The Disaster Artist Vlog (and stories about awful movies Dan has worked on) 

"I don't know where they learned to make sandwiches, but it was not Earth." Amazing.

I don't think I've ever seen a man traumatised over sandwiches before

The movie is actually being very "soft" when it comes to painting Tommy's personality. It's even darker yet sadder tbh.

Boy I wonder what bad movies it was that he's worked in where the people were disrespected etc... Sounds "Awesome".

I read the book first, and I was disapointed how relatively tame they made Tommy. They wanted us to sympathize with him when basically everything wrong was his fault, not out of naivety, but out of pure ego. The one 'ogre' scene they left in felt out of place because they hid the fact that he was horrible basically all the time.

In terms of the "justifying monster directors" bit, it's worth noting no one's ever said a single nice word about Franco either.

"And without mopping up the tomato juice" Nooooo "they would put the bread right on it." NOOOOOOOOOO

I feel for the sandwich story. In my production days, I knew everyone in my city working in production. It wasn’t unusual, between paying gigs, for most of us to volunteer a few days or even a week’s work to someone’s passion project … and the first thing everyone looking for volunteer work realizes is: for a day or two you can get a crew to work for free, but you CAN’T get a crew to work without food! You WILL lose your crew over bad craft services!!

What a Story Dan

More on-set horror stories, please.

Everyone with even a foot in the film industry has said the "it gets a little Too Real" and that makes me super sad.

I hear "hummus and tomato sandwich" and think "I can make that work" (a firm roll with some give like ciabatta, toasted, a thick layer of garlicy hummus, sundried tomato spread (with roasted peppers?) with a slice fresh tomato and basil leaves) would probably make for a rather substantial vegetarian snack. The actual description is, unfortunately, exactly what I expected.

I agree with your assessment of Wiseau. I just finished the book, The Disaster Artist, and he seems like a narcissistic, manipulative person. I didn't know someone could be so overly confident and delusional, while being so horribly insecure at the same time.

i'm so glad Dante's Inferno got to the So Bad It's Good stack. unbaptised babies as an enemy type? the terrible renders of fantastic worlds? it's glorious.

Given some of the recent discussion around Channel Awesome and knowing that you had contributed some there, I wonder if some of these stories are about their sets. You don't have to confirm or anything, but I wonder. I love you content and insights.

A So Bad It's Good video game you might want to check out is the first Harry Potter game for PC. It's a 3rd-person platformer with graphics that look like they belong on the PS1. The sound design & character animations are particularly entertaining - the voice clips for the spells are ripe for a remix; any time Harry lands on a ledge or needs to go up something steeper than a flight of stairs, he makes the same a disturbingly sexual grunt; and when you run, his robes cling to his ass as it makes anatomically nonsensical back-and-forth motions.

Given James Franco’s abuse of young actresses, I wonder if his sympathizing with Tommy and justifying monster directors and sometimes going soft on him is a bit telling...

Commenting years after this video was posted, but on the concept of awful directors being “worth it” because they make good art: that’s completely undercut by the fact that lovely people have made equally good art. If being abusive was the factor that made the art work, then that wouldn’t be possible.

I had to pause after Dan said "your soul dies" because I was laughing too hard

I always like hearing these personal stories from inside the industry. Thanks Dan, love the channel. Nice Mike Stoklasa impression by the way. Also you should dress up as Vsauce Michael next Halloween.

Deadly premonition might be the game you're looking for

Watching this vlog again after the whole Change The Channel fiasco, I wonder if the incompetent director and producer you're talking about are the inept, ego-driven Walker brothers? 🤔

A friend of mine once worked in a production like that, it was a TV show where literally no one on set knew how to do their jobs. My friend was an intern on the production crew and literally everyone on her crew was fired for stupid and nonsensical reasons mid-production, so she, an intern still going to film school, had to produce the entire first 3-4 episodes of the TV show all by herself, all while in the constant dread of being fired at any second. She eventually quit under my and others advice, but it goes to show how usually things get this bad...

Dan I'm loving this new vlog series

The amount of time my wife has had to tell people "You don't give cast and crew cold cuts on a overnight" is mind boggling. The other is pizza in 100+ weather when your outside all day. I once had a key grip who put themselves all in for this "friend" of theirs shoot, to only been tossed a can of green beans as her dinner, well it was madding.

The phrase 'Humus and Tomato sandwich' will automatically trigger my gag reflex from now on

The 3-second Ed Wood impression is goddamned delightful!

Hi Dan, little late to this video I know. But if you're still looking for "so bad it's good" videogames then might I recommend you try story based singleplayer mods? While technically not the same thing as a videogame built from the ground up. A lot of mods are made on the foundation of a GOOD game (Half-Life for example) which can lead to the fundamentals being great (e.g movement, gunplay) while the story, pacing and level design can be absolutely all over the place. I've played mods with hundreds if not thousands of hours put into their creation that are just downright hilariously bad but are fun to play because they're built on solid foundations. "Hunt Down the freeman" is absolutely so bad it's good in my opinion for that exact reason.

