On October 19th 2006 I received an email from Austin, a friend of mine and founder of the local MD Beer Pong organization. He forwarded me information from the producer of some documentary about beer pong.

EMAIL EXCHANGE:
Foster - "Cool, I hope these guys are legitimate.
I was kind of disappointed with the quality of beerpong.tv

Thanks for forwarding the email, it's exciting to be a part of the documentary."

Austin - "Dude, no offense to them, but beerpong.tv sort of sucks.
I like the guys and everything but they cover house parties and ****.
No one cares about that stuff."

Foster - "I feel the same way; they don't even have a light when they film things.
Pretty crappy work, but they still had the motivation to get it together."

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I didn't know what to expect, but I made arrangements and "Film 101 productions" rolled in deep with a 5 man crew. The interview was intimidating and I stumbled over some words, but I realized very early on that my portrayal was entirely in their hands. They could make me look like an idiot, a villain, a nice guy, etc because that is the power of editing. So I made a leap of faith to place my reputation in their hands and to trust in the director Daniel Lindsay.

I showcased my inventions, my software, and my calculations. I told them that my Pong Shot invention (a practice machine that lets you stand in one place and throw an unlimited number of balls) had some help from my then-GF Jessica. I said I had never used power tools before, such as a table saw, and that Jessica helped me with production of my second prototype and in brain storming the design upgrades. They dismissed it and insisted that it was all me but I countered, and once again told them she deserved some credit too. My parents wanted nothing to do with the documentary and refused to be interviewed. They never gave any support to anything related to beer pong and have never seen me play.

The following week we did a second on camera interview in my office at work, and they tagged along to watch me compete in a tournament. It was one of the coolest moments of my life to walk into a beer pong tournament with a film crew following me like I was a big deal. The whole place was whispering amongst itself, who are these guys, why are they being filmed?

During the tournament Jessica got really jealous of all the attention I was getting. She went in front of the camera and claimed that she had invented the Pong Shot, not me. Like I was some sort of fraud. I was incredibly embarrassed and my mood did a complete 180 from high to low. I wanted to look good on camera, not like a fool. My partner Shawn sat and talked with me to cheer me up. He said this crew were good guys and I could ask them not to include that in the documentary, but I told him I wouldn't do that. It's their project and I won't tell them how to do it, that isn't my place. During this whole conversation I forgot that I was still mic'd for sound, as is often the case with documentary subjects. But I know that they must have heard it and although we've never spoken about it I'm glad that they didn't include all my relationship drama in the documentary.

We won the tournament and later I was told that out of all the teams in the documentary we were the only team to win a local tournament in their presence. Everyone else lost. That was the last time I saw the film crew until the World Series of Beer Pong beginning January 1st 2007.

I had never played in the world series and it was a very different experience. In one match our table was right by the velvet ropes and I had the opponents friends screaming 1 foot from my ear. To the point that it was physically painful and probably damaged my hearing to a degree. The amount of pressure was compounded significantly by being on camera - As if the pressure from my first world series wasn't enough! We did poorly the first day, but pulled it together on the second day and made it into the final competition.

I don't want to talk about the final tournament here and spoil the ending.

When it was all said and done I met with Jessica back at our hotel room and she was crying and fiercely shaking. I didn't know what had happened but I feared something terrible such as a sexual assault. I couldn't get her to talk and I got a call from the Director. They had everyone together and they were filming the end of the movie! I told him that I couldn't make it, much to his disappointment. I don't want to call it a hard choice, but it was certainly a heavy hearted one to miss the ending and to let down the film crew like that. After a few minutes I found out that Jessica had gotten laid into by my Aunt for the way she was acting. It was a really bad experience because Jessica looked up to her, like being torn apart by your role model, but I was relieved. When she calmed down enough I went to the location to be a part of one shot at the end. I had a quick heart to heart with the director where he opened up to me and said that he didn't know what I was going through but he was really glad I was there.

I don't know what he must have thought. Perhaps that I was upset about the game or something to do with beer pong. I didn't say and he didn't ask. They took a long time to edit the film - I'm told because they played a lot of beer pong during the editing process - but it did get finished a couple years later. It premiered at Cinevegas in las vegas, but my flight was delayed and I missed the red carpet. God damn air travel to make me miss the only red carpet event of my life. But I was able to make it to the theatre halfway through it's screening and do a Q&A with the audience afterward.

I attended a cool after party with dennis hopper and britney spears. It was on a rooftop with a pool in vegas. Definitely a fun experience. Years later in 2011 it had it's national premiere on Spike TV. So I went out to the only bar in Towson that had a beer pong table, had them put it on TV with subtitles and invited anyone at the bar to challenge me. It was a fun night and I got some attention from the ladies but I think my terrible dancing ruined any prospects. I'm actually pretty sexy when dancing in drag but for some reason dancing as a male effectively eludes me.

At the world Series I met a guy that was manufacturing the beer pong tables during all of this, and we talked about teaming up to sell my Pong Shot with his tables. I thought perhaps I would be able to parlay all of this into something lucrative but it never happened. The guy didn't have a non-competition agreement with his factory in china, and once people found out where the tables were being produced they bought them factory direct and undercut his prices. They didn't have all the up-front investment costs to recoup, they simply bought the tables for cheap and put him out of business.

So what happens when you're in a documentary on national television? Existentially speaking - Two Facebook friend requests. That about sums it up. I've never been recognized in person, I didn't make a dime, I received no benefits of any kind as far as I can tell. Regardless of how intelligent or creative I am shown to be, no one will ever take it seriously because it's about beer pong. Hell I've been a member here on a film forum for nearly 3 years here and I don't think anyone has bothered to watch it. No MoFie's for me. But I did get two Facebook friend requests.

The director's next film, Undefeated, won an academy award for best documentary of the year. That really inspired me and made me believe that film making isn't just a pipe dream. Perhaps it's something where I could see some success. It is also what put me on the path to dress in drag, if you see the movie you will understand. I haven't produced much but I've done a fair amount of writing. I have a crime thriller web series that I'm currently filming for youtube, as well as a superhero action comedy that I want to submit to film festivals. That will likely be my final short film and I'd like to move on to a feature. I'm hoping to win an award first and have a feature length script at the ready.