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Vancouver Island man scores viral hit with stop-motion tribute to ‘Schitt’s Creek’

Todd Cameron used vintage Fisher Price toys to create one-minute music video
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Todd Cameron of Nanaimo scored a viral hit with his short stop-motion music video tribute to ‘Schitt’s Creek.’ (Photo courtesy Todd Cameron)

A Nanaimo man’s stop-motion music video tribute to his favourite TV show has been viewed nearly a quarter million times.

Todd Cameron said it was emotional watching the final season of the CBC comedy Schitt’s Creek. As a “huge fan” of the show, Cameron decided to pay his respects by filming a minute-long video using Fisher Price children’s toys.

“I really wanted to pay tribute to my favourite show using my favourite childhood toys and thought that people would connect on a couple different levels,” he said.

Cameron has recently started experimenting with stop motion and decided to film a music video for A Little Bit Alexis, the theme song from character Alexis’s short-lived reality series. He describes the scene the song appears in as “iconic” and said it took a week to put the video together.

“I have a 19-month-old son and I watch him most days during the day while my wife is working,” Cameron said. “So on her days off or while he was napping I would steal away for a couple minutes or an hour here or there to film different scenes and at nighttime I would edit.”

Cameron posted the video to his Twitter account on May 22, hoping that writer and actor Dan Levy would like it and that fans would enjoy it. By the following morning, Cameron said his phone was displaying an unusually large number of notifications.

That morning the official Schitt’s Creek Twitter page called the video “storytelling at its finest” and Levy dubbed it “a masterpiece.” Cameron said it was humbling to receive Levy’s praise.

“He’s a personal creative hero of mine and a Canadian who’s doing great things in the world of entertainment,” Cameron said. “And then after that, that’s when everything just started rolling in by the hundreds and the thousands of views and retweets and the fans were just really eating it up.”

The video currently has 242,400 views, 7,300 likes and 1,000 retweets. It’s Cameron’s first viral moment since he posted maternity photos inspired by the movie Alien in 2018, but he said this time it’s more meaningful because it earned him kudos from one of his heroes.

Cameron said that’s motivated him to continue his work. He’s just waiting for the inspiration to strike.

“I’ve done so many different artistic and creative projects in my life and I always struggle with using the word ‘artist,’ whether it’s because I don’t get paid for it or it’s always just fun for me, I always had a problem using that word,” he said. “But to have one of my cultural heroes call something that I made ‘a masterpiece,’ it got me over that hurdle to where I now refer to myself as an artist.”

The video is available here.

READ ALSO: ‘Schitt’s Creek’ stars on emotional end to beloved Canadian comedy



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