by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)
Several months back we decided to clean out some equipment we weren’t using at work. There were a couple of server racks and other stuff (which I can’t remember). The taller of the two server racks was empty and I thought it would be funny to use that in some sort of sketch. Anyone can stand in there and ‘peer’ out while moving it around on it’s wheels. I knew I would have to do whatever it was before we sold them so I got on the ball.
The sketch I came up with didn’t 100% fit into the story line of Season 2 (since it is something that the Nathan character would do) but I could use it as a ‘what if’ or a dream segment. Basically Nathan would scheme to break back into the old job where he had been fired from and wreak havoc with the place.
One day I brought the script to work along with the camera and a couple of props including the Joe mask I made. I had my coworkers help me by being camera man here and there.
I will take you scene by scene so watch the video: Click here.
- I am ‘sneaking’ down the hall infront of my real office and the server room.
- My coworker Chris Noble is sitting at his desk in the help desk area and I AfterEffect’d a ‘security screen’ that he appears to be watching. I took several generic shots of different areas and put them onto this phony screen to make it look like Chris is a guard monitoring all these security cameras.
- The security system ‘box’ is actually the control box for the water alarm system for the big cooling unit in the server room. Nathan plugs a cable in (not really) and uses a laptop to alter the security camera system. The cable did not plug into anything. Also the ‘room’ I reached into was the server room and the room I sitting infront of the door of is my office.
- You might notice the footage is sped up in a lot of places. this was to cut down on time so the video would fit into the sketch.
- With the security guard distracted Nathan moves again.
- In the hall Nathan looks up at a camera (real) and then puts on the Joe mask (my boss).
- The far shot that looks like a security camera is my coworker up on a ladder at the end of the hall. I just made the footage black and white to make it look like security video. If you notice when I put the mask on and the scene switch to a long shot I am actually wayyy further back down the hall than I was a moment ago.
- The room I move into in the next scene is the little conference room infront of my office. You will see a piece of cardboard on the wall with pin back buttons on it. This is what was left over from what I was trying to sell at Comicon the that year.
- The picture behind me as I look at my old office is a photoshop is of my coworker Jonathan’s head ontop of a female bodybuilder.
- The camera I approach with the handmade card is the card reader for the server room. I simply used Aftereffects to make that ‘fish-eye’ effect with the shot so it looks like some sort of security camera.
- After we see the guard still waiting for the porn I show up in the server rack and move it across the floor. It is very comical.
- The next shot of me walking behind the network patch panels was done by putting the camera on a cart and rolling it. The cables in that last rack were put there by me for this sketch.
- The Kaution sign is an in-joke about the time my shirt designs on CafePress were pulled because some company said it infringed on their copyright of the word Caution. I redesigned the shirts spelling it Kaushen. Well, it was sort of an inside joke.
The video seems to be well received by everyone who watches it. More so by those who work with me. I had fun doing it and I like the song so that’s a bonus. I simply wrote in a sketch around it explaining that Nathan was mad enough to do something like this but in the end he just shrugs it off since he doesn’t feel like doing it.