CineVegas

Eric Childress of eFilmCritic.com interviewing Dan Lindsay -

The “Last Cup" Pitch: On the surface it is a humorous, light-hearted look at four individuals vying for the title of World Series of Beer Pong Champion. But really the movie is about something that anyone can relate to, the desire to be the best at something. It just happens to be, that “something” is beer pong.

How did this film get rolling at the beginning? Give us a brief history from writing to production to post to just last night.

DAN: I’ll see how many producer’s names I can get in here while trying to explain this. Josh Otten, our producer, was pitched the idea by Dan Tischler who is our co-producer. Dan’s brother, Dave (who is credited as an associate producer) knew the guys who had won the first World Series of Beer Pong (WSOBP) and he thought making a documentary about them and the WSOBP might be interesting. Josh and I had been trying to find a project to work on together since we and our executive producer Nic Kalikow had another project kind of fall apart during pre-production (we discovered someone had been doing the exact same film but had a two year head start on us). Josh approached me about doing the film and I think I said no at first. The subject of beer pong wasn’t that interesting to me. I made a lot of incorrect assumptions about the kind of people who play beer pong. But for whatever reason I couldn’t get the idea of out my mind, so I started researching the world a bit. After reading an article about the first WSOBP I was completely hooked. It seemed like a great world with really compelling characters. So I called Josh (again, our producer) and told him we have to do this.

Our actual production was crazy. From traveling around the country meeting the players pre-WSOBP to the actual event, it was all very stressful. I had no experience covering such a large event with all of your main characters in different places at the same time. We just kind of made it up as we went along. Definitely a learning experience.

Post was definitely where the film took shape. Because of the nature of the event, I wasn’t really able to view any of the footage while at the WSOBP, so I didn’t really know what we had. Luckily, we hired the greatest editor in the world (T.J. Martin) and the two of us were able to “write” the story together. Any success the film has is due in large part to T.J.’s insight and perseverance and also Josh having the patience and belief in us that we would find the story.

Last night I was dreading doing this interview!

The rules of the game are pretty well-established within the film, but is anyone allowed to shoot the ball Rick Barry-style or is it all overhand?

DAN: We talk a little bit about shooting style in the film but we definitely don’t go into great detail. To answer your question directly, yes you can really shoot anyway you want. There are people at the WSOBP who bounce and people shoot underhand but I think you will find that the best players tend to shoot overhand and more often than not aim at specific cups.

Is this your first trip to CineVegas? Got any other film festival experience? If you’re a festival veteran, let us know your favorite and least-favorite parts of the ride.

DAN: This is my first time going to CineVegas and I have to admit, I am really nervous. I don’t have any festival experience so I am afraid I am going to say something wrong at a party. Like, can you tell people at a film festival that one of your favorite movies is The Money Pit? I don’t know.

Is Tone or any of the featured players making the trip out to CineVegas for the screening and will any impromptu Beer Pong tournaments breakout in hotel rooms or at parties?

DAN: Iceman and Sean Foster are coming out for sure. Tone and The Champ are still on the fence. We will be having a beer pong themed party after the premiere so everyone will have their shot to play “the best in the world.”

During production did you ever find yourself thinking ahead to film festivals, paying customers, good & bad reviews, etc?

DAN: Not during physical production. I am usually too busy trying to figure out how I got myself into the mess of making a movie. I’m just attempting to not fuck it up too bad. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about some of those things during post. Obviously you make the movie you want to make but in the end this is the business of entertainment and my job is to make something that is going to entertain people, whether that be through laughter, or critical thought or suspense, etc. I don’t think you can ever predict what people will like and in that way you have to make the movie you want to make but as a director I think it is your job to have an understanding of what will work and what won’t; be that with an audience or film critics or festival programmers.

Of all the Muppets, which one do you most relate to?

DAN: Well I wish I was as cool as Animal but I would probably have to say I relate most to Beaker. Mostly because no one can ever understand what he is saying and he always seems to end up hurting himself.

If you could share one massive lesson that you learned while making this movie, what would it be?

