Funny or Die-launched production company Gifted Youth director Tim Ketchersid teams up with Therapy Studioseditor Kristin McCasey to inspire your to take your everyday dog costume contests, and pet eagles to the next level in the droll new :60/:30 “Be Amazing” for GameFly, produced directly for the client. With hair-trigger comedic timing, the spot features L.A. Clippers star and former Funny or Die “intern” Blake Griffin schooling us on what constitutes amazing in a deftly-edited mash up of classic Americana television style and an off beat sense of humor.
Gifted Youth devised the witty concept for the campaign, serving as both a creative and production partner on the project. Limited on set time with Griffin, plus highly ambitious stunts and complex visual effects called for a meticulous pre-production for the two-day shoot. Ketchersid and Gifted Youth’s Creative Director Ryan McNeely collaborated with the GameFly marketing team to fine-tune his offbeat, highly stylized comedic concept for the video game rental brand. Visual Creatures served as the onset VFX Supervisor on the project, working closely with Ketchersid to capture all the necessary shots for the ambitious visual effects used to elevate the unconventional humor. Practical effects also paved the way for memorable on set moments. For instance, Griffin’s dramatic lift-off moment at the end of the spot, in which he donned a jet pack emitting liquid nitrogen fog, had stunt coordinators literally raising the cable-rigged and 6’10”, 251 lb basketball star into the air.
Notes Ketchersid, “Though there was a significant amount of red tape involved with approvals for a stunt to literally lift one of the NBA’s top athletes in the air, that moment combined with Visual Creatures’ visual effects made for a hilarious visual punch line.” Adds Ketchersid, “Blake is amazing to work with: he can really hold his own and is hilarious, so we didn’t have any difficulty getting lots of options and alternate takes to work with in post production.”
Editor Kristin McCasey and Gifted Youth are frequent collaborators, having worked together on campaigns for Old Milwaukee, Miller Lite and KIA. Used to working in a creative collective at Funny Or Die, director Tim Ketchersid remained hands-on through the editorial process. This allowed the team to continually bounce ideas off one another to enhance the comedy in the spot. McCasey worked closely with the director to capture the original, quirky tone they were aiming for. Says McCasey, “It’s great working in a collaborative environment with Gifted Youth and Visual Creatures. Comedy spots have a real sense of rhythm, combining dialogue, sound effects and music. Tim and I enjoyed experimenting with all the elements to get them to play well together for just the right comedic tone.”
“Be Amazing” opens on a dapper Griffin woodenly positioned under the super, “GameFly Presents How To Be Amazing with Blake Griffin.” He turns to us with an expectant, “Oh, hello. Do you want to be amazing? I hope so,” then offers his tips. We first see two bored friends mounting a tired, sputtering scooter, accompanied by Griffin advising, “Don’t do this. Do this instead.” His approved mode of conveyance is a racing, flame-painted Model T, piloted by the now leather-clad and laughing friends. The next “Don’t” is a sappy portrait of the friends and their lapdogs. The converse “Do” is the friends wildly posed on a desert bobsled not-yet-pulled by a pack of domestic dogs.
Griffin continues, “I’m sure there are some of you out there who think you’ve already mastered the amazing.” We see the clichéd magician cutting a woman in half: a “Don’t.” The “Do”: the woman cut in half with her legs dancing far apart from her happy and waving upper body. “I’ll tell you what’s not amazing,” he says, as we see the friends buying a video game from an indifferent store clerk, “60 bucks, dudes,” a look of shock washing across the friends’ faces. Back to Griffin, “You want a first-class ticket to amazing? You can get GameFly. GameFly offers over 8,000 video game titles with no late fees, no chances of getting burned by a bad game and free PC downloads. Amazing.” Griffin’s parting words, as he’s about to take off in his rocket pack, are: “Get GameFly. Be amazing.”
About Gifted Youth
Gifted Youth is the boutique creative commercial production division of Adam McKay and Will Ferrell’s Funny Or Die. The Gifted Youth roster is teeming, swarming in fact, with enthusiastic directors, producers, and effects artists with a passion for unique comedic storytelling. Gifted Youth has been honored with 8 Centaris Awards, an award they made up to give themselves, because they’re pretty confident in their live action film, motion graphics, and VFX capabilities. Not available for pornography shoots.
About Therapy
Amidst the anxiety and occasional insanity of commercial, feature, music video, and interactive projects, Therapy Studios offers refuge. Led by founders Joe DiSanto, John Ramsey, Wren Waters and Doobie White, the award-winning team is constantly achieving breakthroughs in creative editorial and post-production for clients like Playstation, Chrysler, Sony, Wells Fargo, Activision, PBS, and KIA. Housed in a calming, state-of-the-art West LA space, Therapy features custom-built editorial, finishing, design, audio, and color grading suites. www.youneedtherapy.tv
Credits:
Client: GameFly
Title: “Be Amazing”
Agency: Client Direct
Production Company: Gifted Youth, LA
Director: Tim Ketchersid
DP: Christian Sprenger
Creative Director: Ryan McNeely
Executive Producer: Dal Wolf
Executive Producer: Josh Martin
Producer: Gina Kwon
Visual Effects & Design: Visual Creatures, LA
Artist/Partner: Ryan McNeely
Artist/Partner: John Cranston
Flame Artist: Gizmo Rivera
Compositor: Dustin Bowser
Producer: Anne Cuizon
Editorial & Post: Therapy Studios, LA
Editor: Kristin McCasey
Assistant Editor: Jake Shaver
Sound Designer: Kristin McCasey
Online: Omar Inguanzo
Mix: Lihi Orbach
EP/Partner: Joe DiSanto
Music Company: APM Music