Oklahoma City filmmaker Kyle Roberts competes in Syfy reality series “Viral Video Showdown”

“One of the producers just contacted me. They found my work through different stop motions and music videos and stuff,” said Roberts, who is also a NewsOK videographer. “They said, ‘We love your work. We'd like you to send an audition tape,' so I had to still go through a process. They didn't just say, ‘Come out to L.A.'”

Each episode of “Viral Video Showdown” centers on two viral video creators being given a limited budget and a handful of days to complete a video featuring the same theme.

The panel of judges deciding the winners of each competition includes Adam Sessler (G4's X-Play), YouTube star Brittani Taylor, and Sandeep Parikh (The Guild). Kevin Pereira hosts the series.

The winner receives $5,000.

Roberts' team for “Viral Video Showdown” is named after his production company and includes about 18 crew members, all from Oklahoma.

“It was a big challenge, but I think we did a good job. I totally stand behind what we did ... wholeheartedly. It was nothing short of amazing. The fact that we had five days to do this, we incorporated live action and stop motion and fights and not superhero stuff, but video game stuff ... and it was (an) all-Oklahoma based crew. It was awesome. I think everyone's going to enjoy it.”

Although Roberts is a Missouri native, he has lived in Oklahoma since earning a double major in broadcast journalism and corporate media at Oklahoma Christian University.

Roberts' specialties are stop-motion animation and music videos, including an approximate one-minute re-creation of the 1987 “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” cartoon introduction complete with action figures that took three months to film. Stop-motion animation is a film technique where a series of still photos are taken that when combined make static objects appear as if they were moving.