Our particular spot wasn’t chosen though it was a “Staff Pick.”  Looking at the nine spots Clinique chose and recently debuted on their facebook page, they were looking for more of a slice of life piece than an actual commercial which is what we delivered.

If you’re an aspiring film-maker and you haven’t checked out Poptent yet, do yourself a favor and sign up.  They a have a lot of different assignments available, with better odds of earning some money than say the Doritos contest I’ve done the last two years.  Even if you don’t sell an ad, the deadlines and creativity that stems from these projects are good practice to hone your skills.

Let me know what you think.

• Directed by Dara Cuoco
• Concept by Cheri Waterhouse
• DP/Editor/Graphics/Colorist: Paul Cuoco
• Music by Sue Paine

Featuring (in order of appearance)

• Carol-Ann Plante (& family)
• Dara Cuoco
• Gina Chai
• Susan McCord

We’re at it again.  Doritos announced in late September that they were doing the Crash the Superbowl contest again.  With the success it’s been, why wouldn’t they?  I had a lot of fun last year pulling an entry together at the last minute, and worked with some great people and decided to do it again this year.

I developed the concept with my voice actors from last year’s entry, Michael Musa and Steve D’Arcangelo, based on the idea that there is a personality for every flavor of Doritos.  The script came together pretty quickly, but the actors really shined, bringing energy and ideas that made this shoot the most fun I’ve had in a while.

After finishing the initial spot I realized that I had a lot of great material, both planned and improvised that I couldn’t fit due to time in the original version.  I hated it not to see an audience so I re-purposed the concept and footage of the personalities to make two more commercials which I think are equally as strong standing on their own. We’ll find out the first week in January who the finalists are, and if we’re among them.

EDIT 1/3/11 – Since the finalists have been announced I now have the videos embedded here.

Below are links to each of the commercials we submitted for Crash the Superbowl 2011.  I wasn’t able to embed them in the website this year, so you’ll need to sit through or skip the website intro video to get to the actual commercial. If you have any trouble simply type the title of each one into the search bar in the gallery.  Please comment if you can on each one to let me know what you think.  It will also help raise our profile.

What Flavor Are You?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Original link: http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/gallery/?video=2583

Sweet N Spicy

Click here to view the embedded video.

Original link: http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/gallery/?video=2588

Say Hello To My Cheesy Friends

Click here to view the embedded video.

Original link: http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/gallery/?video=2595

Credit where credit is due:

• Concept by: Paul Cuoco, Steve D’Arcangelo, and Michael Musa
• Shot, Cut, Directed by: Paul Cuoco
• Production Design: Steve D’Arcangelo

Starring:

• Michael Musa as The Flavor Technician
• Matt Mangum as The Cool Rancher
• Peter Tinari as Cheesy
• Dara Cuoco as Sweet N Spicy
• Lab Extras: JK Koepfli, Steve D’Arcangelo

Locations:

• Horse Ranch courtesy of Amanda Buchan
• Hot Tub courtesy Steve Czarnecki

A special thanks to my crew who donated their time and energy:

Alex Pino, Drew MacDonald, Peter (and soon to be) Angela Tinari, and JK Koepfli.

If you’ve read all this as opposed to skipping to the video, then double thank you.

A second PSA shot on a Canon 7D. You can see the first PSA here.

Shot completely hand-held with no stabilizer or viewfinder, same as before.

Footage for this was all 720/60p converted to Cineform and interpreted as 24P for slow motion and edited in Premiere CS4. Onlined in After Effects and color correction with Magic Bullet Looks.

Voice over by Dara Cuoco
Music: “Fruity” by Jane Pow

For more information on Walk MS and Multiple Sclerosis please visit: walkmssocal.org

While participating in the MS Walk in Pasadena, CA on April 18th, I brought along my new Canon 7D and shot some stills, video, and interviews. While there I was struck by the button on this man’s hat and filmed him. After reviewing the footage I came up with this idea for the PSA and cut it together.

This was shot completely hand held with a bare 7D. My Z-Finder Jr. had not yet arrived, and I had no external stabilization system or shoulder rig. This made holding focus on a moving object while walking myself pretty tough, and it was my first time shooting with the 7D outdoors in a non-controlled environment. Some of the shots I got that day were great others unusable, while I tried to maintain focus in bright sunlight on the LCD. My savior was the Canon 17-55mm F2.8 lens with Image Stabilization. This made hand-held footage that could have been a disaster into something usable.

The footage for the PSA was all shot 720/60p and converted to Cineform AVI files for editing. Each was interpreted as 24P for slow motion and edited in Premiere CS4. I onlined in After Effects with additional post stabilization using Magic Bullet Steady and color correction with Magic Bullet Looks.

This project is not officially created for Walk MS or the National MS Society, and was created as more of a camera test for me and my workflow. For more information on Walk MS and Multiple Sclerosis please visit: walkmssocal.org

Check out Not Afraid!’s entry into the Doritos Crash the Superbowl Contest, Delicious Destiny.

Spicy Nacho Chips, “Zen” and “Reluctant” discuss their lives, purpose, and destiny.

I didn’t learn of this contest until a week before the deadline, so this entire spot was put together from conception to completion in less than a week, and turned out to be the last project I shot on my Canon XL2 before going HD.

Written, Shot, Cut, and Directed by Paul Cuoco
Creative Consultant: Jeff Loach
Voice Talent:
Zen: Michael Musa
Reluctant: Steve D’Arcangelo