DORITOS PUG ATTACK: SMALL SCREEN SCENES EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH WRITER/DIRECTOR PATRICK KNIPE, Sound Designer on PUG ATTACK Featuring Doritos, Which We Predict Will Be the Commercial Hit of Superbowl Weekend!!! And, Patrick is a Boston College Graduate!!
Writer / Director Patrick Knipe was born and raised on the edges of the wilderness in the valley-nestled town of Vernon, NJ. Growing up surrounded by heavily forested rolling hills, Revolutionary War Era hamlets, and fog-haunted lakes inspired his imagination into the realms of storytelling and filmmaking at an early age.
Patrick has a degree in English Literature from Boston College. He also studied English, American, and Irish Literature at St. Edmund Hall of Oxford University in the UK. Before heading West to film school, Patrick worked as a radiology network departmental coordinator, a medical credientialer, a dog kennel assistant, a landscaper, library assistant, food slop dining hall server, museum grunt, and baseball umpire and soccer referee.
Patrick earned his Masters in Film and TV Production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles. He was a recipient of the Mary Pickford Foundation Scholarship and a finalist in the Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker's Award competition for the short film THE REPORT. In additional to sound designing and mixing award winning films, Patrick has lectured on film sound mixing in the USC Graduate Film Program and was a 2010 Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel recipient in Hollywood. He co-founded the development and production company Mythmakers and co-wrote and co-produced the family feature film A TOUCH OF MAGIC. His current feature project APOCALYPSE NEW JERSEY is in development with plans to film in Northwest NJ.
Patrick continues to write, produce, sound design, and hone his directing craft while preparing feature projects. His mission is to entertain, delight, and bring stories to the flickering screen that captivate and move the soul. But why are we telling you about Patrick? It's not who you know, it's Whom You Know and we know Boston College, because of course Peachy Deegan is practically the poster child. A tour guide for four years there, the stats girl for the hockey team, and sportswriter, Peachy Deegan was famously known for writing "Beat Notre Dame" on her forehead in maroon lipstick her freshman year. It suntanned in and fortunately Notre Dame did in fact lose that game, which was a good thing as it said that on her forehead for three weeks. As devoted Boston College alums at Whom You Know, we even make the site maroon and gold and its mission is excellence as in Ever to Excel. We are pleased to present BC's latest star, Patrick Knipe, in an exclusive interview with Whom You Know. Patrick is the Sound Designer on PUG ATTACK. His good friends (and former Los Angeles roommates of 3 years) produced the commercial which is going to be one of the hottest ones this Superbowl weekend says Peachy Deegan. JR Burningham wrote, directed, and edited the commercial, and Tess Ortbals produced it. They have since become engaged to each other. All of the crew went to graduate school together at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, and they all graduated within the last couple of years. The pug in the commercial belongs to a friend of Tess's. The pug's name is Oko Nono, and she almost died a year ago in a coyote attack.
PUG ATTACK is a Top 5 Finalist in the Doritos portion of the Crash the Super Bowl Competition. There are also 5 Pepsi Max finalists. Popular voting occurred last month on the competition website. The top 2 most popular Doritos commercials will air during the Super Bowl broadcast this Sunday, plus a third that Doritos picks themselves. They don't find out if they've actually won until we see whether it actually airs. Tess and JR were flown down to Texas for the Super Bowl with all the other finalists.
Based purely on views on youtube and the competition website, this commercial had over 50,000 more views than the next most viewed video. This is due to an aggressive viral marketing campaign they threw together very quickly. Ace Metrix, a major advertising effectiveness study firm, announced yesterday that PUG ATTACK is the leading contender in the competition and that it received the highest rankings in likeability, watchability, relevance and attention out of all of the Pepsi Max and Doritos spots. http://classic.cnbc.com/id/41386440
As Sound Designer, Patrick mixed the music and dialogue and added all the sound effects. The pug's panting, licking, eating, etc, is all Patrick making a fool of himself into a microphone. More info about the commercial spot can be found at www.pugattack.com and www.crashthesuperbowl.com. We highly advise you watch it 50,000 more times. And you know we love Pugs - just look at Swifty.
Peachy Deegan interviewed Patrick Knipe for Whom You Know.
Peachy Deegan: What were your first filmmaking inspirations?
