Idle Worship

**Idle Worship: from Fandom to Cultdom** is a mockumentary exposé on the world of Ashley: an online personality turned cult leader, as she is forced to confront her followers in real life (IRL). The short film premired at the 2017 Buffer Festival.

## Cast & Creative Team

### Cast

 Extras\*

\*Note: Many of the Extras have names that are able to be read from nametags featured during the short film.

### Creative Team

 Composer
 Sound Design

## Synopsis

A small video crew team is set up to film a documentary exposé over the Youtube and internet sensation Ashley. The crew plans to attend Ashley Con 2017 alongside some of her fans. All of the fans attending are wearing matching white and hot pink shirts that read "LOLZ 4EVER" over a headshot of Ashley. They all are lead to grab a nametag and check-in with Ashley's overly enthusiastic assistant, Dan. Dan and all of her other fans share a very very deep connection with her; they all believe she has had a very poignant and healing impact on their lives.

An Interviewer from the video team asks Dan if he can speak to Ashley. Sadly, Dan is very adamant that she is not in a position to talk to anyone yet. So, the crew goes back to filming the fans. The fans begin to explain what a wonderful and close knit community they all have thanks to Ashley. She brought them together and helped them realise what similiar ideals they all have. Their love and thankfulness for her is so imense that they sometimes express it through art. They also have dubbed themselves "TR(ASH)" an acronym for "Try Really Amazing Stuff Here."

Eventually, the crew is allowed to interview Ashley. She begins by telling how she got to where she is today. Ashley explains that while in Palm Springs one weekend, she got dirt in her eyes; she told herself to,"Open your eyes, Ashley." She proceeded to take her words both literally and spirtually. This advice helped her have a more positive relationship with her surroundings and emotions, so she began to share it on Youtube where viewers would flock to her channel for advice. This attention made her see herself as a god. The interviewer, Joey (portrayed by Joey Richter), suggests that Ashley has created a cult. She vehemently refuses and chooses to describe it as a way of life. In an attempt to end the now uncomfortable interview, she says that she has to take a phonecall. However, this does not work out well for her because she forgets to turn off her mic; the video crew is able to overhear the whole phonecall. Over the phone, Ashley expresses concern that her fans will discover what a fake she is and spread it all over the news. She worries about how her career on Youtube and income from fans would be impacted by this. Her selfish concerns reveal just how manipulative her relationship with her fans is. Eventually, she looks over and sees that the crew has overheard her terrible secrets.

Out in the larger room, the "TRASH" are getting hyped up for Ashley's apperance. Before she goes out, Joey encourages her to come clean about how her words mean nothing. Ashley does not want to tell them this, so she unconvincingly tries to tell him that they want to give her money and are greatful. Ultimately, he steps away and leaves it up to her to tell the truth or not. Ashley walks out to her TRASH and is very affectionately greeted. She builds off of the god-like energy and offers to heal one of the crowd members. She calls Brenda (a fan played by Lauren Lopez) to the front and asks her to share a fear of hers. Brenda describes a nightmare about not being able to catch a cruise ship that all of her friends are on, despite how fast she runs. Ashley invites everyone else to imagine themselves in a simillar sitaution, and, then, she invites everyone to RUN at the cruise ship and catch it. After Brenda catches the cruise ship in her mind, she "boops" a crystal that is hanging around Ashley's neck and falls down. A fellow crowd member scoops her up and sits her back down in a seat. She appears to be okay, and everyone cheers!

In the midst of the cheering, Ashley makes eye contact with Joey and begins to reconsider her secrets. She paces, adresses her audience, and reveals that she is a fraud. At first, the TRASH is in disbelief and think it is some kind of joke. So, she begins to delve into more details. Ashley explains the messy side of how she has stolen lots of things from catchphrases from ex-roomates to money from all of her fans. The fans begin to grow confused and distressed as they process everything. Ashley appologizes again. However, just as the end of the charade is near, one fan suggests that the whole reveal was a test. Trying to cling to any sense of stability, all the other TRASH agree and rejoice. Ashley is left standing amongst them with disappointment.

## Development

The idea for Idle Worship first began because the group wanted to play around with a project centered around a "cult." Eventually, it morphed into the rough idea of what Idle Worship is. For the short, they had a loose idea for several scenes or situations that they possibly wanted to include, but it was largerly improvised and left up to the actors.

The project was filmed over the course of one day in 2017 at a space they rented in downtown LA. The extras of the cast were made up of any friends who were available to come down to set that day. Ultimately, they ended up having more than thirty minutes of deleted footage. They also filmed a Behind the Scenes video. Through VHX you can purchase a bundle that gives you accses to the project, BTS, deleted scenes, and other bonus features.

The video was first shown to the public on September 29th, 2017 at Buffer Festival. On December 11th, 2017 they also did a screening with Shipwrecked Comedy of their 2017 Buffer Festival videos at the San Fernando in California. After this, Idle Worship was uplaoded to Youtube privately. Fans could purchase accses to the video for about a year before it was uplaoded publicly on August 7th, 2018.

## Response

The response was overall positive; people enjoyed the ironic tone of it. Some people thought the short was based on real events, but the Tin Can Bros said it was merely coincidence.

## References

1. ↑ TCB's Idle Worship page
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Ketchup with TCB" stream
3. ↑ TCB tweet about screening
4. ↑ Shipwrecked Comedy tweet about screening