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PWN (Show)

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The page PWN redirects here. To see other usages of the term PWN, see PWN (Disambiguation).


The current PWN logo, created by Paul Gaurano.

PWN is a film talk show uploaded on PaulWesNick, currently starring Ari Froehlich, Wes Davies, and Nick Geoghegan. Since the original episode was uploaded on October 25th, 2014, there have been a total of sixteen full length episodes, featuring five different cast members, as well as various unreleased episodes. The history of the show is long and quite complex, and has lead to the development of the show's light, fun style. It is the channel's longest running series.

History

Despite PWN seemingly being only a simple web show, the channel itself has a long and illustrious history, dating back as far as 2007. However, the show itself was a relatively recent development. In 7th grade, Nick Geoghegan had to create a video project for his speech class, with his friend and fellow classmate, Nik Hoffman. The two created the script for what would eventually become Dancing Bad.

Around the same time, Nick and Paul had been discussing starting a YouTube channel, where they would upload simple sketch videos and short films. The script for a short film called Alone was drafted, and would have stared Chris, Kyle, Quentin, Braiden, and Paul. However, the project was scrapped very early on, with only three shots complete. Despite the initial failure, this project helped Nick and Paul bond over a shared intrest in film.

Prior to September of 2014, Paul and Wes had never formally met. However, the lucky occurance of Nick, Wes, and Paul sharing a PE class lead to them quickly forming a friendship. Later that September, ideas were thrown around for a WeeklyPlanet style podcast about movies that could be uploaded to the channel, then called "Paul and Nick". However, it was mid-October when Paul pointed out that their names spelled out PWN, and the name stuck.

The channel was renamed PWN on October 20, 2014. Arround the same time, Paul experimented with creating a logo for PWN. The final design was penciled on the front of Paul's history homework, and was scanned and colored by Nick.

The Early Days of PWN

A frame from the opening of PWN #1.

The period of time referred to as the Golden Age of PWN started on October 23rd, with the filming of the very first episode of PWN, shot after school in the school's empty computer room. The filming resulted in a very light-hearted review of the recently released Interstellar trailer, which filled a four minute episode. The very first episode, titled Interstellar: PWN 1 was uploaded on October 25, 2014. The video was very popular, and became the first video on the channel to reach 100 views, on November 11 of that year.

The next PWN was filmed that same week, and uploaded on November 2. The third PWN was quick to follow. The 3rd PWN was significant for being the first to have a crew member behind the camera, Jeffrey Leibfried. He makes no appearance in the video, but can be seen and heard in the blooper video.

The Sequence, a project which Paul and Nick had started in the last two weeks of school in 7th grade, became the first short project the studio would officially undertake (a project which would end up unintentionally ending the Golden Age). The project involved a mutual friend of the studio, Joey Cianfrani. As a promotion for the upcoming project, Our Fandoms: PWN 4 was filmed, featuring both Joey and Jeff. The video was never uploaded, though the footage has been seen in both blooper videos and in the PWN Returns! video.

Instead, a second promotion video was created, PWN 3.5. It is notable for being the last video to be uploaded that featured Paul. However, it was still nearly a month before Paul would officially leave PWN for good. The Sequence was filmed between December 7 and December 19, and a final edit was completed by Christmas that year. However, it too was never uploaded, a decision made by Wes and Nick. During the last days before Christmas, Nick was reunited with Ford Fairon, who had previously acted in Nick's earliest movie, in fifth grade. He suggested making a video game segment for PWN, called TGS (That Gaming Segment). The two expirmented with the idea, filming two episodes, which never aired.

The Dark Age of PWN

Ford made his short debut in The Hostage, an unreleased action short featuring Chris, Kyle, and Michael Davis. With the return of school, Best of 2014: PWN 4 was filmed. It was the first PWN to be filmed in the "Cage Room" versus the computer lab. Instead of Jeffery behind the camera, Ford was present in his place. The infamous video is the last PWN Paul was featured in, before his quitting in January of 2015.

Ford's first appearance on PWN, in episode #4.

PWN remained "dead" for several months, until Our Mission Impossibles: PWN 4 was uploaded on March 24, 2015, featuring Ford in Paul's place. The video was well recieved by fans, particularly for it's usage of simple comedic animations. This sentiment was shared by many of the PWN members. Wes, however, found the video lacking in any real content. Despite this, the three agreed that the episode was successful, and a fifth episode was planned. The second PWN to feature Ford, Force Awakens Trailer: PWN 5, was uploaded on April 27. While not as popular as the first, many considerd it to be a good episode. Plans to make a sixth episode, however, proved unsuccessful.

Unlike Paul, Ford never technically quit PWN, but just stopped acting in videos. Over the summer of 2015, PWN experienced a complete lack of uploads. Despite several shorts being uploaded during the 2015-16 school year, PWN would not return until over a year after the fifth episode.

The New Wave of PWN

Ari Froehlich had sat next to Nick in eighth grade math class, and was coincidentally a good friend of Wes'. He helped develop ideas for Man in the Mask, and would've stared as Alexander. He also shared an Honors Biology class with Nick in ninth grade, which would prove to be the basis for what is almost unanimously considered the greatest PWN short, An Egg-Celent Cake!. Ari had joked about taking Ford's place on multiple occasions, and ended up fulfilling that prediction in June of 2016. Despite mutliple attempts throughout the year for a new PWN with Ford, none ever succeeded, and Ari officially took Ford's place on June 24, 2016, in Movie Tropes: PWN 6. The episode was slow to gain views, due to its upload at the end of school, but is often considered the one of the greatest PWNs, verifying Ari's place in the PWN ranks.

