So this past Sunday night I starred in my first film. My buddy Jeremy needed to film a short film for a class so naturally he wanted expertise and talent so he chose me. I felt flattered and took some time out of my busy social life to star in his film. The premise of the film was that it had to do with me stealing a bike and saving someone from pouring milk in their Starbucks Coffee. The movie played out sort of like this but obviously much more exciting.
So the first scene of the movie features me using my metro card and the reader continuously saying insufficient fare, I keep trying it until I decide to do as the homeless do, pick up every single discarded metro card in the 72nd and Central Park West station and try them out. Of course none of them worked, if they had it would have ruined the whole take, so in frustration I throw the whole pile down and walk completely flustered head hanging low out of the station, then all of the sudden the pay phone rings, it’s the Starbucks alert and I proceed to run up the stairs as fast as possible tripping along the way to the Starbucks on 68th and Columbus. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I spot a bicycle and yank it free and ride away as its owner comes running out of the building it is parked in front screaming obscenities at me. No time to waste I am on a mission.
So we get the whole film crew to Starbucks and as we are preparing to shoot the manager states that we cannot film without company permission, even though we are promoting Starbucks by saving someone from damaging their coffee with additives, but no we are forced on to plan B.
Fortunately outside of this 24hr establishment they have set up those Christmas tree for sale displays that are scattered about the streets of Manhattan. So we strike up a conversation with the dude working there and get him to be in the film. He tells us he calls people who patronize Starbucks “Skcubrats” Starbucks spelled backwards. Clever, we run and get a 50 cent cup of coffee or cup of Joe as it is fondly known on the streets, it comes in one of those classic blue cups with the steam imprinted on the side, I remember my old man complaining when coffee cost more then 75 cents. So anyway instead of promoting Starbucks we bashed them and their yuppy upscale high priced mayhem. As this Christmas tree salesman from Florida was opening the door to the Starbucks I came riding in on my Trojan horse signing the Trojan man song, well actually I was on my bike handing him a free cup of equally good yet half the price coffee that lacked the cool green logo which gives you status in the working world as a Hummer gives you status in the suburban mother world. Our man the Christmas tree salesman who turns out to be a half Israeli Jew in the end, came up with the catch phrase, “ Is it going to be the Green or the Blue Pill” Kind of Matrixesqe and we used it as my line to convince him of the blue cup of coffee’s quality and of how Starbucks is like the Matrix.