This clever Hunger Games parody was created as a promotion for the first season of a web series produced by BYU film students.
Pretty Darn Funny is a six-episode comedy web series launched in April by Deseret Book. Students were able to help produce the episodes during the winter semester as part of an undergraduate film class.
Under the direction of associate professor Jeff Parkin, a group of 25, mostly-senior film student served as writers, editors, producers, crew members, post production supervisors and even puppet masters for the series.
The family-friendly comedy fits into the emerging field of transmedia storytelling. BYU’s film curriculum in this area started in 2008 when the media arts program created the first university-produced web series, The Book of Jer3miah, which won a Webby Award.
The “REAL Hunger Games: Mom vs. Hungry Kids” video stars the leading character of Pretty Darn Funny, Gracie Moore (played by actress Lisa Valentine Clark), a mother on a mission to clean up the local comedy scene.
Clark also stars in a slightly different promotion for the web series created by the BYU film team and posted this week: a Victorian-themed rap video titled “Jane Austen is My Homegirl.”
As for the “Hungry Games” parody, which was posted a few days ago, viewership is already past the 50,000 mark. Of course, mothers everywhere can relate.