Patrick Knipe: I saw E.T. in the movie theater when I was 2 years old. It blew my mind, gave me chills, and made me stand up and cheer. The feeling I got and still get watching that movie is the feeling I hope to get every time I go to the movies and it's the feeling I want to give audiences of my films. Movies should either be magical and elevate the human spirit or they should terrify us while displaying triumphs of the human spirit. Other movies that inspired me were JAWS, THE QUIET MAN, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, STAR WARS, BREAKING AWAY, GOONIES, DR. ZHIVAGO, POLTERGEIST and BRAVEHEART. The filmmakers who have inspired me most are Steven Spielberg, John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Jim Henson, Walt Disney, George Lucas and Peter Jackson. The sound designers who have inspired me most are Walter Murch and Gary Rydstrom. I've also been very lucky to have some great teachers all along the way.
What is the difference between a great commercial and a mediocre one?
A great commercial tells a full story in 30-60 seconds and makes you want to watch it again right away, not because you were confused but because you're disappointed that there's not more of it. Generally if you can make an audience laugh out loud or make them "oooh and ahhh," you're golden. This is why comedy makes for effective commercials. A great commercial makes it clear what product is being featured, and it makes for great water cooler banter around the office. These days great commercials also tap into a die hard group of viewers who will feel invested and pass the commercial virally onto others; PUG ATTACK taps into the pet lover crowd, the even more passionate dog crowd and the ultimately passionate pug lovers crowd.
Mediocre commercials positively promote a product, show how it works, appeal to a specific demographic (such as soccer moms), and aren't annoying, but they're rarely very memorable and rarely inspire viral word-of-mouth.
What did you learn at Boston College that you wouldn't have learned anywhere else, or as well as anywhere else?
I had an extremely well-rounded education at Boston College, and it was well-rounded at a high level. Being a member of the Honors Program literally exploded my mind and imagination. I wasn't initially invited into the Honors Program, I asked to be let in a letter I wrote to the director of the program, and I was fortunate that they said yes. I remember the first day of the Freshman honors seminar class (called Western Cultural Tradition) Father Howard sweeping into the big windowed corner room of Gasson Hall and immediately reciting--more like singing--lines from Homer's THE ODYSSEY in the original Greek. Thus would begin my four year long love affair studying the Philosophy, Theology, World Literature, Sociology, History, Fine Arts and though experiment sciences. Every Jesuit priest I had as a professor at Boston College was extremely diverse in their knowledge and multi-specialized. There were times I felt like I was being educated by Renaissance men and women, and this approach to education to "ever excel" and "excellence in all things" shaped what would become my film career.
How did studying abroad affect your filmmaking?
Filmmaking is about storytelling, and in order to have more than one or two good stories to tell, I believe you have to live a diverse life and be exposed to people from all walks of life. Living and studying abroad, especially in a culturally diverse city like Oxford with visiting scholars from all around the world, exponentially broadened my life experience. I visited cities with much older history than our young country's, and I visited the ruins of cities that play a role in legends such as Robin Hood and King Arthur, and all that history and mythology really stirred my passion for stories of "Once Upon a Time." I studied Tolkien while living just down the street from where he wrote THE LORD OF THE RINGS, I regularly ate lunch at the spot where Tolkien convince Lewis to become a Christian, and I handled Shakespearean folios from the 18th Century while studying the Bard's great works. Studying in the UK also made me a sucker for wanting to film epic green landscapes and cliff-side castles.
Patrick has a degree in English Literature from Boston College. He also studied English, American, and Irish Literature at St. Edmund Hall of Oxford University in the UK. Before heading West to film school, Patrick worked as a radiology network departmental coordinator, a medical credientialer, a dog kennel assistant, a landscaper, library assistant, food slop dining hall server, museum grunt, and baseball umpire and soccer referee.
Patrick earned his Masters in Film and TV Production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles. He was a recipient of the Mary Pickford Foundation Scholarship and a finalist in the Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker's Award competition for the short film THE REPORT. In additional to sound designing and mixing award winning films, Patrick has lectured on film sound mixing in the USC Graduate Film Program and was a 2010 Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel recipient in Hollywood. He co-founded the development and production company Mythmakers and co-wrote and co-produced the family feature film A TOUCH OF MAGIC. His current feature project APOCALYPSE NEW JERSEY is in development with plans to film in Northwest NJ.
