Homegrown Harry Potter vs Star Wars mashup wins award
Adelaide filmmaker Danny Philippou will fly to YouTube headquarters in Los Angeles after winning the top prize at the inaugural Australian Online Video Awards for YouTube hit Harry Potter vs Star Wars.
The three-minute video has already had more than 11 million views and took out the top prize at the awards in Melbourne earlier this week.
As part of his prize Philippou, 21, will fly to YouTube’s Creator Space in Los Angeles to learn from world leaders in online video production and marketing.
“[I am] completely overwhelmed,” Philippou said.
“We didn’t even realise we were nominated for the best overall category. So shocked to say the least.”
The video was filmed in Adelaide at Philippou’s home and cost less than $200 to put together.
“The most expensive part of the whole video was the toy lightsabers and the wand,” Philippou said.
“They were some pretty big budget props, around $20 each.
“We did end up shattering some tiles on our roof for one of the scenes, some jedis just can’t handle their weight but it was all worth it.”
Philippou worked on the video with his twin brother Michael and a friend, who was visiting from Sydney.
He said it took just two days to film and another five days to edit.
“We had a friend down from Sydney and wanted to kill some time,” Philippou said.
“It was literally just for fun.”
Brothers gain international attention
The video was posted on YouTube in April and soon went viral – even garnering the attention of Star Trek actor George Takei.
While Philippou is still unsure of when he will be claiming his prize, he said he hopes he can use the trip to meet with industry professionals who have expressed interest in his work.
“The trip would be insane, hopefully we can line up some cool collaborations and finally get to see that Hollywood sign in the flesh,” he said.
“We can also meet all the people and companies that have reached out over the last few months.”
Harry Potter vs Star Wars is not the only video to bring success to the local filmmaker.
Philippou, along with his crew RackaRacka which includes brother Michael, has a number of online videos that have also gained international attention including How Batman Broke His Leg, which featured on American talk shows Conan and Jimmy Kimmel Live.
“A lot of our stuff is all over the place,” Philippou said.
Earlier this year the Philippou brothers also worked on a more serious short film, which recently won the best directors category at the South Australian Screen Awards.
The film, Deluge, is about a 12-year-old boy called Briggs who is last in the line of kids to be sacrificed in a ritualistic drowning.
“Deluge is the complete opposite of our YouTube stuff, it’s very dark,” Philippou said.
Childhood adventures lead to film career
Growing up in Adelaide, Philippou said he and his twin brother had an adventurous childhood, which is what led them into the filming industry.
“We’ve been making films since before our teens,” he said.
“We had a pretty adventurous childhood and managed to capture a lot of it on camera.
“We always wanted to be directors, the dream is slowly coming to fruition.”
The twins’ crazy childhood antics also made international headlines this year with MTV taking a close look at their home videos.
While the twins have had quite a bit of success with their online videos, they do hope they can remain in Adelaide while pursuing their career.
“It would be cool to stay based in Adelaide but fly out for work when the opportunity arises, but it just depends,” Philippou said.
“We do have management in the states so the pressure to move is already weighing down on us. Let’s see if we cave.”
Philippou said there were a few new projects in the works, including more YouTube videos as well as some “bigger stuff” that producers have expressed their interest in.
“So we’ll just have to wait and see what next year brings,” Philippou said.