Armed with a video camera and a wild imagination, high school students Ryan Higa and Sean Fujiyoshi began organizing their buddies to make home videos–comedy
skits and funny stunts–meant to entertain friends and family in their Hawaiian neighborhood. The advent of YouTube allowed them to share their videos more
easily.
Turns out, friends and family were not the only people “tuning” in. The unlikely comedy team became instant YouTube stars for young people across the country and the world. Their 54 YouTube videos have more than 130 million views and their latest posting received 323,000 views in the first day alone. Ryan is also not short on friends, having more than 456,000 subscribers and more than 42,000 on his MySpace page. Not bad for a guy entering his freshman year of college in the fall or his best friend, Sean, who is entering his senior year of high school.
But who cares? Hollywood, that’s who.
Recognizing the phenomenal popularity of these talented young men, with their quirky brand of humor, savvy movie marketing executives tapped them to tout the
latest Will Ferrell feature, Step Brothers, as well as Lakeshore’s Pathology.
Their own movie, a feature-length film came about after a 10-year old “Ryan & Sean” fan showed his dad one of their YouTube postings. His dad, Derek Zemrak,
happened to be a movie producer, and Ryan & Sean’s Not So Excellent Adventure was soon in production, when Zemrak called his producing partner Leonard Pirkle. The “Making of” Ryan & Sean’s Not So Excellent Adventure, a behind-the-scenes on YouTube, has garnered more than 1.2 million views since July 27th. The film currently is seeking distribution. Looks like Ryan & Sean will be getting the last laugh!