A frame from the seventh episode of PWN

Unlike the somewhat serious nature of Ford's PWNs, Ari's PWNs were much more lighthearted, like Paul's from over a year before. Nick, who had edited every single PWN, tried a new style in the PWNs, which featured more bloopers mixed in with the actual content, creating what is deemed the New Wave of PWN. A second PWN with Ari, Doctor Strange: PWN 7 expanded the style, though its sister episode (filmed the same day) was never uploaded.

The group had big plans for the 2016-2017 school year. However, after the release of PWN 8 (a PWN which both Nick and Wes considered to be "alright at best, substandard at worst"), the group decided once more to switch directions. With plans to release a PWN special on he two-year anniversary of PWN, and a fast approaching deadline of October 25th, the trio set to work on writing a basic "story" for the upcoming PWNs. After a failed attempt at PWN #9, and a not-so-failed attempt at the sketch which would become Wine Not?, the group took a very brief hiatus to write and plan out PWN #10, based on ideas Nick had had as early as 2015.

Hollywood is Dead: PWN 10 was the first break in style from the traditional PWNs, featuring a comedic sketch opening and several cut away gags (not to mention the absence of Wes for the latter part of the episode). It was the longest episode at the time of release, with both Parts one and two clocking in at over twelve minutes. The episodes were well recieved and were some of the quickest PWNs to reach 50 views. The following episode, The Star Wars Holiday Special: PWN 11, marked both the first guest appearance on PWN, Kiersten Muse, and the first female speaking role on the channel. The episode was originally planned to be an indepth discussion on both the Star Wars Holiday Special and Rogue One, both of which the group watched that day. Instead, though the discussion portion did not go as planned, the episode was notably the longest and one of the best recieved at the time.

The Grand Hiatus

From January to June of 2017, a period of time known as the Grand Hiatus passed on the channel. There was not a complete absence of videos altogether, but rather a very large drop in the amount of content posted following the highly active December of 2016. Best of 2016: PWN #12, one of the better PWNs released, was uploaded in February, amd was immediately followed by almost four months of no public content.

As progress was made on PWN's first feature film, A Hot Lead, was made during the April and May months, PWN slowly regained its former stream of content.

The Second Golden Age of PWN

The release of A Hot Lead marked the beginning of the Second Golden Age of PWN, with more quality content produced than ever before. The first PWN of the period was A Very Hot Lead: PWN 13, and is frequently considered one of the best PWNs ever released. The twenty-two minute discussion of A Hot Lead, including a five minute interlude focusing on a fictional Adam Sandler film called "Octuplets".

Two months passed before the forteenth PWN, Series That Need to Die: PWN 14, was released. This PWN marked the very first time that a PWN was edited by any group member other than Nick, though he did help to clean up Ari's editing, and created the animated sequences. The following PWN, only two weeks later, Summer of '17 - PWN 15, was edited almost solely by Wesley, with only minimal cuts made by Nick. The PWN greatly bears Wesley's comedic stylings, and features many cut aways, puns, and frequent usage of the Ken Burns effect.

Another three moths would pass before the next PWN, Just the Worst Movies - PWN 16. Nick was the sole editor on this PWN, and at the time of upload, it was the longest, at twenty-two and a half minutes, making it a mere twenty-three seconds longer than the thirteenth PWN.

Style and Themes

The overall style of PWN has changed drastically over the years, ranging from a comedic bright tone to the more serious videos with Ford. PWNs often feature silence for comedic effect, like when the music cuts out for a joke. Later PWNs would often include some bloopers in the video to add comedy.

Influences on Style

Until the release of PWN #14, Nick had edited every episode of PWN singlehanded. Major influences on his editing style come from other YouTubers, including Nostalgia Critic, RedLetterMedia, and even VSauce (a channel which the members of PWN often refer to as th greatest on YouTube). Wesley's editing style is more specific to himself, and is often significantly different than Nick's. Perhaps the most noticable elements of Wesley's style are near constant insert shots (often accompanied by Ken Burns effects), and a focus on elevating humor over content.

For comedic styling, cues are taken from the once great CollegeHumor. Additionally, the concept of stopping the music for comedic effect was inspired by Monty Python.

Members

A list of cast members on PWN, by number of appearances (includes only released episodes):

Main Cast

Crew

Guests

Episode List

Main Article: List of Episodes of PWN

There have been sixteen episodes of PWN since October of 2014. An additional four episodes have been shot, but never uploaded. Two of these feature Paul, and the other two features Ari. The show is not regularly scheduled, and also sees sporadic uploads, with long streaks followed by lengthy silent periods.

See Also

External Links

Episodes of PWN
See: List of Episodes of PWN
1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 10.1 · 10.2
11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18.1 · 18.2 · 19 · 20
21 · 22 · 23 · 24 · 25 · 26 · 27 · 28 · 29 · 30
31 · 32 · 33 · 34 · 35 · 36 · 37 · 38 · 39 · 40
41 · 42 · 43
Other:
PWN 3.5 · Our Fandoms: PWN 4 · Best of 2014: PWN 4 · PWN 38.5