Epic Office Party Surprise

CREW
Directed by: Charlie Todd
Executive Producers: Justin Ayers, Andrew Soltys, and Charlie Todd
Producer: Andrew Soltys
Production Manager: Jordan Drake
Associate Producer: Stephanie Roush
Key PA: Kristin Kirkley
Production Assistants: Aspen Nelson, Jackson Griffin, Mecca McDonald, Elvis Minaya
Technical Director: Justin Ayers
Camera Operators: Ces Tayo, Corey Noll, Sofia Chavez, Jake Hachey, Mike Doyle, Marius Becker, Gabriel Stanley
Assistant Camera: Jenna Cleveland, Katie Voss
Camera PA: Antone Axten
Sound Mixer: Brett Van Deusen
Art Director: Steve Phelps
Music: Tyler Walker
Post Sound: Mat Guido
Editor: Ryan Spears

CAST
Host / HR Manager: Cody Lindquist
Ken: Ken McGraw
Office Workers: Terence Chen, Brielle DeMirjian, Lou Gonzalez Jr., Ryan Karels, Glo Tavarez, Dejen Tesfagiorgis, Erika Wood

For our latest mission, we surprised temp workers with the most epic office party ever. We built a fake room in the middle of our production studio in New York. From the inside, it looked like a boring conference room, but we secretly rigged it with hidden cameras and special effects. We hired real temp workers to come in for a day’s worth of work. They had no idea that everyone else in the office was an actor or what was about to go down.

Using Craigslist and TaskRabbit, we hired people to come in for a one-day gig of envelope stuffing. The temps first reported to a reception area and then were brought to the fake conference room by Agent Cody Lindquist, playing our fake company’s HR Manager. Agent Ken McGraw was already seated and working in the conference room, pretending to be another temp.

Enjoy the video above first, and then check out the behind-the-scenes below.

Special thanks to Flashtalking for their collaboration.

Outlining the fake room in our studio.

We found the most boring, generic carpet possible.

Surrounding the exterior door with walls.

The drop ceiling coming together.

Our Technical Director Justin Ayers working on the projectors embedded in the ceiling.

Disco ball trap door!

We installed two air dancers (AKA wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men), cutting holes in the walls and hiding them behind paintings that slid on a track.

We even had ducting for air conditioning in our little fake room.

We had full control of all of the lighting in the room. While the ceiling lights looked light fluorescent tubes, they were LEDs that could change to any color.

Four projectors installed in the ceiling were able to light up every wall with custom graphics during the party.

Dress rehearsal with cast.

Robotic hidden camera operators were right on the other side of the wall.

Our robotic hidden cameras were placed behind two way mirrors throughout the room.

The view from the control room.

Enjoy the video above to see how it all went down! Thank you to all of the temp workers who were all excellent sports about the surprise.

Mission Accomplished

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