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The original Christian Pill got taken down from YouTube for being too awesome. They claimed that it was due to copyright infractions, but we all know the truth. So I’ve finally gotten it up on Vimeo instead, and here’s how it used to look and sound in all its glory:

This video was quickly becoming our most popular when it got muted. I was looking up the search terms people used in finding it and was amused to discover that most revolved around “crazy Christian.”

This is (obviously) a satirical take on what much of Western Christianity has become in the US, at least how many people view it today. We made it for a college retreat, and I’m sad to say it wasn’t received as well there as it has been elsewhere. At least they didn’t seem to really get it (although the pastor that solicited my help still thinks it’s hilarious).

Jimmy Van Orsen is simply a character that I compiled out of my impressions of sleazy car salesmen and televangelists.

Kyle Taylor did a good job being the depressed white trash, and we had a fun time working together. He didn’t really drown, in case you’ve been worried this whole time.

Interesting fact: If you buy the Christian Pill it won’t do anything for except make you healthier because it was actually a multivitamin.

Slightly less interesting fact: The benefits listed at the end of the video are totally worth watching.

VASTLY less interesting fact: I’m not sure when exactly in our chronology this was released, so it’s finding its way into the blog at this point as an approximate release order… ish…

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I wanted to write you from last decade but got wrapped up in a New Year’s Eve party that lasted all night and now I’ve missed my chance. I have fallen into a new year unawares and am kind of sad that I missed my chance to write you from 2009 one more time.

Which is kind of weird because: who cares?

Anyways, I’m headed to my parents’ house to watch the Rose Bowl and eat snacks, and tomorrow we’re going to the WSU vs. Oregon State game! Stoked!

What are you doing for New Years? Leave a comment and let me know!

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Ok ok ok ok. So I’ve had a lot of pointed, almost angry questions about this video because people simply don’t get it. Step 1) It’s not a true sequel. It’s a public service announcement to encourage people not to bring food into the lab that we put up on the big screen at the entrance.

The reason it’s called “A Day in the Life of  a Ninja Con 2″ is because there was an original that actually followed a ninja through one of his ‘regular’ days. This video was quaint, and enjoyable, and completely unrelated to our video. But since people knew that one in the lab, we figured we’d name this one after it. Why?

Step 2) BECAUSE IT’S A SPOOF OF NINJA CAT COMES CLOSER WITHOUT MOVING FOR PETE’S SAKE! If you haven’t seen it, watch it below, then watch our video below that and it will all make sense. Beautiful, beautiful sense.

Above is one we didn’t make, below is the spoof we did.

There is one cool camera trick in here where the pop magically ends up in his hand. This was done with a simple cross dissolve between blurry shots, one where the pop was on the desk and one where it’s in his hand. I just made the same motion twice and voila. If that made no sense to you, don’t worry, I’m not going to go any further with the explanation.

Interesting fact: Jeff‘s face is on that little “no food in the PUB Lab” sign I smack at the beginning of the video, so he technically IS in a video.

Slightly less interesting fact: I’m shown using myspace in the video, quite possibly the last time I ever touched my profile.

VASTLY less interesting fact: You’d be surprised how often people think they can get away with eating in a “no food” zone and try to weasel out of it by getting angry with you like it’s your fault they broke the rules. I still want to slap people like that, despite not working there since June.

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I was out in the great white north of internet-free wonder called “Okanogan, Washington” this week visiting my grandparents. So I’m A) behind on video blogs and B) sorry I didn’t get a MERRY CHRISTMAS!! out to you all.

But I’m back, and got some work done on iSaber 4 while at my grandparents. Just because you don’t have the internet doesn’t mean you can’t do something useful with your computer; I had forgotten this. It was weird not having the webz at my beck and call, however. Especially when rendering previews; I ended up staring at my computer wondering what on earth I was supposed to be doing.

We got some sweet Spite and Malice time in though, and it was a great relaxing time with my family.

Hope to have the new video up soon, but in the mean time go check out our latest 140 Second Chances on YouTube. I’ll post it in blog format here when it comes up chronologically… I think. I’m not really sure how to go about all this. Bah, I’ll just post it now. But you should still go to our YouTube page and subscribe.

Seriously, we didn’t even make it in the dang contest. Go subscribe.

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So to keep up my record the Nikon Festival makes three video competitions in a row that I have entered only to never have my entry see the light of day.

I just thought I’d let you in on the disappointing truth of the matter. To make things worse Nikon didn’t even tell me straight up that I didn’t make it in. They simply sent me an Email saying “go see if you made it in!” THEN the site has been down most of the last 24 hours so I had to wait until I was heading out to work at 5:30am today to see if I made it in or not. I can’t even double check right now because it’s down again (due to too much traffic, which seems to be a grave oversight on their part).

I’m assuming,  since my search turned up bupkis and the embedded version of it in a previous post is dead, that it’s been rejected and removed. They didn’t even keep it around… the pain. I need to upload it to our Live Charge YouTube account now if I want anyone to see it.

As for getting up at 5am to go to work, I started a new temporary job extracting venom from bees. Of course I got moved to packaging so I never got to extract any venom, but by the sound of it I dodged a bullet on that one.

