Interview with Kill TV's founder Christopher Neil
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Where did you get the idea for Kill TV?
That’s a short question for a long answer… I’ll spare you the crying and touching myself alone in the dark sections…
Kill TV comes from years and years of ‘trying’ to be a filmmaker and failing, over and over again. As a creative, my ideas have always been ‘too edgy’ or ‘too big’ for my pockets. Producers would always tell me, “Take this part out,” “Tone it down” or I actually had a Studio Executive say, “We loved it!.. Until page 70, where the guy does the sex thing with the corpse…”
After burning out in my late-twenties on living check-to-check, amidst writing my second script, it kind of just… hit me. “Hollywood may own the theaters, but they can’t own the internet.”
The lights sparked on, and I started to manifest the idea of a marketplace where creatives who had ‘no boundaries’ could express themselves freely. Somewhere I could create content, upload and have an audience awaiting.
I played with the idea, creating mock ups, trying to pitch to developers and investors way too early. And then after my second script was finished and was getting no traction… Due to it being a multi-million dollar idea.. I said, “Fuck it” and jumped head first into Kill TV!
What first got you into movies?
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a comic book artist. But one day, when I told my mother she said, “You’re going to be painting pictures on top of the pier, and sleeping underneath it.” It crushed my fucking soul…
So.. in high school, after recesses of smoking mass amounts of weed in church parking lots… I got addicted to Photoshop in an art class.
Then Napster came out… So I instantly bought a CD burner, started burning CD’s, packaging them with with Art Covers and charged people for ‘custom’ mixes. Alongside selling ‘dubs’ and ‘eights’ to stoners…
I then knew this is what I wanted to do. I grinded out a decent GPA, cheated on my SAT and got into a four year college.
I attended SDSU [San Diego State University] shortly after and was expelled at the end of my freshman year. It was a fucking party school, what else was going to happen…
Sent home, extremely depressed, I applied to a community college and during a Typography class, we had to create a project with moving text and music.
My project was super fucking trash… But something about moving imagery and music, just made me realize that the medium to express and influence people, as an artist, was film. I immediately fell in love and pursued filmmaking ever since. Until Kill TV… dun-dun-dun… Trying to spice this shit up!
How would you describe Kill TV's identity?
Interesting question… What is the identity of Kill TV?
Well, Kill TV has changed a lot since I first started jotting down ideas. But the core of what Kill TV is, has deep roots into how I develop all of my projects.
What I mean by that, is that every single one of my creations act as a double edged sword or have two sides to them. There is one interpretation on the surface then another that is embedded beneath it.
The surface identity for Kill TV is anarchy, freedom of expression and a brand that represents you, but has some ‘balls’ behind it. I feel like ‘Youtube’ has done great things technologically, but honestly, it’s like premiering a Horror Film and right before the titles roll you see, “Sponsored by Sunkist…” It’s cute and works for a particular audience, but it doesn’t represent the artists who’ve inspired me or have altered the medium.
Kill TV is a brand and a notion for younger generations to express themselves into oblivion, without feeling restricted. Rather than being another ‘entity’ that is just there to supply you with an outlet.
We truly believe we are a stance for all opinion, thoughts and want to be a symbol, that when tattooed onto yourself, means ‘something’ to you and others. Are there ‘Youtube’ tattoos out there..? Jesus, I’m gonna have to google this now… FML.. People got ‘Youtube’ tatted on them..
But the deeper meaning to Kill TV, has to do with where its name comes from. When I was developing this platform, I had no idea what to call it. One day on my playlist, a song popped up by Marilyn Manson, “Astonishing Panorama of the Endtimes.” The chorus repeated, “Kill your god, Kill your TV.” Eureka! The gods have spoken! Kind of…
That’s our core, deep down. To push this generation and the next into the future of ‘news’, ‘brands’ and ‘art’. And to leave behind this ‘god’ that we’ve trusted and have slaved over to keep above us. These companies more and more today are fighting to stay afloat and the internet has connected us all, giving us an opportunity to change how we treat one another, how we dissect ideas and how we’ll move into the future in this place.
