Tommy Van Dyke
Tommy Van Dyke

Creative producer, Capitol Reef, Utah

BYU AdLab, graduating April 2027

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tommy@tommyvandyke.com

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PlayStation, Time Well Wasted: the film

PlayStation  Time Well Wasted

Producer and 1st AD · Spec campaign · Young Ones Merit

$450 budget, 10 crew, 6 actors, 4 locations and 20 hours of shooting over 2 days

Time Well Wasted is our spec campaign for PlayStation, about the stigma around video games. We had all these locations and a tight timeline to get the project shot and submitted, so we had to be really fast and efficient with the crew and the handoffs. I built out the schedule so art broke down first and went ahead to prep the next location while we broke down the lights, and by the time the lighting team showed up, art was already set up. There were so many moving parts.

Scrolling reels, watching TV, even partying and drinking all get a pass as ways to waste time, but video games still get called childish. I’ve met people who say they’d never date someone who plays video games, but sports betting is no big deal.

The art director and the copywriter could see the spot in their heads, and it took a lot of back and forth to understand the vision. I helped rewrite the script so it flowed better and helped build out the mood boards.

I also worked with Isaac, our DP, on the shot list and the lighting diagrams, since we were bringing on a real gaffer. We planned everything out in advance so we could be efficient, because the shoot was short and we had to be fast.

Credits

Producer and 1st AD
Tommy Van Dyke
Helped rewrite the script and build mood boards, planned shots and lighting with the DP, then ran the handoffs between locations.
Directors
Easton Budge and Jack Josie
DP
Isaac Leonard
Art Director
Easton Budge
Copywriter
Jack Josie
Young Ones Merit
Craft in Writing

Frames

Close on a young man’s eye
Legs and bare feet of several people on a carpet strewn with crushed cans, bottles and takeout trash
Hands gripping a PlayStation controller
A tired young man lit by a screen
An armored knight in a snowy forest on an old tube TV, snapshots taped to the wall beside it

Print

Two worn hands held up, fingertips rubbed raw red in the shapes of controller buttons. “Time Well Wasted” with the PS5 logo
A wall clock with PlayStation button symbols in place of numbers, its hands blurred from spinning. “Time Well Wasted” with the PS5 logo
A leather couch buried in fast-food bags, cans, clothes and pizza boxes, a controller left on the middle cushion. “Time Well Wasted” with the PS5 logo

Behind the scenes

In black and white, a crew member points out a shot in a notebook while another holds a camera monitor
A young man in a suit and tie works at an office computer under a softbox
In the basement set, with photos taped to the wall, two crew members check a camera on a tripod while an actor smiles from the couch
An actor holds a controller on the couch while the crew huddles over the camera beside him
In black and white, an actor sits playing a video game under a single light, trash bags at his feet
Five actors crowd onto the couch in the basement set, photos on the wall behind them
In black and white, three crew members go over a shot list at a table
Three men laugh on a couch in a green room hung with sports posters
The same three men sprawl on the couch in a room littered with cans, wrappers and takeout
A slate for scene 9, dated 1/24/26, held up in front of a TV showing a football game