DAN: Make sure your producer has an extra bedroom, so that when you become homeless as a result of making the movie, you will at least have a place to sleep.

With an enclosed space of drunken college students, frat brothers and scantily-clad ladies, the atmosphere seems ripe for any number of felonies and misdemeanors. Has anything transpired over the course of the World Series that you couldn’t put in the film? Say, because the case is still pending in open court or just way too embarrassing a drunk tale for those involved?

DAN: You will have to wait for the dvd extras!

What films and filmmakers have acted as your inspirations, be they a lifelong love or a very specific scene composition?

DAN: In general, I really admire the work of Paul Thomas Anderson, The Coen Brothers, Sidney Lumet, Wes Anderson, Hal Ashby, Woody Allen, Errol Morris, etc. You know, the usual suspects for someone my age.

In terms of documentary filmmakers specifically, I love the work of Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky they have had a huge influence on me. Also, Albert Maysles, he is without a doubt a giant of documentary film work. I actually went to a retrospective of his work recently and I was reminded of his genius. After he spoke, I had the opportunity to meet him through a mutual friend and she mentioned that I was also a documentary filmmaker and that I was currently working on a film. He asked me what it was about and I said “The World Series of Beer Pong.” Now, I doubt he knows what beer pong is but he gave me a look of utter disgust, as if I was the one responsible for ruining documentaries. Then he kind of muttered “Hmmmm” and walked away. I was crushed for a few days. Then I read that he is doing a documentary on Fall Out Boy, so that made me feel a little better.

Did you watch any movies in pre-production and yell “This! I want something JUST like this …only different.”?

DAN: We watched as many competition themed documentaries as we could. Spellbound, Murderball, Hands on a Hard Body, Word Play. I don’t remember anything specific about any movie that I wanted to emulate. I just figured if our movie was a 1/3 as good as those, I would be really happy.

We’ve had documentaries about Donkey Kong, World of Warcraft, Scrabble, a mockumentary about paintball and now Beer Pong. Which game would you like to see made into a competition documentary next and why could that hold an audience’s attention for 80 minutes?

DAN: Funny you should ask this because when I was asked to direct this film that was one of my biggest fears. Does the world really need another documentary about a bizarre pastime played by even more bizarre characters? It just seemed so over-done. But I think, as with all of these films, it is all about the characters. The few people that have seen our film have almost all said “About half-way through, I forgot I was watching a movie about beer pong.”

One of the contestants says that Beer Pong is “100% mental.” But I can’t think of any thing more fitting than Yogi Berra’s “90% of the game is half mental” to perfectly describe the kind of alcohol-induced drama of the game. Or maybe Randy Quaid's "intimidating to be in the presence of so many great athletes" line from Kingpin. What’s your definition of a sport compared to a game?

DAN: This is funny because I actually wrote my final paper in my college logic class arguing that NASCAR was not a sport and now I have a made a movie that hints at the idea that maybe beer pong is a sport. But I got a C on that paper, so I was probably wrong. Or at least averagely wrong.

For some reason I feel like a sport must require some sort of physical prowess. So does skill fall into that category? I don’t know. Is driving around really fast and not crashing a skill? Probably. I think it also depends on the publics perception. When golf was invented I am sure there were people saying “Look at those stupid guys out there in funny looking pants trying to use a stick to put a ball into a little hole. That is so stupid.” Now though, you would be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn’t consider golf a sport. Take darts for example. To me beer pong and darts are pretty much on the same level. But there are a lot of people who would consider darts a sport but not beer pong. So to answer your question, I have no idea.

Honestly, how important are film critics nowadays?

DAN: I think they are probably more important than ever. There are so many people making so many god awful movies (and I am not saying I’m not one of them) that it is almost a necessity to have well informed, articulate critics that can not only help people find good movies but also hopefully help hold the industry up to a higher standard.

What would mean more to you? A full-on rave from an anonymous junketeer or an average, but critically constructive review from a respected print or online journalist?

