The “LOST” Home Movie

While most of my posts here on my blog have to do with my drawings and paintings, once in awhile I get to play in other genres of the creative arts. This past spring provided just such an opportunity through my good friend Steve Czarnecki when he called me to see if I’d lend him a hand with a video contest his employer was hosting. His employer was Disney, and they were asking their employees to submit 30 second homemade videos pertaining to the end of their hit television series LOST on ABC. Today, the final season of LOST is released on DVD, so I thought it was a good day to show some of my behind-the-scenes photos of the LOST Series Finalè Event Promo Shoot culminating in showing you the final winning video!

When Steve called me, I could hear the hesitation in his voice. “Hey Chad, um, I………want you to play ‘Hurley’ in my video.” “Why the hesitation?” I thought. Was it because I had won the lottery and then was abandoned on an uncharted island? Nope, haven’t done that. Perhaps because I say “Duuude” a lot? Nope, I don’t say that (much). Perhaps because he knew I had a collection of plaid shirts? Nah. Perhaps we’ll never know.

Steve’s shoot took place all day on a beautiful Saturday. My call time was early in the morning when my speaking part would be filmed. When I arrived, you could see that Steve pulled out all the stops. He had borrowed airplane parts from a salvage yard and had strewn them across his backyard. He had borrowed costumes (I – ahem – brought my own wardrobe), had made props, fog machines, a quality camera, and folks who knew how to use them! This was going to be quite a production!

Not only was the set looking mighty fine – Steve had arranged for some other surprises as well. The reason for my early call time was so that I could work with Daniel Roebuck who actually played Dr. Leslie Arzt on the actual show. Danny was a good sport about coming out and reprising his character for Steve’s short film. Without giving it away, his involvement really made the contest entry sparkle!

After our morning shoot, I was able to take off for a couple of hours while the guys worked on some special effects shots, then I came back for the party scene. And what a scene! Other folks imitating characters from the show were there, along with three more performers who had small parts on the actual LOST show. Instead of babbling on about it here, I’ll let the pictures tell the story….

 

As I mentioned above, Steve Czarnecki did win the grand prize in the studio contest for his work. You can watch the video below. My only complaint is that with all the great stuff and talent at our disposal – the video is too short. But contest rules are contest rules, so 30 seconds it is! (Complete with voiceover at the end by Bill Rogers, the official announcer of Disneyland!)