"I'm sure on some planet, your sandwiches are quite impressive, but your weak link is... This is earth!"

I've been there with some shoots. If there's one thing my professors have screamed at us to have food for the crew so we don't get on the shitlist. Or how to protect us ourselves from lawsuits by making sure we have permits & actual signatures for things before we shoot.

Deadass got an ad for the movie before watching this

Aside from Ed Wood, the other classic 90's movie about the nightmare of creating low-budget cinema is Living in Oblivion. It was written and directed by Tom DiCillo, inspired by the experience of making his first feature film, Johnny Suede. It's more obviously fictionalised than Ed Wood or The Disaster Artist, but is a really funny portrait of film making as a kid of 'wrangling cats' exercise, where Murphy's Law rules. Steve Buscemi stars, and is as brilliant as usual, and there's also a very early appearance by Peter Dinklage.

The stack of shame under the stack of game.

I was working on a production where the only "craft services" was a party sized bag of Doritos and a half empty tub of ranch dip and some baby carrots. I feel the low budget scene.

I am grateful to TW and The Room for giving me a way to explain reality to people who do offensive things and then want to take credit for "starting a conversation" when backed into a corner that would require a modicum of self-reflection from sensible intelligent person, "Yes, congratulations, you are the Tommy W of conversations. You made a thing because you're a coddled narcissist and no one had the power to stop you, and it was awful for all involved. Well done. There is nothing to be proud of here, but your pride nonetheless is understandable, if not flattering."

I'm so glad you think Blood on the Sand meets the "so bad it's good" mark. I love that beautiful mess of a game.

I've seen a rather negative criticism of the movie that says it twisted the message of the book (which could be summed up as Sestero describing how starring in The Room ruined his life and how invasive and abusive Tommy Wiseau was during the shooting as well as in Sestero's private life, apparently going as far as moving in his flat while he was travelling in Romania, and opening his courier) into a movie that "Wish it was as deep as Ed Wood, but is just another story about an outsider finally meeting his audience thanks to the power of the happy ending and inspirational montage" and generally a waste.

Dan if you "liked" the Room, you should check out his attempt at a sitcom called "The Neighbors". He plays not one, but two characters.

Can you have a sandwich that's so bad, it's good?

Okay but how did you get that adorable Extra Credits style Game plushie??

I'd love to see you talk about Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

I deeply appreciate your insight and comments about Tommy, The Room, and The Disaster Artist. Love your channel.

I would argue that no great film is worth an asshole director. If we never had Psycho, if we never had 2001, I think we'd be okay. Those are great and influential films, but I don't doubt we'd have some equivalent variation in an alternate timeline where asshole directors don't get work.

I enjoy the way you channeled Mel Brooks into that Ed Wood impression

Your cough-word-cough was so convincing I almost didn't realize what you said lol

Dominic Noble recently made a video examining this movie and evaluating it as an adaptation of the book it is based on. Very much worth watching. Short version: Tommy Wiseau was much worse in real life, and this movie, as bad as it makes him look, is actually an attempt to make him look better than he deserves.

When you said someone was making the sandwiches on set I was like 'oh that can be nice' because my mum has done that sort of thing for working bees and the like, but then you finished the story and oh... no. Like even with crappy 7/11 bread you can make nice curried egg, tuna and cucumber, cheese and salad, and chicken sandwiches. It's not hard? Or even that expensive??? But of course mum got turkish bread, bacon and eggs for the sandwiches xD Because she got annoyed by the people running the working bee who just gave them a bit of sticky bun. On a hot day. After they've been scrubbing decks and cleaning boats. C'mon. So she got permission to take cash out of the canteen till and made some proper stuff.

My suggestion for a game that's so bad it's good is "Ride to Hell: Retribution".

My man, I hear you, the movie felt so real that those scenes were uncomfortable. We all have some sort of variation on that "sandwich" story haha

These vlogs are terrific. I love that the guy who gave me conscious awareness of the RU-vid jump cut makes something free of it.

This popped up on my youtube feed, this review doesn't get enough love. Your description of your experiences in the film industry was educational as an outsider.

Ed Wood, from my understanding, was really passionate about two things: 1) Making films (as in, making them at all) 2) Making films _as cheap as possible_ So his crummy film making, for me, has less to do with outright incompetence, and more to him just having really low standards, and valuing "getting a shot done in one" as its own metric for success.

Tomato-soaked sandwiches? Yeah, I'm down for that! #SoakMeUpFam

The entire sandwich bit is so specific that I want it to turn up in a short story featured in BASS 2020

Okay I know this was uploaded a year ago but thank you for the Cremaster diss

You know its something when people get accused and proven to have committed sexual assault. Tommy Wiseau kinda did exactly that, and the whole world went: 'You know, I kinda saw that coming.'

