Whew!
We showed our film today at the company staff breakfast and it was a big hit! This year's theme (and we try to keep it secret every year) was an American Idol ripoff.
Each of our twelve quarterly winners from 2007 "auditioned" before our judges and then we announced the one big winner for the year. Instead of singing, though, the winners talked about what they did to win during the year (I wrote the script for that part) then they did a post-judging interview where they got to pretty much say whatever they wanted to thank people and whatnot.
The casting was great. We had one of the cool guys from Print Mfg as Randy, one of the super nice but sometimes goofy Directors as Paula and my buddy Dave as Simon. Dave can be a little crabby at times so it fit. One of the Sales Supes played the Ryan role and he was a total natural. He's definitely making into the film next year.
Besides the 12 winners, we had two guest stars. One was the company's founder and we poked some gentle fun at him with his spot. I was sitting at the table with the CEO and his wife (founder's son-in-law and daughter) and they were busting up. The second guest star was my friend and fellow IT co-worker, Audrey, who played it like a real Idol audition complete with horrible singing and yelling at the judges for not thinking she was good. Her scene ended with her getting dragged out of the studio and the whole room was hysterical.
I had two people come up to me afterwards and say this was the best presentation we've ever done. That's remarkable considering this is the 7th or 8th that I've worked on. Even more impressive is that one of the guys who used to be on our team was inspired enough to come back.
Thinking about it, I have to agree that it was the best. The Idol theme was suggested by one of our team and it really showcased the winners well. We used three cameras for filming so it gave me plenty of video to mix up the shots during editing. That made it a lot more interesting to watch. The winners did a great job with their speeches. You could see it meant a lot to them that they had won during the year.
But, the most compelling reason for me that it was the best was that I laughed all the way through it along with the audience. Usually, I'm so sick of the presentation because I've watched it dozens of times (at least) during editing and I stop thinking it has any humor at all. This year was completely different. The editing was actually a breeze and I'm still laughing at some of the bits.
Good inspiration for next year and I'm actually looking forward to working on it again.
Each of our twelve quarterly winners from 2007 "auditioned" before our judges and then we announced the one big winner for the year. Instead of singing, though, the winners talked about what they did to win during the year (I wrote the script for that part) then they did a post-judging interview where they got to pretty much say whatever they wanted to thank people and whatnot.
The casting was great. We had one of the cool guys from Print Mfg as Randy, one of the super nice but sometimes goofy Directors as Paula and my buddy Dave as Simon. Dave can be a little crabby at times so it fit. One of the Sales Supes played the Ryan role and he was a total natural. He's definitely making into the film next year.
Besides the 12 winners, we had two guest stars. One was the company's founder and we poked some gentle fun at him with his spot. I was sitting at the table with the CEO and his wife (founder's son-in-law and daughter) and they were busting up. The second guest star was my friend and fellow IT co-worker, Audrey, who played it like a real Idol audition complete with horrible singing and yelling at the judges for not thinking she was good. Her scene ended with her getting dragged out of the studio and the whole room was hysterical.
I had two people come up to me afterwards and say this was the best presentation we've ever done. That's remarkable considering this is the 7th or 8th that I've worked on. Even more impressive is that one of the guys who used to be on our team was inspired enough to come back.
Thinking about it, I have to agree that it was the best. The Idol theme was suggested by one of our team and it really showcased the winners well. We used three cameras for filming so it gave me plenty of video to mix up the shots during editing. That made it a lot more interesting to watch. The winners did a great job with their speeches. You could see it meant a lot to them that they had won during the year.
But, the most compelling reason for me that it was the best was that I laughed all the way through it along with the audience. Usually, I'm so sick of the presentation because I've watched it dozens of times (at least) during editing and I stop thinking it has any humor at all. This year was completely different. The editing was actually a breeze and I'm still laughing at some of the bits.
Good inspiration for next year and I'm actually looking forward to working on it again.
