning in and what you think in the comments!