Burning Bad With Written Commentary

Back in, I wanna say, 2014, I made a video with the help of some friends. The idea came to me as I was binge watching "Breaking Bad" in preparation for the final episode. The idea was take "Breaking Bad" and make it about bootleg movies. It took almost a year from conception to finished product but it was worth it. During that time I got a new camera and new editing software. I uploaded it back then and had no problems.

Flash forward a year later and I start the CineGamer YouTube channel. Since I wanted to make that my main focus, I switched my video "Burning Bad" over to that. And almost immediately I got a copyright strike and the video had to be taken down. Also, my channel got suspended and I couldn't upload certain videos or do certain things. I disputed this and eventually I won, with my suspension coming to an early end.

I thought about this video and how much fun it was and decided to try uploading it again without the song that caused the copyright strike. Before I get into that, you should watch the video in question first and then I'll provide written directors commentary. I wanted to do a standard commentary but I felt that would ruin some of the humor having me talk over it. Anyway, if you've never seen it before here it is, "Burning Bad".



First off, the song in question is Blue Oyster Cult's "Burnin' For You" (which I keep calling "I'm Burning For You" sorry about that), which looking up on YouTube, OTHER people seem to have videos of it up with no problem. And these feature the full song, I only needed 45 seconds. The song is about 4:50 and I got a strike for 45 seconds.

Anyway, if you've never seen "Breaking Bad" or didn't understand some things here's how the casting breaks down:

I played myself/Walter White
Cokie played a weird version of himself/Jesse Pinkman.
Nick Jobe played Nick, a FBI agent/Hank.
Nolahn played Russ Ting/Gus Fring.
Dylan Fields and Kai Parker played Weasel and Athletic Stu/Badger and Skinny Pete.
Sheep played himself/Skylar
Bill Szany played Fred Saidright/Saul Goodman (and the pizza guy at the very end that I hope you all stayed around for)


Two things I think of when I think back to this video. One is when I filmed the Fred Saidright commerical. I've lived in and around Chicago most of my life, which seems to be the home of real stupid local ads. (The last one I linked to is more or less what I was parodying.) Also I was unemployed a whole bunch in my 20's so I was home during the day a lot. I tried my best to make this look like one of those local commercials and it was fun. Originally, the script just called for him to stand in front of a car, a house, and a empty spot to prove his point but the day we filmed this, it was snowing. I had to go home the next day and couldn't wait for the weather to clear up so I decided to throw the snow into the ad. The last part at the end about him ending cause he was freezing his balls off was also added in at the last second. Fred Saidright is my favorite character name I ever came up with and I'm trying to figure out how to make a Fred Saidright/Better Call Saul prequel.

The second thing is the bit with Dylan and Kai. They mentioned they were going to Las Vegas for a weekend to do something football related (I don't know, something...) and I asked if they could film this part quickly in their room. They agreed and I sent them...nothing. I told them it was a parody of "Breaking Bad", what their characters were doing (selling bootleg blu-rays) and what characters they were suppose to be. The dialogue they 100% made up on the spot and it ended up stealing the entire video. It's seriously my favorite moment in the video, and I tell a stuffed sheep he talks too much. So I have to hand it to them, they did an amazing job.

I had to have this video take place in 2012 because that's when Cabin In The Woods was in theaters and I had to explain why bootlegging that movie was a big deal. Looking back at it, I find it humorous that during the now silent montage I'm cutting a newspaper ad for the blu-ray sleeve and it turned into an actual cover.

Also sorry for the shots where you see my thighs. I get it, I'm not a fan either.

Normally, Nick appears a lot more in my videos but this was around the time his life started getting busy and he only could do a couple of things, which is too bad because he did his role as Nick the FBI agent awesomely. Although, this lead to an interesting filming dilemma. I forgot to cast someone to play the guy who stabs Nick, so I had to do it.

In "Breaking Bad", Walt comes up with the name "Heisenberg" which is based on a chemist. For me, I wanted to go with a director with a similar sounding name and I went with "Henenlotter", who is the director of one of my favorite movies Basket Case. During the scene where I talk to Cokie about Weasel and Athletic Stu, I hold up a blu-ray of Basket Case.

It only took me one take to hit Cokie with the Powerade, which surprised me because I did throw it from across the room. Hence the delayed "OW! BITCH".

I forget which part it was now but after I filmed everything and I started editing, I realized I didn't film Cokie responding to things I said. So right in the middle of editing, I had to get my camera out and film all of Cokie's lines. Speaking of my camera...

During filming of this, my camera broke. So while I had everything set up I had to take my happy ass to Target and buy a new one. It's the one I'm still using today. I think I only started a new YouTube channel to justify the cost of this camera. But I think you can tell which scenes I had my old camera and which ones I used the new one.

I should explain the terrible ADR in the ending clip. We filmed that at my friend Bill's house and he has about three dogs who anytime anyone knocks on the the door, they start barking very loudly. As I didn't want that on video, I told Bill (who played the pizza delievery guy) to not really knock on the door and I'll edit in the sound. What you see was my best effort at that. But still, it's another favorite part of mine and I put it at the end cause I couldn't find any other place to put it.

Alright, that's all I got. I hope you enjoyed the video and this commentary. If I skipped over something and you have a question about it, leave it in the comments and I'll answer it there.

-Jason