Patrick continues to write, produce, sound design, and hone his directing craft while preparing feature projects. His mission is to entertain, delight, and bring stories to the flickering screen that captivate and move the soul. But why are we telling you about Patrick? It's not who you know, it's Whom You Know and we know Boston College, because of course Peachy Deegan is practically the poster child. A tour guide for four years there, the stats girl for the hockey team, and sportswriter, Peachy Deegan was famously known for writing "Beat Notre Dame" on her forehead in maroon lipstick her freshman year. It suntanned in and fortunately Notre Dame did in fact lose that game, which was a good thing as it said that on her forehead for three weeks. As devoted Boston College alums at Whom You Know, we even make the site maroon and gold and its mission is excellence as in Ever to Excel. We are pleased to present BC's latest star, Patrick Knipe, in an exclusive interview with Whom You Know. Patrick is the Sound Designer on PUG ATTACK. His good friends (and former Los Angeles roommates of 3 years) produced the commercial which is going to be one of the hottest ones this Superbowl weekend says Peachy Deegan. JR Burningham wrote, directed, and edited the commercial, and Tess Ortbals produced it. They have since become engaged to each other. All of the crew went to graduate school together at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, and they all graduated within the last couple of years. The pug in the commercial belongs to a friend of Tess's. The pug's name is Oko Nono, and she almost died a year ago in a coyote attack.
PUG ATTACK is a Top 5 Finalist in the Doritos portion of the Crash the Super Bowl Competition. There are also 5 Pepsi Max finalists. Popular voting occurred last month on the competition website. The top 2 most popular Doritos commercials will air during the Super Bowl broadcast this Sunday, plus a third that Doritos picks themselves. They don't find out if they've actually won until we see whether it actually airs. Tess and JR were flown down to Texas for the Super Bowl with all the other finalists.
Based purely on views on youtube and the competition website, this commercial had over 50,000 more views than the next most viewed video. This is due to an aggressive viral marketing campaign they threw together very quickly. Ace Metrix, a major advertising effectiveness study firm, announced yesterday that PUG ATTACK is the leading contender in the competition and that it received the highest rankings in likeability, watchability, relevance and attention out of all of the Pepsi Max and Doritos spots. http://classic.cnbc.com/id/41386440
As Sound Designer, Patrick mixed the music and dialogue and added all the sound effects. The pug's panting, licking, eating, etc, is all Patrick making a fool of himself into a microphone. More info about the commercial spot can be found at www.pugattack.com and www.crashthesuperbowl.com. We highly advise you watch it 50,000 more times. And you know we love Pugs - just look at Swifty.
Peachy Deegan interviewed Patrick Knipe for Whom You Know.
Peachy Deegan: What were your first filmmaking inspirations?
Patrick Knipe: I saw E.T. in the movie theater when I was 2 years old. It blew my mind, gave me chills, and made me stand up and cheer. The feeling I got and still get watching that movie is the feeling I hope to get every time I go to the movies and it's the feeling I want to give audiences of my films. Movies should either be magical and elevate the human spirit or they should terrify us while displaying triumphs of the human spirit. Other movies that inspired me were JAWS, THE QUIET MAN, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, STAR WARS, BREAKING AWAY, GOONIES, DR. ZHIVAGO, POLTERGEIST and BRAVEHEART. The filmmakers who have inspired me most are Steven Spielberg, John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Jim Henson, Walt Disney, George Lucas and Peter Jackson. The sound designers who have inspired me most are Walter Murch and Gary Rydstrom. I've also been very lucky to have some great teachers all along the way.
What is the difference between a great commercial and a mediocre one?
A great commercial tells a full story in 30-60 seconds and makes you want to watch it again right away, not because you were confused but because you're disappointed that there's not more of it. Generally if you can make an audience laugh out loud or make them "oooh and ahhh," you're golden. This is why comedy makes for effective commercials. A great commercial makes it clear what product is being featured, and it makes for great water cooler banter around the office. These days great commercials also tap into a die hard group of viewers who will feel invested and pass the commercial virally onto others; PUG ATTACK taps into the pet lover crowd, the even more passionate dog crowd and the ultimately passionate pug lovers crowd.
