I received a random email from a guy over at CollegeHumor.com in January. My friend Matt, who I had gone to college with and now works as a video editor at CH.com, refereed me for the project. Apparently they were looking for "breakdancers", or as I like to call them Bboys, to dance in a music video they were going to film. It was a spoof off of Star Wars and Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind. I was familiar with college humor already so I decided it would be a fun and entertaining gig. It wasn't until I had gotten an email from the costume designer that I realized how big of a production they were actually making this video out to be- and what I had actually gotten myself into. I was casted as a storm trooper and as a rebel pilot. The day of the shoot, I rolled up to the college humor office where they were filming in the lobby. I rounded the corner and was stopped in my tracks as I witnessed R2D2 headed straight at me in full speed. It's head was rotating and it was pumping rap music out of its speakers. I looked to my left and there was 5 children dressed up as ewoks running around and playing. C3PO showed up late cause he just got in off a plane from California.
I met the director and everybody involved, then decided to step aside and stretch out. When it was my turn to be filmed, I suited up in the storm trooper outfit provided to me by the costume designer. I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to dance in this suit. It would have been great to get down to the floor and do some footwork and some power moves in the suit but there was no way I could even bend down to touch my toes. The suit was made of a really hard plastic and it was fitted for a one size body type. Unfortunately that size was not for someone at 5'6". The joint pieces did not bend at my elbows or my knees so I ended up with bruises on my biceps and on the back of my legs. With the helmet on I could not hear the music I was supposed to dance to because of all the noise it made while it grinded against the plastic shoulder pieces.
After a number of rounds, I was forced to retire as a Storm Trooper because my body was beat the @#$! up. Luckily I was able to wait a while until I needed to perform as a rebel pilot. After a long day I was able to give them 5 or 6 throw downs before calling it a night. The video came out great and looks very well produced. I was told later from my people over at college humor that the video received great feedback on a lot of the official Star Wars fan sites.
-Myketoes
