Your Studio and You
Encyclopedia
Your Studio and You is a comedy
short film
created in 1995 by Matt Stone
and Trey Parker
and commissioned by comedic filmmaker David Zucker. It was to be played at a party Seagram
threw for its employees acquired as a result of its Universal Studios
take-over. It parodies
the style of 1950s educational film
s such as Duck and Cover
, while poking fun at Universal and its talent. It was shot in the Universal Studios backlot
, and it runs approximately 14 minutes.
Upon commissioning the duo to make this film, David Zucker
failed to mention that there was no script, so everything was written by Parker and Stone less than an hour before it was shot. The two were up for six and a half days straight filming, the longest they had ever gone without sleeping.
The film is notable in that it was Stone and Parker's first Hollywood gig. Parker has said that "you could probably make a feature film out of the experience of making that movie because it was just two dudes from college suddenly directing Steven Spielberg
." This film has still seen no public release as it was intended to be strictly an internal film (indeed, its creators were not even allowed a copy), but copies of the film have surfaced on the internet. Ifilm.com had the video on its site for a limited time. The video was promoted on the site in ad banners. These advertisements included the date that ifilm.com would stop hosting the video.
Stone and Parker would make their first major studio-produced feature, BASEketball
, for Universal with David Zucker directing (albeit one in which they merely starred in).
, James Cameron
(shown improving the Universal Studios landscaping), Shaun Cassidy
, Robin Cook
, Shelley Fabares
, George Carlin
, Michael J. Fox
(sometimes mistaken in the film for Dian Bachar
, a longtime Parker-Stone collaborator), Brian Grazer
, Heavy D, Jeffrey Katzenberg
, Barry Kemp
, Angela Lansbury
(shown painting the Psycho
House), Mike Lobell, Traci Lords
, Kevin Misher
, Demi Moore
, Darrin Pfeiffer
, John Singleton, Steven Spielberg
(shown as a Universal Studios Guide), Sylvester Stallone
(in his Rocky Balboa
character, and subtitled for comedic effect), Marty Stuart
, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker
.
Matt Stone
appears with Trey Parker
as two guys at a food stand during the "It's UCS for me!" segment.
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
short film
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
created in 1995 by Matt Stone
Matt Stone
Matthew Richard "Matt" Stone is an American screenwriter, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of South Park along with creative partner and best friend, Trey Parker....
and Trey Parker
Trey Parker
Trey Parker is an American animator, screenwriter, director, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of the television series South Park along with his creative partner and best friend Matt Stone.Parker started his film career in 1992, making a holiday short...
and commissioned by comedic filmmaker David Zucker. It was to be played at a party Seagram
Seagram
The Seagram Company Ltd. was a large corporation headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that was the largest distiller of alcoholic beverages in the world. Toward the end of its independent existence it also controlled various entertainment and other business ventures...
threw for its employees acquired as a result of its Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
take-over. It parodies
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
the style of 1950s educational film
Educational film
An educational film is a film or movie whose primary purpose is to educate. Educational films have been used in classrooms as an alternative to other teaching methods.-Cultural significance:...
s such as Duck and Cover
Duck and Cover (film)
Duck and Cover is a civil defense film produced in 1951 by the United States federal government's civil defense branch shortly after the Soviet Union began nuclear testing. Written by Raymond J...
, while poking fun at Universal and its talent. It was shot in the Universal Studios backlot
Backlot
A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio, containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction....
, and it runs approximately 14 minutes.
Upon commissioning the duo to make this film, David Zucker
failed to mention that there was no script, so everything was written by Parker and Stone less than an hour before it was shot. The two were up for six and a half days straight filming, the longest they had ever gone without sleeping.
The film is notable in that it was Stone and Parker's first Hollywood gig. Parker has said that "you could probably make a feature film out of the experience of making that movie because it was just two dudes from college suddenly directing Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
." This film has still seen no public release as it was intended to be strictly an internal film (indeed, its creators were not even allowed a copy), but copies of the film have surfaced on the internet. Ifilm.com had the video on its site for a limited time. The video was promoted on the site in ad banners. These advertisements included the date that ifilm.com would stop hosting the video.
Stone and Parker would make their first major studio-produced feature, BASEketball
BASEketball
BASEketball is a 1998 American David Zucker comedy starring South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with Dian Bachar, Robert Vaughn, Ernest Borgnine, Yasmine Bleeth, and Jenny McCarthy...
, for Universal with David Zucker directing (albeit one in which they merely starred in).
Celebrity appearances
The film is also notable for its use of a number of celebrity actors, musicians, writers, producers, and directors in the Universal family, including Andrew BergmanAndrew Bergman
Andrew Bergman is an American screenwriter, film director, and novelist. New York magazine in 1985 dubbed him "The Unknown King of Comedy".He graduated from Binghamton University and earned a Ph.D...
, James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
(shown improving the Universal Studios landscaping), Shaun Cassidy
Shaun Cassidy
Shaun Paul Cassidy is an American actor, singer, writer, and producer. He is the eldest son of Academy Award winning actress Shirley Jones, and the second son of Tony award-winning actor Jack Cassidy...
, Robin Cook
Robin Cook (novelist)
Dr. Robin Cook is an American physician and novelist who writes about medicine and topics affecting public health....
