What if your friends suddenly acted like they were in Oscar-bait movies? This comedic short for Comcast answers that question, while reminding viewers that the XFINITY X1 is the definitive source for catching up on past nominated films in preparation for awards season.

To emphasize the dichotomy between a normal BuzzFeed video and an award-winning film, we used two cameras: a c300 with a basic lens package for the ‘normal’ scenes, and a Red EPIC with soviet made anamorphic lenses for the heightened cinematic scenes. Each scene let us explore a different movie genre and visual aesthetic, beginning a conversation that was finished in the comments section as viewers chimed in with their favorite movie tropes.

Diversity is always important but, in a year when #OscarsSoWhite was trending, we took pride in reflecting BuzzFeed’s multicultural audience in our casting. We also pulled from LA’s thriving improv and sketch comedy community to find up-and-coming actors who could bring their talents to the lovingly parodied genre moments.

The humorous, spot-on references resonated with movie lovers across social media and rose awareness of XFINITY’s movie offerings and voice-control remote.