Proving Des Moines is NOT boring

Beyond Youtube: Scott Siepker & Paul Benedict on the Success of “Iowa Nice”

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Taking advantage of an opportunity, that’s exactly what these guys did while the world spotlight was on Iowa this week.  Monday night, 24 hours to go until the Iowa Caucus and IowaFilmMakers‘ Scott Siepker and Paul Benedict were at the top of Desmoinesregister.com with a link to the new “Iowa Nice” Youtube video.  Within a couple hours the video was featured on MSNBC; by Tuesday it was covered by CNN, The Atlantic, CNN International, Huffington Post, and BBC World News among several others.  ”Iowa Nice” was an extra kick of energy within the peak of national political coverage.

It seemed like everyone in Iowa, regardless of political view, was a fan of the project’s goal to attack the national media’s stereotype against Iowans.  Des Moines native Corey Taylor even had this to say via twitter to his 155,000+ followers:

THIS is why I'm proud to be from Iowa, fuckers:http://t.co/JOg3oSevIf it won't play- copy, paste and figure it out.
January 2, 2012 11:54 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite
@CoreyTaylorRock
Corey fuckin' Taylor

Obviously we cannot censor someone’s Tweet, but thought that leaving that in is a great preamble to the video that is featured here since the video uses some pretty strong language as well. That’s right, the video was not just hilarious and entertaining, but was influencing the mindset of Stone Sour & Slipknot‘s frontman by causing him to drop profanity in a public forum.

We like to hear of some local guys “going viral”, however it’s not like they did it overnight (well, the video they literally did do overnight, but their experience in theatre and film has been ongoing).  Since there is a lot more to their portfolio as Iowa artists, I thought it best to let them enlighten us on their other work.  Knowing Scott as one of the artists involved with Des Moines Social Club‘s theatre projects and the common bond we share as Bills fans, he was glad to coordinate some thoughts for DMINB:

At what point this week did you guys realize… “wow, this thing is getting big”?  Scott: “Though it still has yet to completely sink it, my moment of realization began when we were at the Drake Diner about 12 hours after we first posted the video and a stranger said, “Great video!”  Then it really smacked me across the face when Rachel Maddow was not just laughing but analyzing “Iowa Nice” on her show.”

Paul: “Up to the moment Scott got recognized at the Drake Dinner, we had had no indication this was moving beyond our own circle of friends.  Even that didn’t really convince me that something big was going on, but when I got back to my computer and saw that the YouTube counter had stuck at 304, I thought “My word, this thing is actually going viral!  YouTube can’t keep up!”  We still had know idea of the scope, until we started showing up on social media crawlers that night as one of the most shared videos on the web.

Did you receive any negative criticism?  Paul: “Not really, at least not in person.  There have been plenty of “troll” comments on YouTube, but even those seem to be soundly rejected by the YouTube community.  Our ratio of “Likes” to “Dislikes” is 97% positive, which is great for a video with this much attitude.”
Who was the best media news outlet to work with this week? Scott: “All the media has been great and we appreciate all of them giving us some air time, but MSNBC has given us the most air time by far.”
Paul: “I agree.  I appreciated the way The Atlantic set up the video on their blog, especially considering it was their publication which featured Stephen Bloom’s original article questioning Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status.  Some other sites have portrayed our video as “flipping off” the rest of the country, but that’s really not what we were trying to do.  We just wanted to remind people that our country can’t be so easily segmented into “red” and “blue”.” 
Paul, did you help Scott prepare for his line of questioning on American Politics during the CNN International interview?  Paul: “No, Scott happens to be a political guru, including political history.  You would have a hard time finding an actor in the state more prepared to take on a line of questioning like what CNN Int. presented.”
Any deleted scenes that may make the Iowa Nice special edition DVD?  Paul: “There is one segment that didn’t make the final cut, as well as a few alternate locations and bloopers.  Probably not enough to make a DVD, but perhaps enough to make a follow up video.”
Where can people catch more of your guys’ theatrical & film work? Paul: ”My other narrative project at this moment is our prohibition serial Valentine Road, which will debut its first installment in a month or two.  I also have client work and personal art projects on Thediscerninglens.com.”
Scott: ”I am currently producing ‘The Cripple of Inishmaan’ which is the last show in Mooncoin Entertainment’s Martin McDonagh Project and then I will be acting in RTI’s “Tartuffe” in April. Both production will be at the Kirkwood, the current home of the DMSC.”
Scott, How has the Des Moines Social Club personally helped you as an artist?  ”In just about every way. What Zach (Mannheimer) and Matt (McIver) have created there is not only a location but a sense of home for all artists and the result of a comfortable artist is success.”
Scott: You’re GM of the Buffalo Bills with the 10th overall draft pick in April, what do you do? “We have two big issues that need to be address: 1) Offensive line 2) Pass rushing. We offense ruling the NFL right now, I think O line is more pressing and hope that we can convince a pass rusher to sign with us through free agency, thus if Reily Reiff from Iowa or Jonathan Martin from Standford are available I would snag those.”
There it is, Scott & I disagree a bit on the status of the Bills’ O-line, however we do agree that the D-line needs help.  Aside from that, this film was a hit and I wish Paul and Scott continued success moving forward.  Congrats to both these guys and the accompanying artists on a big week!

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