DAN: Well I would say the latter but only if I respected him. And I don’t mean that to be egotistical in anyway. I’m just saying there are several “respected” critics out there who I personally don’t find to be all that great. But those are few and far between. I would love it if some critic whose opinion I respected tore my film apart. Because for one that means someone actually watched it and two I can actually have an unbiased opinion.

Joe Esposito’s “You’re the Best Around”, immortalized in The Karate Kid and used to comic effect on South Park is also put to great use in your film as one of the challenger’s motivational anthem. What would you say are the top 5 cheesy ‘80s soundtrack anthems? They could be from montages or from the opening/closing credits.

DAN: Interestingly enough, Josh Otten, our producer, suggested using that song when we were first talking about the movie and I was really against it . I thought it would be too cheesy. Then when we discovered it was the song that Tone uses to get pumped up AND he sang it for us, we knew we had to use it. It was actually one of the first sequences we cut. Then about half-way through editing, we got a screener of King of Kong and I was devastated. They used the song too! In the end though, we decided it was so organic in our movie, that we had to keep it.

As far as my list, this is far from complete. There are just too many good ones!

1. PRETTY MUCH EVERY SONG FROM ROCKY 4 (Hearts on Fire, Eye of the Tiger, No Easy Way Out, The training Montage, etc.) It is impossible to listen to these songs and not wanna kick ass. In fact, just thinking about these songs makes me want to go out and achieve something.

2. WHAT DOES IT TAKE by Honeymoon Suite – this is the song that plays at the end credits of One Crazy Summer. It is so awesome and so perfectly 80’s. Also, the boat building montage in this movie is pretty f’ing sweet.

3. NEVER by Moving Pictures – This is the song that plays when Kevin Bacon dances in the warehouse in Footloose. Need I say more?

4. THE SONG THAT PLAYS DURING THE TRI-CYCLE RACE IN REVENGE OF THE NERDS – I implore you not to listen to this song because it will be stuck in your head for days.

5. MIGHTY WINGS by Cheap Trick – Because the song is awesome and because they are from my hometown, I had to throw the Trick in here. This song is of course form Top Gun. Nothing makes me want to fly jets real fast like Mighty Wings.

If Beer Pong can take off, if not as a sport then certainly an annual event, can BASEketball be that far behind? And what can we do to make that happen?

DAN: Actually we had a sequence in the film for a bit where Iceman, one of the characters in the movie, compares the growth of beer pong to the movie BASEketball. And when you think about it, there are some real similarities. Except I don’t know anyone who plays BASEketball, so you might be on your own with that one.

In closing, we ask you to convince the average movie-watcher to choose your film instead of the trillion other options they have. How do you do it?

DAN: With a gun…I guess?

Don R. Lewis of FilmThreat.com (**** Star Rating) - There’s a whole genre of documentaries based on people’s obsessive fixation on seemingly pointless games. Be it the Okie’s who fish for gigantic catfish with their arms in “Okie Noodling” or the mega dorks pining for superiority of Donkey Kong in “King of Kong,” the realm of obsessive oddball sporting documentaries has grown over the years. Dan Lindsay’s “The Last Cup” falls into this category and it’s a worthy entry.

The film follows a group of people who are absolutely gaga over beer pong, the college frat game that has made it out of dorm room keg parties and into the real world. If you, like me, weren’t too familiar with beer pong, you’ll be an expert on the subject if you see this film. Apparently beer pong is big on the East Coast because as a West Coaster, we played a different variation. The “real” way the game is played is teams toss a ping-pong ball into various cups that are set-up in a pyramid shape at the end of a table. First person to clear the cups wins. While the game has more than it’s fair share of drunks, there’s also some people who play the game fairly sober and take it extremely seriously. While beer pong is a bar game akin to darts or shuffleboard, it also looks like a ton of fun and beer might not even be necessary. Then again, what’s not more fun with beer?

