Directed by Stefan Koski

Starring (in order of appearance) Joe Sasani, Stefan Koski, Thomas Poudrier, Lucas Clunan, Joshua Hubbard

Voice-Over by Joe Sasani

Length:8 minutes, 31 seconds

Click to watch it on Google Video

Synopsis and Director's Notes

A commercial parody for JDC Energy Drink!, which boosts your energy, mental alertness, and your ability to play ping-pong apparently.

In this energy drink commercial parody, host Stefan Koski (you might remember him from a few other places) introduces Thomas Poudrier, Lucas Clunan, Joe Sasani, and Josh Hubbard, who play the part of one man looking for an extra boost in energy for a game of ping-pong. Blooper reel included.

For additional fun, count how many times Joe Sasani (he's the one in the black shirt) appears in the background. Kind of like a Where's Waldo? type of thing. Other interesting things to keep an eye out for are a sheet with the number 32 written all over it taped to the washing machine in the first scene, a reflection of the entire crew in a window during a camera pan, and the high-pitched voice-overs done by Joe Sasani (have fun trying to figure out what was originally said).

On a note of efficiency, this was probably one of the best groups I've ever worked with. They stayed fairly focused on what they were trying to do and took only a couple breaks in the two hours that we spent shooting - which isn't many when compared to past shoots where it seems like we take a five minute breather after every take. What annoyed me in editing though was the audio - all the guys were talking and swearing through the whole thing, so the individual "pings" during the game of ping-pong had to be separated from the rest of the noise. It was a lengthy process, which is why the audio does not match up perfectly. Another source of annoyance (as will be immediately obvious to any astute filmmaker) was the lighting. The lighting on the set (Josh's basement, which explains why he's the best of the four at ping-pong) was terrible because it was mixed between regular light at one end and halogen at the other (the white balance on a camera has to be adjusted for halogen light to keep the colors from looking excessively orange). The basement, though it's probably not noticeable from the video, is also rather small, and having the ping-pong table in there didn't give us a lot of working room. We nonetheless managed to deal with it, somehow.

During the out-takes you'll notice that Joe gives us a few lines of alternative abbreviations for JDC, including JFK, among others. Over the course of the shoot Joe gave every possible alternate three letter combinations with J that you can imagine. Unfortunately, we weren't able to capture them all on film. I also asked Joe at one point to do a deep voiced, "Neo, I want to tell you about the Matrix" line. You can watch to see what my comments are on that.

Another segment from the bloopers that people usually pick up on are the comments that Josh makes about my request for a suit jacket, asking, "Wait - a black one?" After offering my initial comeback, I went on to say, "No, Josh, I want you to give me bright pink, like the Elton John Signature Series." The reason why it's not on the blooper reel is, thanks to my speech impediment, I horribly exaggerated the word "pink," and couldn't stand the thought of sharing it with anyone beyond those who were there to hear it.

Music in this Film:

You Make Me Cool--Seatbelts

Cat Blues--Seatbelts

Chocobo Jam--Final Fantasy X Soundtrack

The Real Man--Seatbelts

E-Pro--Beck