, Shelley Fabares
Shelley Fabares
Michele Ann Marie "Shelley" Fabares is an American actress and singer. Fabares is known for her roles as Donna Reed's oldest child, Mary Stone, on The Donna Reed Show , and as Craig T. Nelson's love interest and eventual wife, Christine Armstrong Fox, on the sitcom Coach. She also was Elvis...
, George Carlin
George Carlin
George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....
, Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox, OC is a Canadian American actor, author, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the late 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy ; Alex P...
(sometimes mistaken in the film for Dian Bachar
Dian Bachar
Dian Bachar is an American actor. He is most notable for his roles in various films by or starring his friends Trey Parker and Matt Stone, such as Cannibal! The Musical , Orgazmo and his most famous role as Kenny "Squeak" Scolari in 1998's BASEketball, as well as making the occasional appearance...
, a longtime Parker-Stone collaborator), Brian Grazer
Brian Grazer
Brian Thomas Grazer is an Academy Award-winning American film and television producer who co-founded Imagine Entertainment in 1986 with Ron Howard. Together they have produced many acclaimed films, including Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind .- Career :Brian Grazer began his career as a producer...
, Heavy D, Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg is an American film producer and CEO of DreamWorks Animation. He is perhaps most famous for his period as chairman of The Walt Disney Company's film division, and for producing DreamWorks animated films such as Shrek, Antz, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken...
, Barry Kemp
Barry Kemp (TV producer)
Barry Kemp is a television producer, director and writer, and a movie producer. He has written for numerous TV shows throughout his career, but his two best known creations are Newhart, which lasted for eight seasons on CBS and Coach, which lasted for nine seasons on ABC...
, Angela Lansbury
Angela Lansbury
Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE is an English actress and singer in theatre, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned eight decades and earned her more performance Tony Awards than any other individual , with five wins...
(shown painting the Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
House), Mike Lobell, Traci Lords
Traci Lords
Traci Lords , also known as Traci Elizabeth Lords and Tracy Lords, is an American film actress, producer, film director, writer and singer...
, Kevin Misher
Kevin Misher
Kevin Misher is an American producer and former film executive.Misher’s most recent release is Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Channing Tatum and Billy Crudup, and directed by Michael Mann. The film was released on July 1, 2009 by Universal Pictures...
, Demi Moore
Demi Moore
Demi Guynes Kutcher , known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress. After minor roles in film and a role in the soap opera General Hospital, Moore established her career in films such as St...
, Darrin Pfeiffer
Darrin Pfeiffer
Darrin Pfeiffer is an American musician, record producer, band manager and radio personality. Born and raised in Akron, New York, he plays drums for the ska punk band Goldfinger....
, John Singleton, Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
(shown as a Universal Studios Guide), Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
(in his Rocky Balboa
Rocky Balboa (character)
Robert "Rocky" Balboa, Sr. is a fictional character and the main protagonist portrayed by Sylvester Stallone who has appeared in the Rocky series from 1976 to 2006. During the series, he wins the Heavyweight Championship of the World twice....
character, and subtitled for comedic effect), Marty Stuart
Marty Stuart
John Martin "Marty" Stuart is an American country music singer-songwriter, known for both his traditional style, and eclectic merging of rockabilly, honky tonk, and traditional country music...
, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker
Jerry Zucker (film director)
Jerry Zucker is an American movie director known for his role in directing comedy spoof films, and the hit film Ghost....
.
Matt Stone
Matt Stone
Matthew Richard "Matt" Stone is an American screenwriter, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of South Park along with creative partner and best friend, Trey Parker....
appears with Trey Parker
Trey Parker
Trey Parker is an American animator, screenwriter, director, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of the television series South Park along with his creative partner and best friend Matt Stone.Parker started his film career in 1992, making a holiday short...
as two guys at a food stand during the "It's UCS for me!" segment.
Recurring themes
Recurring themes/elements in the film include:- Shots of the JawsJaws (film)Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
"shark attack" attraction on the Universal Studios Backlot TourUniversal Studios Backlot TourThe Studio Tour is an attraction at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park in the USA.The Tour is the signature attraction at the park, and goes into a working movie studio. Guests sit in a multi-car tram for the duration of the ride...
accompanied by the narrated phrase, "old and stupid." - Seagrams wine coolerWine coolerA wine cooler is an alcoholic beverage made from wine and fruit juice, often in combination with a carbonated beverage and sugar.Traditionally home-made, wine coolers have been bottled and sold by commercial distributors since the early 1980s, especially in areas where their lower alcohol content...
s (usually distributed as a gift in order to appease a celebrity) - The placement of porcelain deer in order to beautify a location (usually at the behest of the narrator)
- ButtonsCampaign buttonA campaign button is used in the United States during an election as political advertising for a candidate or political party, or to proclaim the issues that are part of the political platform. Political buttons date as far back as President George Washington. They have taken many forms as the...
(sometimes comically oversized) that parody 50s campaign buttons, reading "I like Universal," and "Universal is A-OK!" - As he drinks milk and eats OreoOreoOreo is a trademark for a popular sandwich cookie by the Nabisco Division of Kraft Foods. The current design consists of a sweet, white filling commonly referred to as 'cream' or 'creme', sandwiched between two circular chocolate or golden cookie pieces....
s, Michael J. Fox asks "Say, what does that mean?" repeatedly throughout the film. This is a direct parody of 1950s educational films, which stereotypically include such characters. - The narrator repeatedly pronounces modernize "modrenized".
- The overuse of the word "say" by various characters
- The appearance of Stallone, speaking as Rocky Balboa, with subtitles in the bottom of the screen.