HURLEY.COM: WHAT'S UP, KEVIN?
KEVIN MULEIHILL: Hey.
SO, WE HAVE SOME GOOD NEWS FOR YOU. YOU WON $500 AND THE OPEN MIC CONTEST ON HURLEY.COM.
(Not sounding surprised.) Right on, man. Stoked.
WE'RE A BIT CONFUSED, THOUGH. I MEAN, YOUR VIDEO'S COOL AND ALL. WE LOVE JAKE HALSTEAD. BUT IT'S NOT EVEN THE GOOD ONE OF JAKE. HOW DID THIS THING GET SO MANY DAMN VIEWS?
[laughs] Yeah. I'm kind of tripping myself. So, my brother films Jake a lot and they're always putting little videos up on youtube. When I heard about this contest, I asked him to give me some raw footage. So, I threw it together, posted it and waited to see what would happen.
OK, FAIR ENOUGH. BUT ON ONE NIGHT IN PARTICULAR, I REMEMBER SEEING YOUR VIDEO GO FROM A DISTANT FIFTH TO FRONT-RUNNER BY A MILE. YOU GOT MORE THAN 2,000 VIEWS OVERNIGHT. WAS IT THE FAIRY YOUTUBE MOTHER?
Not exactly. Basically, I was just obsessed with finding a way for it to get as many views as possible. Didn't really care how the video looked or making it the best surf clip ever. So, I started researching the tags for all the most popular videos on youtube. Then I just lifted those tags, applied them to my video and watched the views roll in.
SO PEOPLE THOUGHT THEY WERE GETTING, SAY, THE EVOLUTION OF DANCE, BUT INSTEAD GOT JAKE HALSTEAD AT BLACKS.
The tags were from some football video that was the top viewed for the day or something. That did the trick.
ANY INTEREST IN EDITING OR FILMING?
I don't know. My brother's the editor and filmer — i don't even have a camera. But my brother's pissed that I won. That's pretty funny.
FUNNY INDEED. WHAT'S YOUR MAJOR AT POINT LOMA?
I'm undecided right now. But maybe I'll go for some sort of business degree. All I know is that right now, I'm investing that $500 in a new surfboard.
Think you can beat the system? Then film a video, post it to youtube and upload it to www.hurley.com/openmic for Round Two, starting now. It doesn't even have to be that good. Just ask Kevin.