Mediocre commercials positively promote a product, show how it works, appeal to a specific demographic (such as soccer moms), and aren't annoying, but they're rarely very memorable and rarely inspire viral word-of-mouth.
What did you learn at Boston College that you wouldn't have learned anywhere else, or as well as anywhere else?
I had an extremely well-rounded education at Boston College, and it was well-rounded at a high level. Being a member of the Honors Program literally exploded my mind and imagination. I wasn't initially invited into the Honors Program, I asked to be let in a letter I wrote to the director of the program, and I was fortunate that they said yes. I remember the first day of the Freshman honors seminar class (called Western Cultural Tradition) Father Howard sweeping into the big windowed corner room of Gasson Hall and immediately reciting--more like singing--lines from Homer's THE ODYSSEY in the original Greek. Thus would begin my four year long love affair studying the Philosophy, Theology, World Literature, Sociology, History, Fine Arts and though experiment sciences. Every Jesuit priest I had as a professor at Boston College was extremely diverse in their knowledge and multi-specialized. There were times I felt like I was being educated by Renaissance men and women, and this approach to education to "ever excel" and "excellence in all things" shaped what would become my film career.
How did studying abroad affect your filmmaking?
Filmmaking is about storytelling, and in order to have more than one or two good stories to tell, I believe you have to live a diverse life and be exposed to people from all walks of life. Living and studying abroad, especially in a culturally diverse city like Oxford with visiting scholars from all around the world, exponentially broadened my life experience. I visited cities with much older history than our young country's, and I visited the ruins of cities that play a role in legends such as Robin Hood and King Arthur, and all that history and mythology really stirred my passion for stories of "Once Upon a Time." I studied Tolkien while living just down the street from where he wrote THE LORD OF THE RINGS, I regularly ate lunch at the spot where Tolkien convince Lewis to become a Christian, and I handled Shakespearean folios from the 18th Century while studying the Bard's great works. Studying in the UK also made me a sucker for wanting to film epic green landscapes and cliff-side castles.
How do you come up with effective sound effects?
The sound design of a film mostly works at a gut level. It manipulates the emotions of the audience without them often knowing what's being done to them. An obvious example of this would be a scene shot at dusk with a young man and young woman sleeping under a tree on a picnic blanket. Gentle crickets and a very subtle breeze with minimal leaf rustle make up the soundscape. The audience feels at peace. Then the wind picks up and the tree's leaves start rustling louder and louder. A dog starts frantically barking somewhere off screen. Suddenly the audience feels very ill at ease, something bad is probably about to happen.
If we came in on that same exact scene with the dog barking and wind blowing right off the bat, we might even wonder if the bodies on the ground under the tree are dead. This is effective sound design, and when it's generally seamless.
As far creating specific sound effects, I personally don't know quite how I do it, it's a skill that comes both naturally and with a lot of practice. Sound effects are often made up of many layers of sounds that don't obviously correspond to the objects on the screen. For example, recently I had to create the sound for a mustang pulling up to the camera driven by "bad guy" of the film. In addition to using car engine sounds, I layered in guttural panther growls and roars to make the car feel threatening. As an audience member you'd never consciously realize there are wild cat sounds in there, but the organic nature of the sound would give you an instinctual feeling of unease. Such is my goal as the Sound Designer.
In PUG ATTACK, the dog's footsteps are actually horse gallup footsteps, and the licking and panting sounds are actually me making a fool of myself into a microphone.
What are the most ridiculous sound effects you've ever had to produce and how did you do it?
I recently sound designed a book trailer for TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT which is the latest book in the epic fantasy series THE WHEEL OF TIME by Robert Jordan. In the video a woman sitting on horseback in the middle of a thunder storm collects a magical force from the air into her hand and then makes the energy explode outwards in a flash of light. While this going on there's epic music playing and an intense voiceover track read by the woman who actually does the readings for the audiobooks. On my first pass I created a build up of sound using thunder and earthquake rumbles and electricity arcs. Then when it explodes I used a nuclear bomb explosion, a gun shot, a thunder crack, a reverse cymbal crash, a bell, and two swords clashing into each other and ringing off. The director followed up with a note that he wanted it to sound holier and less masculine. So after banging my head against the wall for 10 minutes then taking a walk while listening to Beatles music (this is how I get over sound designer block AND writer's block), I recorded myself singing at various high pitches in my disturbingly off kilter voice, layered those recording together into a chorus, and voila!, a holy sound (or unholy depending on your perspective). You can watch the commercial at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apJJ0NzOXEg&hd=1
What do you enjoy the most about being a filmmaker?
