By Courtney Collins
March 2007 (reprinted from Film Forward newsletter)

"I'm not even a Star Wars fan - but I love Chad Vader!" These are the sorts of comments I've been hearing since episode 1 of "Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager" first appeared on YouTube in July of last year. I think comments like this are testament to the fact that the series' writers Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda have managed to pull off a Star Wars parody that isn't just a "parody." The series chronicles the trials and triumphs that face "Chad Vader," Darth Vader's lesser-known and less charismatic younger brother who manages a grocery store. "Chad Vader" has been featured on Good Morning America, written up in the New York Times (and countless other newspapers worldwide), and most recently nominated as Best Series in the first annual YouTube awards. It's garnered over 13 million views on websites like YouTube and MySpace.

Aaron and Matt have been collaborating as Blame Society Productions on short films for over six years - since about the time they met at ComedySportz, the now defunct Madison improv group. Aaron had been writing and filming his cable access show "The Splu Urtaf Show" since 1993, and Matt had been acting in theatrical productions. They've had many films appear in festivals internationally, several of which have won various awards, but their popularity skyrocketed with the success of Chad Vader.

I never saw the Star Wars movies when I was a kid - it was only over a year ago that I first saw all six movies and I had just begun to "get into" Star Wars when the guys told me about the Chad Vader idea last summer. I was so excited about it and wanted to be involved in any capacity that I could. I'm engaged to Aaron and have appeared in some of his films in the past and have helped out with his and Matt's projects "behind the scenes," but I really wanted to play a bigger part in making Chad Vader happen. I started doing organizational things, like scheduling, recruiting actors and extras, and reserving locations, thus becoming the producer of the series. Tona Williams, who is married to Matt, has been involved in past Blame Society films as cinematographer, and is also responsible for the camera work and art direction of Chad Vader. She too has been doing various "behind the scenes" work for Matt and Aaron in the past few years - most notably creating and maintaining the website for Blame Society Productions (www.BlameSociety.net) . But this was the first time the four of us have really worked together as a team, and it's been so much fun to work together as two couples and as a foursome of friends.

We've also been really fortunate to work with talented regional actors and crew members. Each episode takes at least two five or six hour nights, and sometimes more for episodes that are filmed at locations other than the Willy Street Coop (the Madison grocery cooperative that has been kind enough to let us use the store as the series' primary location). Everyone volunteers their time, and we couldn't be luckier. A recent highlight was the appearance of Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz in episode 6. His office contacted us to let us know that Mayor Dave was a fan and that he'd love to be in an episode, which of course we took him up on!

Season 1 consists of eight episodes, the last of which we filmed in late March. Matt and Aaron recently appeared on VH-1's 40 Greatest Internet Superstars, and just returned from working with Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame for their latest endeavor "Rifftrax." Rifftrax is a website from which you can download humorous audio commentary that plays in sync along to popular movies, such as Lord Of The Rings, The Matrix, and The Phantom Menace. Rifftrax invited Matt and Aaron to San Diego last week to record a track which features the voice of Chad. Aaron and Matt also filmed their own special episode of Chad Vader featuring both Kevin Murphy and Mike Nelson, which should be available online within the next few weeks.

We'll be taking a short break from filming the series, but plan on beginning preparations for Chad Vader - season 2 within the next few months. It's been a hectic, but extremely rewarding and exciting year for us!