Of all the crackpot, harebrained schemes we’ve ever come across, Blag A Million is easily the best.

In a nutshell, Blag A Million is two enterprising scamps named Fraser Byrne and Donal Coonan who are determined to make a million pounds in 90 days, however they can. Then, once they’ve made their million, they’ll use it to take down the entire television industry from the inside. Or something.

The Blag A Million chaps are much better at explaining this than we are, which is why we’ve interviewed Fraser about it after the jump…

What exactly is Blag A Million?

Basically, myself (Fraser) and filmmaker/presenter friend Donal Coonan are spending the summer trying to blag a million pounds, in 90 days and by any means possible. We’re filming the whole process, making a bunch of films, meeting some wild characters and doing our best to pull it off.

And how are you going about this?

We have a load of schemes and money spinners on the go; one of the more obvious ones is selling pixels – we have a 100,000 of those up for grabs – and we are releasing a single with an amazing X Factor reject called Chicken Man. Simon Cowell said he was the worst singer he’d heard in his life, so that’s in the works. We’re organising the smallest festival in the world, we have an old school sex line, we literally tried begging, selling i-Slaps, sponsored hair cuts. We never really had ‘one big idea’ like the Million Dollar Homepage kid or the Red Paper Clip guy, so that’s part of the saga, we’re still searching for the big one, asking ‘The Internet’ for ideas, and filming the whole process.

How’s the fundraising going so far?

Pretty well, I mean, we’ve amassed £2271 in the last three weeks which is a credible lump of cash and we really appreciate all the support we’ve received so far, but obviously there’s a long way to go, well £998,000 yet to blag haa. It’s definitely one of the most accountable projects we’ve ever worked on. It’s all so black and white, the blagometre is the sword we, or the website, lives or dies by.

If you raise the full amount, what will you end up spending the money on?

We are going to set up an independent, strings free, non-corporate, guerilla film fund. We want to back and fund all the wild ideas television commissioners could never touch.  All the amazing silly ideas that get shot down by TV execs in their ‘development’ meetings, the ideas that would be hilarious to watch but maybe not financially viable, too risqué or a bad ‘ROI’ as ITV call it.

What’s wrong with the TV industry as it is?

I can only talk from personal experience, but trying to get anything off the ground yourself is hell. We’ve spent years making pilot shows, writing treatments, sucking up to commissioning editors, going to meetings, we’ve had offers, had offers retracted, had channels go bankrupt, all sorts. It’s a horrible process and a slippery fish of a goal to achieve because your fate lies in the hands of these commissioners. The credit crunch just makes it worse. That’s the best part about this site aside from the whole blagging part – there’s nothing speculative about it, we make what we want and throw it up there, it’s a good platform for our work.

If people donate to your fund, do they get a say in your output?

If we pull this off, we want the fund to be genuinely interactive. I know that sounds really cliché these days, but we are thinking of ways ‘the internet’ could choose which ideas got funding.

What’s all this about the smallest festival in the world?

Basically, a tiny festival in a secret back garden location with huge bands and comedians, we are setting up three tiny themed stages and an eight-seat comedy shed, with a live feed to a load of ratty old TV sets spread around the garden so the other 92 people can still watch the comedy. Will feel like Narnia on shrooms and we are raffling the tickets online for a quid each.

Go on then, beg the readers directly.

OK, I’ll try ha. We know the site isn’t to everyone’s taste, but if you guys are into the site, like the vids and the idea of a million pound film fund with no rules or strings attached, check out the schemes page and if any of them tickle your fancy, take a punt!

You want more? Then you’d better go and look at the Blag A Million website, then

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