Please do an entire video in your Ed Wood voice.

oof, your film set horror story reminded me of one of my own - a movie set that explicitly ignored union law. It was all night shoots, 12 hours each AT LEAST, and frequently with no days off in between. What did we have to eat? HUMMUS AND CRACKERS.

I think we all know what at least one of the movie sets you were talking about was. You have my sympathy.

I thought 'the disaster artist' gave Tommy's vision some legitimacy. Tommy is unintelligible and bewildering, just like his movie. This movie shows how Tommy interacts with the world, which helped me understand The Room a bit more.

It feels like he's talking about the channel awesome movie set problems.

2:26 That cover cough was surprisingly smooth

i dont know why but it is SO funny everytime you call tommy an ogre

“I try very hard to love these, even though they’re not worth loving” Is that not a Lucille Bluth quote

Jesus that first part is like hearing a POW talk about their prison camp

That Cremaster diss was beautiful.

The twitch streams you describe remind me of Kyle Bosman's Dumb Game Monday series over on Easy Allies (and before that on Gametrailers). The premise is that he picks out a dumb game from his local used game shop and plays through it, treating it as though it was a gift from grandma that he has to try to learn to appreciate. It's currently on hiatus while he is working on a sort of animated/puppet show, but it was a great time for all involved.

Every now and then I think about the bad sandwich story. Hard to think of something worse.

I would enjoy listening to you talk about just about anything.

Ohhh, cute game plushie! Are you one of the actual Extra Credits army of Dans?

The sandwich story is giving me film school flashbacks

Weird comment, but I brought up a video you made on Suicide Squad and he went 'I love Folding Ideas!' It was a really cool moment. Anyway, keep these vlogs up I'm lovin them.

am watching this for the first time, love your videos dude and I'm glad you're not in those awful professional environments anymore

You should really read the book (or listen to the audiobook). The movie takes out a lot of the drama and horror, and it's all so relatable I was twisting and cringing as I listened.

Very entertaining as always. The book of The Disaster Artist is superb, too. Very, very witty.

Do you have any plans on uploading your "test playthroughs" of these games or not? I'm just curious to see your journey through the ones that made it to the pile of 'So Bad, It's Good'

I quickly learned that I always need to bring a cliff bar or something to set for very similar reasons...

The video-game equivalent of a "so bad it's good" movie is clearly Heavy Rain.

Not a big fan of streaming but I'd love to see a video about what makes those top 3 games "so bad it's good"

I apologize. I had to pause this video to watch a best moments compilation from The Room. I am back now. Please continue.

You should appear in a Best of the Worst episode, I want to see you discussing something with Jay.

Have you tried Deadly Premonition, or the Earth Defense Force series for that so bad its good video game hunt?

So The Room is more like "Manos" the Hands of Fate rather than Plan 9. I like this take.

I was originally planning to see this, but then I realized I should not plan too much or it may not turn out right.

I think the next kind of these movies we need is one about Daddy Derek and Cool Cat

Resident Evil 6 is the BEST equivalent to a B-Movie game. It was critically panned, but it is a lot of stupid fun (and it is hard to not laugh at it frequently). I know it was a game with a huge budget, so you may think that it is a bad pick, but it is genuinely the best equivalent on the market.

This went deep into Arthur Dent territory.

"where food and water was not adequately provided" . . . So like "To Boldly Flee" 😂😂😂

Dantes Inferno is lit af tho

Come for the bad movie anecdotes, stay for the Cremaster Cycle hot takes.

Another thing is that you can't even make a sympathetic anti-hero out of Tommy because we don't know enough about him to say something like 'oh, he came from a tough background you know, and that's why he's so mean!' (not that that would justify it but whatever)

Deadly premonition better be in that stack!

I enjoyed the hell out of the Dante’s Inferno video game because it had the self-assuredness to lean into the over the top nature of the world it decided to build. Someone saw the aesthetic that the first God of War trilogy built and decided “I’m gonna do that but with some Christian mythology instead of Greek.”

I thought it was more or less universally agreed upon that Ride to Hell: Retribution is the "The Room" of video games.

For me, the tie- in video game equivalent of The Room is The Phantom Menace for Ps1. I used to play this game a lot when I was a kid, using the cheat codes for invincibility and level selection. The amount of bugs, glitches, and weird character dialog that game has is astonishing. I would recommend you to give it a try, or look for funny compilations of that game in youtube (there were a couple of them I remember watching).

There’s a great podcast about Hitchcock making Psycho called ‘Inside Psycho’, worth a listen. He made great movies but I have a hard time watching them when I think about what he did to Tippy Hedren.

Dan opening about boring movies and boring games and perfectly sums up my experience having just watched John Wick 4.

How did you feel about Dolemite is my Name?

I think it's partially because i'm already sleepy right now but I laughed so much over the whole sandwich part... it sounds awful

That monster director thing doesn't work because there are directors who are nice to their people and still produce good movies. So if being nice or mean doesn't matter, maybe be nice because that's the right thing to do?