Extra Credit Studios was formed by the writing and producing duo, Mark Cope & Carlo Moss, best known for creating the hit digital series, The Most Popular Girls in School. Since debuting on YouTube in May 2012, MPGiS has amassed more than 125 million views, and 900,000 subscribers, making it one of the most popular scripted series in the history of the platform.
In 2013, based off of the success of MPGiS, Mark & Carlo launched Extra Credit Studios, a full service production company in Culver City, CA, specializing in stop-motion animation, live action scripted series, and branded content across a variety of platforms. Since launch, the studio has developed and produced content for Verizon, Sesame Street, Universal, Charlize Theron, New Form Digital, and The Streamys, in addition to continuing to produce The Most Popular Girls in School on YouTube here
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The company's YouTube channel can be found here, and their website here.
Their Patreon page can be found here.
No relation to the video game focused Youtube channel, Extra Credits.
Series produced by this company include:
- The Most Popular Girls in School (Web Series) (2012)
- Dr. Havoc's Diary (2016)
- Kings Of The Inland Empire (TBA)
- Townies (TBA)
Other projects:
- Dink (Stop-motion short with Drayson Helberg & Tyson James)
- Sesame Street (Multiple live-action shorts for Seasons 47-48 (2017-2018) on HBO & PBS)
- Critters (Hand-drawn animated series with series creators John Lehr & Nancy Hower and executive producer Paul Young)
- Music Video for Tegan & Sara's single "Faint of Heart", produced with Warner Music.
- Immortals (Live-action pilot produced with New Form starring Alexa Losey and Melvin Gregg)
- Campus Catwalk (Live-action pilot produced with New Form and Is or Isn't Entertainment (Lisa Kudrow). Starring Nisalda Gonzales and Alexa Losey)
- Ink (Short film)
- JMSN Live North Hollywood (Live music special produced for JMSN with White Room Records)
Tropes associated with Extra Credit Studios include:
- Black-and-Gray Morality: At their darkest.
- Call-Back: Their shows expect you to have excellent memory of a lot of the gags from the previous episodes, lest you suffer from a strong case of Continuity Lock-Out.
- Continuity Nod: Even in their more "sketchy" type of shows will there be references to past events.
- Deconstructive Parody: To quote founder Mark Cope:Mark: We come from a place where there’s nothing we like more than making fun of things — people’s choices, or the ridiculous things they get into — and pointing out the ridiculousness of it... That’s what these shows are. Let's take something everyone takes for granted and treat it very real.
- Dramedy: A majority of their shows.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: Surprisingly.
- Rapid-Fire Comedy: Just when you think you've got one joke, it's onto the next one already.
- Reference Overdosed: Shout Outs can easily be missed.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: In the middle, dipping into the cynical side more often that into the ideal side.
- Villain Protagonist: Yeah, their main characters are not nice people.
