So I only recently discovered Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin’ a week or two ago. I realize I’m a few years behind the party, but I’ve been enjoying them thoroughly. Ashly is a very entertaining performer to watch, and Anthony foils his sister’s character really well. The production is humble and very loose, keeping the humor raw and fast which makes it easy to devour several at a Time.
The thing is, I find that when I get hooked into a YouTube channel–or any visual media really–I find that I am very prone to adopting its performance style. It’s not really all that surprising, since I sometimes turn to these channels for inspiration or just to get me hyped. Though it does worry me when I watch them after I post them and recognize that I’ve directly ported mannerisms or editing styles from channels I have subscribed to.
Being that I have been slow motion binge watching HAWP, when the prospect of a new video came around I was very aware that my ideas were being intensely influenced by the show and I couldn’t seem to shake it off. So I didn’t. Obviously.
I decided I would just go the opposite direction and let the influence engulf the video entirely. Thus this Hey Gary video.
Thanks to the influence it was very quick to script and fun to shoot since I knew exactly what I was going for. I was also surprised at some of the subconscious things I did in my acting that paralleled the way Anthony and Ashly actually perform.
In the end the Hey Gary kinda turned out to be more meta than I originally conceived, but I don’t mind that at all. I also enjoy the opportunity to poke fun at myself.