I enjoy collaborating with such a diverse group of creative people who come from all different parts of the world and different walks of life and working with them to tell stories that will move and inspire people. I like the idea that someone can escape the stresses of life by going into a darkened theater with a group of strangers and being carried away into a world or experience they wouldn't normally visit by a story I helped tell.
What should we know about Pug Attack?
PUG ATTACK was made for fun by a group of friends who all recently finished graduate film school together and are just getting their careers of the ground in the very, very competitive film industry. This concept of this spot is the brain child of Utah native JR Burningham and California native Tess Ortbals. There were over 5,500 entries in the competition, which makes us even more excited to be one of 5 finalists. If the commercial airs during the Super Bowl on Sunday and takes the Number 1 spot on the USA Today Ad Meter it wins $1,000,000 in addition to the $25,000 finalist prize it has already received. I'd also like to point out that the pug in the commercial has a great story: she barely survived a coyote attack last year so it's amazing she recovered and was able to appear, let alone run, in this spot. JulieAnne Young, the lead actress in the commercial, is donating proceeds from her Screen Actors Guild compensation to bestfriends.org to support the biggest animal shelter in the USA with a "No Kill" policy.
Tell us about the making of the commercial please.
The commercial was shot in one day in Ventura County, California. The total budget of $500 went to renting the Canon 7D camera package and feeding the cast and crew. The cast and crew worked on spec, which meant none of us got paid unless the commercial won money. Most of the footage of Oko Nono running towards the camera was out of focus because it's extremely difficult to follow focus something that's moving towards you that fast, especially when shooting in slow motion, but the cinematographer, Jonathan Barenboim, got just enough to make it work. They did A LOT of takes. When the pug is eating Doritos at the very end, there are some pig snorting sounds layered in there. She'll kill me for revealing this, but those snorting sounds were performed by our very talented producer, Tess Ortbals. The grunt of the guy getting knocked down by the door is me re-enacting the time I got hit by a bus freshman year at Boston College while riding my bike from Newton Campus up heartbreak hill on a cold December morning during finals after the BC shuttle bus broke down. [Peachy: oh no! You should have lived on upper we think it's more fun.]
More info about PUG ATTACK can be found at www.pugattack.com
How can we help you advance the success of this commercial?
The voting stage of the competition is now over. Doritos does not reveal the winners before the Super Bowl broadcast. You can help advance the success of the commercial by watching it on youtube--giving it a glowing review in the comments--and sharing the link on facebook (therefore upping the view count and internet buzz and encouraging Doritos to continue airing the commercial on network television). The youtube link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpjaOUjUPUc&hd=1
Did you set that pug loose in the Mods of BC ever and if so what did she drink?
Oko Nono has never been released in the Mods, but I believe her drink of choice would be Vodka and Red Bull. I don't believe a pug running into closed doors and knocking them down to get munchies would be all that out of place in the Mods.
[Peachy: Well if that pug likes Vodka do I have a drink for her! We need to go to 1007 Lexington and blaine, with Blaine who loves animals, The Peachy Deegan made with Star Vodka! And Swifty's is named after a pug, of course.]
What is your favorite flavor of Doritos?
Blazin' Buffalo & Ranch
What is the dog's favorite flavor?
Spicy Nacho
Who are you picking for the Superbowl?
The Packers because I like American cheese and I feel like they're the underdogs
Other than Small Screen Scenes of course, what is your favorite Whom You Know column and what do you like about it?
"Take a Trip to Ireland" because I love all things Irish-related.
What else should Whom You Know readers know about you?
Most of the film industry is located in Hollywood, but I'm definitely more of an East Coast guy. After living in Los Angeles for the past 6 years I recently moved back to the New York City area in order to write and direct my first feature film, APOCALYPSE NEW JERSEY. Shooting primarily near and around the stomping grounds where I grew up in Northern NJ, the film is a supernatural thriller that draws upon a lot of the local folklore and spooky urban legends I heard as a kid. In the film I will address the current national perception that the Garden State is made up of "Jersey Shore types" and I will also turn a lot of the horror movie cliches over on their heads. I'm pretty excited about shooting out here and using talent from the tri-state area.
