I have the privilege to be acquainted with a big name in the Geek community, Kristen Nedopak, the head of the Geekie Awards. The Geekie Awards is an award ceremony for all things geek. Unfortunately the Video Game category had to be cut this year due to lack of submissions.
First I’d like to introduce to Kristen Nedopak!
Hello!
So Kristen for my first question, can you give an in depth explanation of the Geekie Awards, for those who don’t know what it is?
The 1st Annual Geekie Awards is the first-ever live streamed geek-genre award show featuring the best indie-created comic books, graphic novels, short films, web series, podcasts, trailers, music videos, toys, games, art, craft, crowdfunding and websites via an action-packed award show set to take place August 18th in Hollywood, CA. With a vibe such as the MTV Movie Awards and Spike’s Scream Awards, The Geekie Awards will be a live ceremony intermixed with humorous, well-crafted digital content, plus a special live experience for guests!
We are giving Stan Lee the Lifetime Achievement Award this year, and we’re trying to make this event “Hollywood meets a Comic Convention,” with fun sets, cosplayers, badass digital content, geekie performances and other cool experiences. Since I come from a tech background, it was important we incorporate that in as well, so we’re building an interactive lanyard experience where your commemorative badge allows you to play a mobile shooter game. All in all, it’s a fun, creative event, but at the heart of it, it’s an opportunity for up and coming artists, creators and filmmakers to be seen, recognized, and shine.
Can you give details of the video game situation?
Absolutely! We really wanted to include Video Games as a category this year–specifically, indie-created games (both PC and mobile). Unfortunately we didn’t have enough submissions to keep the category for the show. That’s part of being a first year event. You are still building your reach out to artists and creators, but you don’t always reach them right away. Since then, I’ve met so many companies who work with indie game designers, so my hope is we can bring it back next year and get it to stick!
I also recall there being a Toys & Games category that did have a few games within it, could you go into the details of the games in that category?
Toys and Games is more for physical items, like card games, tabletop and designer toys. It’s another category we hope to grow for next year, but we did have some amazing submissions this year! The pure craftsmanship that has gone into these projects is so incredible, especially considering how much of it is straight from the artist or designer. These are not mass-produced products, but hand-crafted games and toys. That world is semi new to me, so I had no idea how amazing it was… until now!
Also, can you let people know the other categories that will be associated with the Geekie Awards?
Web Series and Podcasts blew away the submission count this year as two of our biggest categories. We also have short films, one shots (trailers, music videos and other random acts of geek), comic books, art/craft, retail stores/websites and crowdfunding. Pretty much everything you see at Comic-Con and more! We tried to cover all of our bases, which made for an interesting time judging (which I didn’t do, but I have an amazing team who did). Judges not only scored entries on criteria specific to the category, but we also gave out individual category honors that were even more specific. For example: Best Sci-Fi Film and Best Website Content. We wanted to award more than just one team per category! The top 5 scored did go on to become nominees for the “best of” that category and those are the awards we will be giving out at the show.
Now that we’ve gone over the categories, can you go a bit more into how the Geekie Awards started?
As a creator, I was just… Annoyed. Can I say that? Irked, if you will, that there are so many undiscovered, really talented indie artists and creators out there that you could only see–in person–when you went to comic conventions and other events. Publicity and marketing for any artist is a difficult thing to accomplish (why most don’t do it), but it’s necessary for the success of any business. I can say that with first-hand experience–I was one of those artists, and no one had a clue who I was until I worked my butt off to get my name and work out there. As one of my career coaches once said, “what does it matter how talented you are if no one knows about you.” It’s true!
On top of it, toss in the fact that we are creating work that revolves around superheroes, science fiction, fantasy, steampunk and more, and the many people in this world don’t always understand or take that type of work seriously. Most award shows won’t nominate this type of work for any major award, and so again, getting your name out there becomes an uphill battle.
Out of this frustration came The Geekies. I was actually telling my coach how annoyed I was that my fantasy film would never be accepted into these big fests, and she said “why don’t you make your own?” You just don’t say something like that to an Aries Nedopak. Challenge accepted! A year later, here we are. Producing an indie show by creators for creators. Probably the hardest, most exhausting thing I’ve ever done in my life! I don’t think you realize how much work goes into an epic event such as this until you try to take it on, but I’ve got one hell of a team helping… and it’s going to be SO COOL!
I also saw on the site that Stan Lee is getting a Life Time Achievement award is that being presented at the Geekies?
Heck yeah! POW! has been an amazing supporter of this event, and when I first told them this idea, we already decided Stan would get a Lifetime Achievement Award. No man (or women) in the geek world deserves it more! So yes, we will be announcing that at the event and giving him a statue.
Is there anything else we didn’t cover that you would like to cover?
We have on-going ticket sales that we promote through our newsletter. One is ending June 30th, and there will be more! Keep an eye out around Comic-Con. The newsletter is the best way to find out who we are inviting, sales and other fun things we have planned for the show, so I encourage everyone to subscribe: mailing list
And also be sure to Like the Facebook page and follow us on twitter and YouTube!
The Geekies will be streamed live online, and we’d love to get as many people watching as possible. The more the community supports our event, which again is not created by a giant production company, but a small team of geeks, the more success we will have this year and years to come. Thanks in advance for the love!!!
Thanks for your time Kristin, and I hope the Geekie Awards are a great success!
Thank you!
