Brothers Kris and David Paul of Three First Names Productions have been participating in Swede Fest for several years now, and they have created a varied repertoire of hilarious sweded films available on YouTube.
We recently caught up with Kris and David for an email interview.
How did you first learn about Swede Fest?
We both heard about it through The Fresno Bee. That must have been about 5 or 6 years ago, and we’ve been participating ever since Swede Fest 11.
What’s your selection processes like for choosing what to swede?
We usually sit around and debate which movies to choose from, then we form our lists of favorite movies and TV shows that we watched growing up, then we narrow it down to which ones we can swede to best of our abilities.
Do you find any particular genre more difficult to re-enact than another?
Not so much for us. Once we begin the sweding process, we pretty much turn it into a comedy, and the materials that we work with are so minimal that we don’t have too many other distractions to worry about.
What’s the most challenging aspect of creating a sweded film? Do you enjoy the new challenges?
Kris: Our main challenge is trying to coordinate with everyone to meet up at the same time. We once sweded Survivorman with just me and my brother.
David: I do enjoy new challenges because it’s experience for any future filmmaking projects.
What’s one of your favorite memories from working on a swede?
Kris: I particularly liked the moment that we spontaneously caught a helicopter flying nearby while we were shooting Survivorman, and we were able to use it later on. It was an unexpected, spur of the moment find that proved useful later on.
David: I liked the whole filming of Huell Howser’s California’s Gold in a shoe store because it felt so authentic. I did my best to portray Huell respectfully, because I watched it every day when I was younger.
Why do you think more people should start sweding?
Kris: I think it’s a great opportunity for people to learn that creating your own fun is better than waiting around for someone to create fun for you.
David: I could give a lot reasons, but I love movies and TV shows. Sweding gives us a chance to recreate a little piece of imagination that leaves us as we grow up, and it’s also an excuse for us to get together with friends and have fun.
Do you have any new swede ideas in the works?
We haven’t had a chance to decide what we are going to swede next. But we can say that a Kenny Rogers Jackass from Mad TV swede is high on our list.
Anything we’ve missed?
Sweding is one of the things that motivated us to pursue other filmmaking projects that we talked about for a long time but never started. Now we have our Three First Names Productions, which we will keep working on to create new content and films. We have more projects lined up for 2019 and beyond, including future swedes.
Rachael Stubbert serves as the Filmworks communications intern for fall 2018. She studies English Literature at Fresno State.