Today we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Perjurer.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, and my two trips to Walt Disney World were the peaks of my childhood. As I began to dream about becoming a filmmaker, my love and passion for theme parks stayed with me.
After working in documentaries for five years, I decided to combine my love of theme parks and filmmaking and create a YouTube series called Defunctland which would take a historical look at defunct theme parks and rides.
Originally, the videos were quickly made and for fun, but over the last five years, Defunctland has grown into a more professional production in which I have put more of my filmmaking skills and eventually my full-time effort into producing this series that explores not just Disney Parks and Universal Studios, but the history of theme parks all around the world.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There is no easy way to create a documentary film, but it is even more difficult when the subject has little to no visual or audial elements or written history.
Some subjects, such as popular Disney rides that went defunct, are easy to create, as there is a passionate community of archivists that have already found a good portion of the story that we will tell. Other times, I’ll do a history of a ride that almost no one has heard of or remembers, which requires significant archive work and production to supplement the lack of visuals.
Each subject of one of my videos comes with its own challenges, but those challenges make the process fun and each production different.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I think the thing that separates Defunctland is that I reject any consistent format with my productions. Many YouTubers and even industry docuseries will create a common template for each of their videos or episodes.
This strategy has a lot of benefits and is often a good idea, but Defunctland does not have a consistent format. Sometimes, an episode will be 20 minutes and other times it will be an hour and a half. I do custom intros and outros for each episode, and even full episode homages to famous movies or TVshow through the writing and visuals.
One episode of the show is told through shadow puppets. Another is an homage to 90s college comedies with an original punk rock theme song. In short, each story, I tell is different and I like to tell each story differently.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I have a lot of passions outside of filmmaking, and I often integrate them into each of my episodes, such as animation, music, etc.
That said, I love cooking and food and so far I have only been able to make one food-related episode of Defunctland, but I’m always looking for an excuse to cook.
Contact Info:
- Website: defunctland.com
- Youtube: youtube.com/defunctland
