Wherein 30 Seconds Ain't What It Used to Be

Yes, I've decided to continue this blog. I'm hitting the proverbial runners wall of writing a blog, but I have to keep going. If I can't even keep writing about my life, how could I hope to write about interesting things? Not that my life isn't interesting.¹

Sam and I finished the Sunoco commercial. It became immediately clear that we couldn't film in a car as we wanted to, but Steve and Kaleen's garage served admirably in the car's stead. We put in another hour or so of actual filming, Sam and I never feeling comfortable with the lines and wanted plenty of safety takes. It took us about 4 seconds to find which takes we wanted.²

It was an enlightening experience in actually producing the crazy ideas we always talk about:
1) We found that our group of friends are awesome, and will give up their Saturday afternoons to hang out in the world's rusty-nail-stabiest basement ever, cheering like mad men.³
2) Locations scouting seemed so easy, but only because lighting is so much worse. Why can't everyone just have free lighting equipment?⁴
2) I can just let Sam do all the grunt work of editing. I'll just swoop in with a few notes at the end, and then take all the credit.
4) Since when have 30 seconds only lasted for about 12 seconds? We thought we had all the time in the world. We shot so much of the fight that now is just littering the cutting room floor, shots that are technically the property⁵ of Sunoco.

We had about 2 weeks from sitting in my apartment saying we should try one of those poptent commercials to uploading it. So naturally we decided to immediately try another one. This one due 6 days from now. Which is less than half the time we had on this one.⁶ Despite the lessons just learned, I immediately thought, "We'll have plenty of time to fit this in 30 seconds". Silly, foolish Brandon. Fortunately we can do a 30 or 60 second spot this time around, and we have a great, more accessible concept.⁷ Plus we have Steve and Kaleen to star which means I'll get to spend more time behind the camera.

We'll find out if our spot's been purchased by the 28th, so keep your fingers crossed. It remains a small piece with very little dialogue, but I still feel very happy to take an idea all the way. Now I can't wait to do it again. Even if I do have to talk Steve and Kaleen out of their clothes.⁸


Now here's my random thoughts from the night:
--I'm about 95% sure that Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones are the same person living together via time travel. I am less sure if Brolin travelled forward, or Tommy Lee Jones backwards.
--I don't know what the Hell transvaginal mesh is, but I do know I wish this commercial would stop saying it.
--Whoever decided they should make a 2 hour behind the scenes of "The Santa Clause" is apparently stalking me and basing all programming decisions off the findings.
--Holy shit, Jackie Chan was just in a V8 or commercial. Or I'm really racist. Either way I'm so, so sorry.


¹But exactly that.
²Sadly, we weren't allowed to use footage from "Galaxy Quest", so we settled for the crap we shot.
³The people, not the show. Also mad women? Is it sexist to not call women mad?
⁴Because we're not communists. Or at least some of us aren't. Eh, comrade?
⁵The best kind of property!
⁶Trust me. I have a degree in counting.
⁷I mean, who hasn't been to an underground nickel fight?
⁸I'll probably have to talk them into doing things for the commercial, too.