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When we met Marshall we thought: This guy’s name alone screams “action hero.” His name is simply B.A. any way you look at it. Unfortunately I misspelled it about ten different ways by the time it got to the interwebz.

Of course he’s like the nicest guy you’ve ever met, thus the statement that if his name doesn’t scare you nothing else about him is likely to. I really wanted to play around with After Effects and what better way to do that than to throw up as many explosions on the screen at once as possible?

But obviously (at least we hope it’s obvious despite how I’m about to make this sentence slightly self-contradictory) there’s a lot more subtlety to the skit than just making an action movie trailer. I’m not gonna explain myself on that one though because I’d ruin half of it in doing so.

I still think the turkey is the best part personally, although the exploding stick of death usually gets some laughs. What’s your favorite part? Let us know by leaving a comment!

Interesting fact: Marshall Cain doesn’t kick babies, that’s an old Chuck Norris joke that nobody seems to know.

Slightly less interesting fact: This video was Caleb’s debut, for all of 6 seconds or so.

VASTLY less interesting fact: Brandon Fraser really is the worst action hero of all time, although we love the Mummy and generally enjoy his performances.

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This one was for my dad’s Church, to help raise awareness of their change drive for various ministries in Congo. They showed it in church one Sunday, I think that’s the most attention it ever got.

To be honest it’s my least favorite of all the videos, largely because nothing went to plan as we filmed it. Also I did a horrible job throwing the music in.  HOWEVER, it was still fun to film and Budge’s favorite character, Edgar, made his debut scarring the screen forever.

All in all a B- at best as far as our videos go I’d say.

This is probably the least informative video blog I’ve done so far, but I’m going crazy trying to finish the iSaber 4 video… 26 hours in and maybe half way done. blegh…

Interesting fact: Filming with Morgan we discovered after 40 min that the sound hadn’t been recorded. We had literally just enough time to re-film each shot once.

Slightly less interesting fact: There wasn’t anything in the cooler at any point during the filming.

VASTLY less interesting fact: If you’re in Cheney and hungry, avoid that Mexican restaurant and go to Corona Village.

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Another failure in attempts to enter contests: The Nesquik Video. At least we got to use a sweet mask in the process, it enhances Peter’s dangerous features quite nicely.

We certainly know how bored you can get just sitting around on the stairs in front of your apartment complex. Especially when you don’t live there any more. The batteries used were real, and I did accidentally shock myself with the dog collar, but I’ve done that before. Nothing I can’t handle *manly cough*.

The theme was “Nesquik takes you to your happy place” or something like that. Avoiding anything inappropriate we opted for something out of left field. Instead of our main characters getting taken to their ‘happy place,’ they’d use their assailant’s happy place to sedate him long enough to subdue him.

It probably got taken out for violence, ugly masks, and unsafe conduct. Whatever. We had fun making it. This was one of the harder ones to make as we got ditched a number of times by various actors and actresses. That happens, but finding replacements isn’t usually as hard as it was this time.

We actually had to get one girl who refused to be in it call in a favor on another girl (Mollie) in order to get out of being in the video so that we didn’t have to take out that part of the dream sequence. Which raises the question: what would a thief find more wonderful than being encouraged in his successful thievery by a beautiful lady?

Interesting fact: I grew up with and have known Mollie for a loooong time.

Slightly less interesting fact: Matt, the guy who gets his wallet stolen, was also the camera man for most of the video.

VASTLY less interesting fact: Nesquik makes a nasty mess when force-fed to someone.

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When we moved in to our new house up north we discovered a lot of nasty stuff. The place hadn’t been cleaned before we moved in, and quite possibly the most disgusting artifact of the previous tenants was a cracked, green plush toilet seat.

This of course spawned an idea for me, because I hate plush toilet seats. Seriously, who wants to sit on something squishy and (usually) mildly sticky when they go to the bathroom? I always assume that it’s sticky because somebody left a surprise on the seat, and since they retain heat going immediately after somebody else is that much more unpleasant.

So of course we deemed it “Satan’s Seat” and avoided it for something like a month before buying a new, smooth wooden seat. In the meantime we filmed a video about it. This was also to be John Dalbey’s last video with us before he moved to Germany to get married, so we had to do him in.

We didn’t want to kill him off though, hoping that he’d be back someday, so we just debilitated him at the end.

RufioJJ (his real name is Jon but he’s better known as Rufio on the intertubez) played our blind guy/Satan and was also the interviewer off camera. We hope to have him in another video someday assuming he ever comes back from the happiest place on Earth, where he’s been working for a while now.

This was also Cody’s debut. He and I generally do play pranks on blind people when we get the chance, but this was a particularly mean fabrication of sorts.

Interesting fact: John’s ring tone in the video was from a flash cartoon that came out when I was in high school. It’s still awesome.

Slightly less interesting fact: I bought that wicker chair (which I call my throne) for $4 at a yard sale across the street.

VASTLY less interesting fact: I kept that toilet seat for a whole year in 4 plastic bags just in case we wanted to use it as a prop again. That was a bad idea for what should be very apparent reasons.

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Looks like they reviewed our submission after rejecting it an then accepted it. Much appreciated, Nikon.

NOW GO LEAVE A COMMENT!!!

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