Jamie “The Champ” Clouser and Antonio “Tone” Vassiliatos are two type-A personalities who play the game to win. Clouser is the kind of guy who is finding his way in life and decides what he really wants to do is be a pro beer pong player. He creates a website in which he proclaims himself “The Champ” and takes on all challengers. Vassiliatos is one of those scary, bully jock types. He’s huge and intense and apparently has no neck. He also immediately sets himself up as the bad guy at the World Series of Beer Pong by talking shit, ripping off his shirt and generally acting like a douche. He’s universally hated and seems to feed off the boos, jeers and middle fingers he gets while trying to compete. But docs like this need a kind of smug bad guy and Vassiliatos fits the bill.

We also need an underdog and there’s a few. The most interesting “loser” type is Scott “Iceman” Reck. You might think his nickname comes from either his cool way of beer ponging or from an unfortunate obsession with “Top Gun.” But we discover his nickname is much more practical as he’s the guy who fills the ice machine at a local college and people just starting going, “Heyyy…ice man.” As you can see, Lindsay gives us a wide variety of personalities to root for and against and they all converge on Mesquite, Nevada for the second annual World Series of Beer Pong.

Not to blow off “The Last Cup” or treat it lightly as it really is a fun and exciting film, but the only way a sports-oriented doc that culminates in some kind of showdown can fail is if the filmmakers choose the wrong competitors to focus on. Lindsay doesn’t and that’s because the guy has done his homework. He gives each viewer someone to relate to and then lets the camera roll as their personalities strangely dictate their performances in the series. And it should also be pointed out that this really is a sport growing in popularity. The prize for the World Series of Beer Pong topped out at $20,000 so it’s not like these guys are fighting for a case of Natty Light and a trophy. “The Last Cup” is a fun film that I hope finds it’s way to a theatrical or DVD release as I think crowds will eat it up. It’s everything you ever wanted to know about Beer Pong but were afraid (or too drunk) to ask.

Mike Plante of the CineVegas blog interviews Dan Lindsay -

LAST CUP: Road to the World Series of Beer Pong is just what the subtitle tells you: a documentary that follows four individuals as they compete in the 2nd Annual World Series of Beer Pong. What sounds as a remarkably short idea becomes a hilarious time that will have you screaming for the characters you love by the end. Directed by Dan Lindsay, the film will have its World Premiere as part of the Pioneer Documentary section at CineVegas.

Tell us a bit about your background and how this project came to be developed?

I started making movies in grade school as a way of getting out of writing papers. When I finished college and the realization that I might have to get a real job sunk in, I headed out to Los Angeles and declared myself a filmmaker.

This project came about after our producer Josh Otten and our Executive Producer Nic Kalikow were pitched the idea of doing a documentary on beer pong and more specifically The World Series of Beer Pong (WSOBP). It was actually our Associate Producer Dave Tischler who pitched the idea because he knew the guys who had won the first WSOBP.

Josh approached me about directing it and I was initially rather hesitant. But after time I couldn’t stop thinking about how ridiculous the WSOBP must be. I was really hooked when I started meeting the characters. This seemed like a community I had never seen and I was really impressed with their genuine love of the game. It was at that point I realized I had to approach the film as serious as they took the game.

I take it you’re a veteran Beer Pong player?

I have definitely improved since beginning this project, considering I barely knew what beer pong was when we started. We have a table set-up in our production office and we have all become a bit obsessed with the game. In fact, at one point, we had to take the table out of the office because I feared we would never finish the movie. We played earlier today and I am now obligated to mention that T.J. Martin, our editor, is a god at beer pong and I can never beat him. His words, not mine.

What are the different styles of a Beer Pong player?

You have guys that play occasionally and just for fun and then you have people (like the guys in the movie) who practice and strategize. The latter group tends to shoot overhand and aim at specific cups, unlike the former who tends to just lob the ping-pong balls at the entire formation of cups.

Ever see Beer Pong growing into a professional sport? Or an Olympic event?

Well if darts is considered a professional sport than I could for sure see beer pong getting to that level. The reason being that it is so competitive and it can actually be very exciting to watch. The problem of course is its association with alcohol. As far as an Olympic event, I think that is pretty unlikely.

