Hey, anybody here crazy enough to enter KFC's Popcorn Chicken commercial contest?

I might be, but I haven't heard about it. Details! I want details!

I just found out this weekend. We are shooting ours this evening.
Yeah, 10K would be real nice!

http://www.kfc.com/popcorn/challenge.htm

Entry deadline of September 23, 2003 at 5:00 PM (EDT).

Why do I always find out about these things, right near the end of the deadline!!!

-Nori

Update on my attempt:
Talk about last minute! Went to meet the group that was supposed to be involved in the shoot on Thursday evening. Two of the "actors" decided at the last minute not to show. One even turned his cell phone off.
This was an exterior shoot so I was stressing about 6 pm. We found two guys at the local coffeehouse to take their place and went to the location and shot for an hour.
We should have had an auxilliary camera rolling as "the making of..." was far more hilarious than the finished product. KFC took about 20 minutes getting the necessary Popcorn Chicken for us, Geez!
Rough edit was done by my partner at about 2 am. Complete with cgi nugget. (The thread did not work too well).
Finished sweetening last night and overnighted it today.
I'll update later if anyone is interested.

well I told my friends about it so they are going to brainstorm as well as I. Then I think acouple hours will be enough to get a finished product out. lol. It should be fun.

I'm In.

Rob

Hey Rob!
Did you get anything in the can yet?

yep. Just finished it. It is on a CD and am sending it in today.

It didn't take to long and was fun. I tried to talk some friends into it but they weren't really into doing their own. Even though I help do one of theirs. To bad. The nice thing about this contest is that you don't really have anything to loose. 30 sec is so quick that it only took 20mins to shoot and then awhile longer to edit.

Rob

Good luck, Rob! I'm sure we've got a lot of heavy competition though. But it was a lot of fun. Also a great lesson in what not to do next time!

Yah that's true. It would be great if they had a contest hotline. To which they run all the contest through. That way I would of had more time with it.


Rob

anyone care to post their commercials? ;)

Would that be legal as they now own the finished product in its entirety?

well given that you did it. I am sure you can post it. The main thing is that we wait until the contest is over as not to cause a problem. Once the contest is over I'll be more than happy to show the commercial.


Rob

Jim - All companies can show their work in a demo reel of work. Even though they do not own the work.

I'll wait too.
Thanks Rob!

They posted the three finalists on the KFC website this morning so at least you know if you are in the money bracket. I didn't make the cut but I was wondering if anyone who frequents the community made it to the final 3?

nope. I didn't make it nor my friend. The one I like is the last one but the crappy video doesn't really help. Fishing. hehe.


Rob

My friend is Nathan Brown who finished in the top 3. He CGed the whale using Lightwave I think. Now he's trying to get people to vote. My son's PA'd some of his stuff. He's a good guy. Hope he wins.

Shoot! I can't even watch them here at work. I'll check them out from home tonight.

good. I will vote for him. That was the only one I enjoyed.

Rob

I'm glad someone here at least knows one of the finalists, but is it not a bit strange that they could go through all those videos and post finalists the next morning? Just seems a bit curious to me. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it seems a little too quick!

Regardless, good luck to your friend, Rob!

You know, I was thinking the same thing......

If they voted using punch cards we could always demand a recount.

BTW, his website is http://www.nathanpbrown.com

Well, I haven't seen his entry, but since he's a friend-of-a-dv-poster, then I hope he wins!

Well kids it isn't EVEN CLOSE! Obviously, OBVIOUSLY Nathan's video gets it.

The "3 guys" is a moderately distant 2nd.

The little girl and little brother is straight-up home video. It's a fine effort, but not in the league of the others.

If I'd have done one it was going to be a couple thugs in a dark room with a guy tied in a chair under one hard light, alla interrogation style, with a bag taped over everything but his mouth. The two thugs would be just finishing a call that confirmed that they were finally going to get the ransom for their hostage. You notice that the two of them have been eating popcorn chicken and as they're getting happier about the money they take turns throwing pieces of chicken and thanking their "victim" from across the room and miraculously every shot lands right in the hostages mouth. He excitedly gulps 'em down. Then as the thugs put down their boxes and exclaim, "It's over kid, you're goin' home..." the kid starts reaching for the direction from whence the chicken came and keeps screaming, "NO, NOooooo!" Then you cut to a shot of the popcorn chicken in focus on the table as the thugs (blurry in the background) carry the guy out.

I call it "commercial noire".

Ok, the whale still would have won.

Well since the voting is over and the results are already done. Here is my posting of my entry.
large one at 32Mb
www.frameworksstudio.com/images/KFC.mov
small one at 3Mb
www.frameworksstudio.com/images/KFC_small.mov

Rob

And the winner is...............Nathan Brown!

From Nathan:

"Our spot is going to air on primetime
network TV tomorrow night!!!!

Look for the "Big Fish" spot and local actors Geoff Pilkington and LaRoy
F. Smith tomorrow night on NBC during Scrubs and on FOX during the
baseball playoffs. It will air on both networks between 8 and 9 PM, and
I believe it they will air more around 8:45PM."

Depending on when you read this, tomorrow is October 2nd.

Good news! Congrats from the DVi team. Perhaps he'd like to
write a little something here on his experiences with this?