I plan on using what I believe will be the success of APOCALYPSE NEW JERSEY to get another passion project of mine about the Underground Railroad funded. That latter project is an offshoot of my award winning short film SCARECROW.
I'm also involved in producing a teenager targeted feature film called FAT GIRLS HUNT WEREWOLVES written by an Arizona mother who's an award winning screenwriter. The project was brought to me by my good friend Sean-Michael Smith who works on the TV show CASTLE and wants to direct this BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER-meets-NAPOLEON DYNAMITE film in his transition from the small screen to the big screen.
How would you like to be contacted by Whom You Know readers?
Feel free to email me at patrick@soundhenge.com. If you are interested in learning about becoming a private investor and participating in the success of one of my upcoming films, please email me at patrick.knipe@gmail.com
The sound design of a film mostly works at a gut level. It manipulates the emotions of the audience without them often knowing what's being done to them. An obvious example of this would be a scene shot at dusk with a young man and young woman sleeping under a tree on a picnic blanket. Gentle crickets and a very subtle breeze with minimal leaf rustle make up the soundscape. The audience feels at peace. Then the wind picks up and the tree's leaves start rustling louder and louder. A dog starts frantically barking somewhere off screen. Suddenly the audience feels very ill at ease, something bad is probably about to happen.
If we came in on that same exact scene with the dog barking and wind blowing right off the bat, we might even wonder if the bodies on the ground under the tree are dead. This is effective sound design, and when it's generally seamless.
As far creating specific sound effects, I personally don't know quite how I do it, it's a skill that comes both naturally and with a lot of practice. Sound effects are often made up of many layers of sounds that don't obviously correspond to the objects on the screen. For example, recently I had to create the sound for a mustang pulling up to the camera driven by "bad guy" of the film. In addition to using car engine sounds, I layered in guttural panther growls and roars to make the car feel threatening. As an audience member you'd never consciously realize there are wild cat sounds in there, but the organic nature of the sound would give you an instinctual feeling of unease. Such is my goal as the Sound Designer.
In PUG ATTACK, the dog's footsteps are actually horse gallup footsteps, and the licking and panting sounds are actually me making a fool of myself into a microphone.
What are the most ridiculous sound effects you've ever had to produce and how did you do it?
I recently sound designed a book trailer for TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT which is the latest book in the epic fantasy series THE WHEEL OF TIME by Robert Jordan. In the video a woman sitting on horseback in the middle of a thunder storm collects a magical force from the air into her hand and then makes the energy explode outwards in a flash of light. While this going on there's epic music playing and an intense voiceover track read by the woman who actually does the readings for the audiobooks. On my first pass I created a build up of sound using thunder and earthquake rumbles and electricity arcs. Then when it explodes I used a nuclear bomb explosion, a gun shot, a thunder crack, a reverse cymbal crash, a bell, and two swords clashing into each other and ringing off. The director followed up with a note that he wanted it to sound holier and less masculine. So after banging my head against the wall for 10 minutes then taking a walk while listening to Beatles music (this is how I get over sound designer block AND writer's block), I recorded myself singing at various high pitches in my disturbingly off kilter voice, layered those recording together into a chorus, and voila!, a holy sound (or unholy depending on your perspective). You can watch the commercial at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apJJ0NzOXEg&hd=1
What do you enjoy the most about being a filmmaker?
I enjoy collaborating with such a diverse group of creative people who come from all different parts of the world and different walks of life and working with them to tell stories that will move and inspire people. I like the idea that someone can escape the stresses of life by going into a darkened theater with a group of strangers and being carried away into a world or experience they wouldn't normally visit by a story I helped tell.
What should we know about Pug Attack?