Kill TV is a mirror of the world and where it is at that time, not an extension of our values or ethics upon you. We are eradicating the ‘one’ god we worship and with our system, creating ’gods’ out of all of you! “Kill your god, Kill your TV!”
That was kind of cheesy… But damn it! You know what-the-fuck I’m saying! Right….?
What is Kill TV?
Simply put, Kill TV is an uncensored democratic video streaming site for adult’s only. Creatives upload their videos to our site and then are sent directly to ‘Deathrow’ to be sentenced.
We decided to go against hosting every single video uploaded to our server, due to beginning costs, as well.. 98% of the content on streaming sites never gets seen by the majority of the audience on these platforms. Anyways…
Users then go to ‘Deathrow’ and must vote on every video uploaded onto Kill TV. You must choose to “Kill” or “Save” each video uploaded.
Saved videos are sent to the “Saved” directory, for viewing at anytime and future monetization.
Where “Killed” videos are deemed “dead” and are deleted from our servers, forever!
I literally just recited our ‘pitch’ video.. Jesus…
What we’re truly creating is a way for you as the ‘creative’ to interact with audiences. If you upload a video to ‘Youtube’ for the first time, unless your video goes viral somehow… it is going to take ages for viewership to flood in.
Our system puts you in a smaller category of daily ‘Saves’, that then grants you larger exposure.
And if your video is killed… then at least you know something! Maybe your video is too long, maybe it’s not ‘good’ enough, maybe people ‘trolled’ you. Whatever the response is, you know that people that day, on Deathrow, did not want your content.
As we grow, we will implement features that let you as the creative know ‘why’ your video was rejected. But you have to think of it as a long run play as a filmmaker.
I see a lot of people uploading so many videos, fighting for tons of views believing they’re going to be one of the ‘few’ that got rich on Youtube. And that’s not the case as we’ve seen these days…
Once we roll into monetization, we’re thinking about paying you in a different manner so that you don’t have to upload 15 videos a month in order to either “break even” on the cost of production or make a living off of your content.
Plus, we’d love to see artists’ short films and other ‘art’ get big views, rather than just ‘vlogs’ or tutorials on how to do something.
At the end of the day, we want to be an entertainment hub of interactivity! We look at ‘Youtube’ as a source of information, where you go for info or news on things. Rarely do I got to ‘Youtube’ to see a cool short film, art piece or something weird?!
Our platform being uncensored and for adult’s only, brings up another one of our major goals. We believe that the term ‘adult’ should be altered, and there needs to be a place where “adults can be adults!”
That means sexual things can be found alongside thoughtful pieces, touching stories or flat out unforgettable imagery.
Whatever it is, we are looking to build more than just a server full of videos and comments. We want to build a community of people who come to Kill TV to advocate their opinions, don’t have to worry about being censored and are protected from outsiders ‘banning’ them or ‘removing’ their content because it doesn’t fit within someone else’s agenda.
“We are the operator to your call,” and when we get this guy up and running, we’re going to evolve this platform into something you’ll care about. Because it’s your opinion, your kill count, your save count, your choice and your friends you’ve met there to do this all with.
I believe that our generation is in a tough spot and that the future of this place needs more connection and openness. We hope to be the beginning of what can be more platforms like us in different areas. The days of clean interfaces and ‘boring’ brand names to represent a ‘popular’ platform… are ‘dead and gone.'
I think people need something that gives you a ‘jolt’ to the experience you’re having. And instead of these placeholder named sites that are super stale.. Let people enjoy something a little radical, out-of-the-box, and give them something that let’s them be free and is ‘O-K’ with them finding themselves through out time.
Plus, how the fuck can you hate on “Kill TV”, it doesn’t rhyme with anything shitty.. like ‘PooTube’, ‘DuDu’ or ‘Catdicks’… does it?!