Any happy accidents during production?

I’m not sure if this can be classified as an accident or not, but I had no real intention of hiring our editor T.J. Martin at first, only because I didn’t know a thing about him. But we were having trouble finding someone and I was getting too busy with other projects to edit it myself (not that that would have been a good idea) so we went with T.J. If you can classify that as an accident, it is no doubt the happiest one we had. This film would be nothing without his insight and perseverance.

What impact do you hope your film has?

I hope audiences genuinely enjoy it. It is definitely not going to change the world but I hope people get a little insight into a community they may tend to regard from a distance.

Since this is the first time you’ve watched the film with an audience, what is your biggest hope and your biggest fear?

I hope I don’t get nervous and throw up, but my biggest fear is that I might.

Red or black? Even or odds?

I always go red and I always go odd. But I have lost way too much money gambling so I wouldn’t listen to anything I say.

How do you feel about showing the film in the city of Las Vegas?

Considering that the World Series of Beer Pong is now held in Las Vegas, I don’t think there could be a better city in which to premiere the film. Plus I get to sit in the sun by a pool a few hours before we screen it. I’ll take it!

Do you see a connection between gambling and filmmaking?

Well, anyone who says there isn’t, is lying. And I’m a liar so I am going to say no.

William Goss of eFilmCritic.com (*** Rating) - SCREENED AT THE 2008 CINEVEGAS FILM FESTIVAL: There is a recurring formula in documentary filmmaking, that of those films which seek to prove that “_______ Are People Too”: rural Bigfoot fanatics, dysfunctional matriarchs, your ‘average’ high school student or steroid user, a choir of senior citizens covering modern pop and punk favorites, and any number of niche rappers. Of similar intent are any number of docs that are out to prove that whatever peculiar activity they’re bringing to light should be respected as a legitimate manner of sport and admired as a greater parable for small-scale underdog victory in this big, bad world of ours.

Last Cup: The Road to the World Series of Beer Pong falls firmly within these parameters, meaning that it informs the viewer of a subculture of which they were probably weren't previously aware. It then proceeds to rely on the drama inherent to any competition – no matter how seemingly trivial – to drive its Big Point home: life, inevitably, is whatever you make of it.

Director Daniel Lindsay introduces us to a sampling of teams from across the nation. From New Jersey hails the teams We Own Your Face and Saddam’s WMDs, while Hummel That Shit and Shawn(Squared) represent their home states of Wisconsin and Maryland, respectively. Varying in degrees of geekiness and cockiness, these four teams are en route to compete against nearly 250 other teams for a $20,000 grand prize at the second annual 2007 World Series of Beer Pong in Mesquite, NV, where all competitors share a comparable huskiness of body and arrogance of mind. One half of leading team Foul Mouthed Whores sums up the whole contest with considerable precision: “I’m at a beer pong tournament. This is, like, the bottom of… these are the dregs of society. Who comes to a beer pong tournament except for frat boys and losers who sit at home and don’t make friends, because I feel like this is the tournament for the socially inept.”

And when one of the best of the bunch is sober enough to make such an astute observation, it pretty much negates any “if I didn’t have this, if I weren’t good at this one thing, I wouldn’t have anything” sentiments that go more frequently echoed throughout. Only a frat convention would be eager to compare itself to the likes of Fight Club, with teams who take their names from Dodgeball and Super Troopers in their collective quest to shed societal norms, such as a post-collegiate career, in favor of old-fashioned bragging rights and, wouldn’t you know it, $20K with which to fuel their training regimen for next year.

'Last Cup' is at its most engaging when showcasing beer pong for its fundamental novelty, when players come from all around the world – i.e. the United States and Canada – to distract one another with all manner of peculiar dress and assess themselves by means of strict statistical analysis. However, more often than not, Lindsay offers up a protagonist or two who quite literally live on Dick Street and whose values in waking up to Coors instead of coffee may never go fully appreciated. Some may consider this game to be a sport, but few could actually call it a life, and those who do only seem to make apparent the distinction between a champion and a winner.