PUG ATTACK was made for fun by a group of friends who all recently finished graduate film school together and are just getting their careers of the ground in the very, very competitive film industry. This concept of this spot is the brain child of Utah native JR Burningham and California native Tess Ortbals. There were over 5,500 entries in the competition, which makes us even more excited to be one of 5 finalists. If the commercial airs during the Super Bowl on Sunday and takes the Number 1 spot on the USA Today Ad Meter it wins $1,000,000 in addition to the $25,000 finalist prize it has already received. I'd also like to point out that the pug in the commercial has a great story: she barely survived a coyote attack last year so it's amazing she recovered and was able to appear, let alone run, in this spot. JulieAnne Young, the lead actress in the commercial, is donating proceeds from her Screen Actors Guild compensation to bestfriends.org to support the biggest animal shelter in the USA with a "No Kill" policy.
Tell us about the making of the commercial please.
The commercial was shot in one day in Ventura County, California. The total budget of $500 went to renting the Canon 7D camera package and feeding the cast and crew. The cast and crew worked on spec, which meant none of us got paid unless the commercial won money. Most of the footage of Oko Nono running towards the camera was out of focus because it's extremely difficult to follow focus something that's moving towards you that fast, especially when shooting in slow motion, but the cinematographer, Jonathan Barenboim, got just enough to make it work. They did A LOT of takes. When the pug is eating Doritos at the very end, there are some pig snorting sounds layered in there. She'll kill me for revealing this, but those snorting sounds were performed by our very talented producer, Tess Ortbals. The grunt of the guy getting knocked down by the door is me re-enacting the time I got hit by a bus freshman year at Boston College while riding my bike from Newton Campus up heartbreak hill on a cold December morning during finals after the BC shuttle bus broke down. [Peachy: oh no! You should have lived on upper we think it's more fun.]
More info about PUG ATTACK can be found at www.pugattack.com
How can we help you advance the success of this commercial?
The voting stage of the competition is now over. Doritos does not reveal the winners before the Super Bowl broadcast. You can help advance the success of the commercial by watching it on youtube--giving it a glowing review in the comments--and sharing the link on facebook (therefore upping the view count and internet buzz and encouraging Doritos to continue airing the commercial on network television). The youtube link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpjaOUjUPUc&hd=1
Did you set that pug loose in the Mods of BC ever and if so what did she drink?
Oko Nono has never been released in the Mods, but I believe her drink of choice would be Vodka and Red Bull. I don't believe a pug running into closed doors and knocking them down to get munchies would be all that out of place in the Mods.
[Peachy: Well if that pug likes Vodka do I have a drink for her! We need to go to 1007 Lexington and blaine, with Blaine who loves animals, The Peachy Deegan made with Star Vodka! And Swifty's is named after a pug, of course.]
What is your favorite flavor of Doritos?
Blazin' Buffalo & Ranch
What is the dog's favorite flavor?
Spicy Nacho
Who are you picking for the Superbowl?
The Packers because I like American cheese and I feel like they're the underdogs
Other than Small Screen Scenes of course, what is your favorite Whom You Know column and what do you like about it?
"Take a Trip to Ireland" because I love all things Irish-related.
What else should Whom You Know readers know about you?
Most of the film industry is located in Hollywood, but I'm definitely more of an East Coast guy. After living in Los Angeles for the past 6 years I recently moved back to the New York City area in order to write and direct my first feature film, APOCALYPSE NEW JERSEY. Shooting primarily near and around the stomping grounds where I grew up in Northern NJ, the film is a supernatural thriller that draws upon a lot of the local folklore and spooky urban legends I heard as a kid. In the film I will address the current national perception that the Garden State is made up of "Jersey Shore types" and I will also turn a lot of the horror movie cliches over on their heads. I'm pretty excited about shooting out here and using talent from the tri-state area.
I plan on using what I believe will be the success of APOCALYPSE NEW JERSEY to get another passion project of mine about the Underground Railroad funded. That latter project is an offshoot of my award winning short film SCARECROW.
I'm also involved in producing a teenager targeted feature film called FAT GIRLS HUNT WEREWOLVES written by an Arizona mother who's an award winning screenwriter. The project was brought to me by my good friend Sean-Michael Smith who works on the TV show CASTLE and wants to direct this BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER-meets-NAPOLEON DYNAMITE film in his transition from the small screen to the big screen.
How would you like to be contacted by Whom You Know readers?
Feel free to email me at patrick@soundhenge.com. If you are interested in learning about becoming a private investor and participating in the success of one of my upcoming films, please email me at patrick.knipe@gmail.com
