Election film a big Web hit
LOS ANGELES — They took an OK script and made it a musical with two original numbers.
Then the group said, "Lets add some vampires."
Now, it's an Internet sensation.
Brooke Shirey, 27, is a Petrolia native with co-producer credits to one of this election season's hottest videos: "Barackula."
The 12-minute film got Super Tuesday coverage from MTV that led to features on MSNBC and CNN and a bit of an online frenzy.
The film will debut at www.barackula.com and other Web sites today.
The script features Justin Sherman as Barack Obama when he was president of the Law Review at Harvard. Obama discovers the Law Review is really a secret society of vampires and tries to learn how to lead them without becoming one, Shirey said.
She plays "Shelley," one of the main vampires.
"He learns mortals and immortals can live together," she said.
And, to reinforce the film, musical numbers "Running" and "This is Our Time" are thrown in.
Shirey admitted the cast and crew have a definite leaning in the presidential race.
"We are big fans of Barack Obama," she said. "We loved his attitude."
But Sherman's resemblance to the presidential candidate vaulted the idea for the script.
"Our friend really looks like Barack," she said. "We thought the (non-vampire) script was nice, but it lacked some conflict,"
So the crew, all friends, sitting around, decided to make a musical and then to add vampires.
The pre-release success of the film shocked Shirey, who, after graduating from Karns City High School in 1999, went to La Roche College to study international affairs.She was involved in Butler Summer Dramatics, Miss Butler County Pageant and other community activities in her teen years, but it was an internship with the Talent Group at the end of college that hooked her on showbiz.She moved to the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles in January 2004 and took a job as a body double on an HBOset.That further allowed her to learn how the Hollywood world worked, she said.Since then, she has played a secretary in an episode of the "West Wing" and was in a Nationwide Insurance television campaign.Now, she's working to launch a production company called Nice Dreams Entertainment.Shirey said she thinks part of the popularity of this film, co-produced with Mike Lawson, Gavin Leighton and Sherman, is because of Obama's success during early primaries.And perhaps that success will be further enhanced by the release of the film on President's Day.
