Bud Light Film Crew #18

Being that this was my final video for the BLFC, I really wanted to knock it out of the park, but as you can guess based on the intended tone of this sentence, that didn't happen. I think everybody would agree the results are underwhelming. I keep telling myself it's not the first or last videos in the series that matter but rather the ones in the middle. My personal favorites are April 2007, November 2007, and February 2008, but I'm happy with a bunch of the others too. Many of them are unpolished and chaotic, but that was the original design. That's what made them fun to work on: I could experiment and play with them knowing that mistakes were acceptable and could be hidden with the editing or blatantly included with much consequence. Even with that method in mind, the pieces just didn't fit together this time.

I had too much faith that I could make this video work without putting a lot of effort in. To my defense, there were also a number of things working against me. First of all, nobody, including me, bothered to organize the shoot. I had no plan going into it. I didn't know what the event was all about and neither did the new hosts, and nobody was there to direct us. That's why their questions were so off-the-wall. Also, the rain outside caused a last minute change in location. What could have been a scenic golden hour outdoors became a drab and dreary indoor setting, not helped by the fact that my on-camera light's battery ran out of juice halfway through. Sometimes a poorly executed shoot can be saved with some sharp editing, but there just wasn't enough time for that.

Regarding the new hosts... I like two out of three of them a lot and think they have a lot of potential. They're more charismatic and out-going than most of the prior hosts we've had, but those qualities don't entirely make up for inexperience. These are simply regular people we found at the bar and talked into trying out. The original candidates were voted down to six, and then only three of them showed up for the final part of the contest so they got the job by default. I fully expect them to do some good hosting in the future, however. Two of them are compulsively watchable, even though a lot of their stuff ends up on the cutting room floor. Theresa was a train off the tracks, but fun to watch. Matt kept it in line, but I still had to cut one of the three interviews he conducted because the interviewee was a drunk intern for the magazine we represent. It was a bummer to lose that footage.

I will feel left out not being involved with the next video, but then I think about how it will be held at the Starboard in Dewey Beach and how I already shot two videos there, and I remember how nice it will be to work on projects of my own choosing again. My passion for the BLFC has been fading for a while. My lack of it was probably the biggest reason the last video feels like a failure.

The best part of the June video is R's cameo near the end, followed by a cameo by our friends S&Q. If you remember, S&Q are the stars of my upcoming "Fake Empire" music video, so it seemed fitting to transition between projects with a shot of them.

Enough talking... check the video out here: www.BudLightFilmCrew.com