Firefox Flicks Backstage

On March 31st a sample of Firefox Flicks ads were screened at the Vail Film Festival in beautiful Vail, Colorado. Four selected entries from the Flicks contest were screened during the Festival’s Oscar Shorts Showcase. Entries were chosen by the Firefox Flicks team that reflect the unique aspect each communicates about Firefox and it’s community. And the audience laughed and clapped at all the right times!

Here’s a behind the scene peek at the filmmakers and their ads.

“Mr. Dodo”

The two filmmakers responsible for “Mr. Dodo” came to the festival to present their ad. Produced and directed by Brad Vetter, and produced and edited by John Knowles, these two made their appearance with camera in hand. I even, very briefly, met the enigma Mr. Dodo himself before he took off for the slopes.

Brad Vetter and John Knowles with Festival founders, Scott and Sean Cross

About the director
“This young company based in New York City is determined to succeed in film and advertising. Our vision is to encourage original thought and develop content inspired by the comedy of life. Mr. Dodo was shot with a Panasonic DVX100a camera and was edited with Final Cut Pro. The piece is meant to keep the viewer off balance with quick calculated cuts. With the use of Photoshop, we were able to animate the Mr. Dodo Internet sequence and add to the layers of the piece. The camera angles were chosen to engage the viewer and develop the characters in our story. We also kept in mind the importance of product placement in an advertisement of this nature. The project was a challenge and a pleasure to work on.”

About the ad
“The Internet is filled with a full spectrum of content, ranging from enlightening, entertaining and sometimes absurd. The core of our advertisement was not to focus on the wide range of content, but simply to stress that your internet browsing will be enhanced through the use of Firefox. More specifically, in the 30 second piece, you will meet the Benenson brothers and see them use Firefox’s superior technology. It may be open to debate what end of the content spectrum they encounter, but you can’t deny that their internet experience has been enhanced. Mr. Dodo. You be the judge.”

“Double Click Relief”

“Double Click Relief,” by Director Craig Keuhne, parodies a medicine commercial and that horrible feeling of using a browser that makes your web life painful. Firefox brings relief.

About the director
“Craig Kuehne began making movies in high school, writing and directing the almost unwatchable four-part series, “It Came From The Trash Bin™.” It was only recently that he has been more serious about making a living as a filmmaker. He has been working primarily as a visual effects artist for film and television in Los Angeles since 1996. His real start in the industry, however, began in 1994 as an extra on “Sweet Valley High.

“He’s directed more than ten projects, some of which are viewable on his website, that range from a five-second murder-mystery to a seven minute mockumentary about six nightmarish actors auditioning for parts they have no chance of getting.”

About the ad
“The concept for “Double-Click Relief” came to me when my wife recently started a job where she has to use Internet Explorer, and she had been constantly complaining about how horrible she felt having to use it. She and I both knew she would feel a lot better using Firefox, and it occurred to me that that might make for a funny commercial – doing a parody of one of those medicine commercials…

For the production, I needed an office full of cubicles and I have only one friend, Mark DeSanto (THE I.T. GUY in the hallway), who works in an office fitting that description. I got the approval to shoot there, but under two conditions – that I would only have a two-hour window, and that I would have a small crew. We finished in just under two hours with a two-man crew – Mark McCracken (GARY) lit the set, and I (BOB) was the camera operator and in charge of sound. I built the animations in After Effects and Motion, and cut everything in Final Cut Pro.”

“Home Alone”

This ad, directed by Greg Vandentillaart, tells the short-lived story of a kid home alone who tries to surf the web for sites he shouldn’t! The ad highlights how a user-created feature can be developed to extend Firefox.

About the director
“I started making movies with my good friend Dan Armstrong (composer of the Home Alone ad). Either I would go over to his house after school or he to mine and we would make stop motion animated shorts. We were in grade 6. I decided then and there that I wanted to become a director. I spent the next nine years watching as many movies as I could before heading off to the New York Film Academy, a big trek for a country boy in Ontario. At school I made a dozen short films and met some incredibly talented actors, crew workers, and producers. After graduating I headed over to Italy, for two months, to edit a documentary titled: The Human Web. Once the project was done I came back home to Canada and started to write. While writing I heard of a conflict going on in my home town, I decided that it needed to be a documentary. For the past 6 months I have been working on County Road 21. I had no crew, no money, but after a lot of hard work and persistence the project is 100% complete. The trailer can be seen by clicking here.

About the ad
“My girlfriend brought the Firefox contest to my attention. She knew I was getting tired from the tedious work involved with County Road 21, it had been six months and it was all I had done. I needed something with instant gratification. In only a few minutes of hearing about the contest I came up with the story line. That night I wrote the script and called my friend Dan Armstrong (composer). He had provided a majority of the music for County Road 21 and I was sure he needed a project that could be in the bag in only a few days. Later that week we headed over to my old drama teachers class to find the perfect lead for the commercial. The first and last person we saw was Micky Myers, an incredibly talented comedic actor. A great personality. I acted out the script for him and he agreed to be a part of the project. Early the next week we shot Home Alone. With my Sony HD in hand and some help from Dan Armstrong we managed to shoot 50 setups in 3 hours. (many shots where left on the cutting room floor) The next day I had the final edit locked within 2 hours. I handed the file over to Dan who composed the commercial in a day. It was great a experience, especially after a very long production.”

“Daredevil”

Director, Pete Macomber, captures the experience of surfing the web. It’s not just about getting a task accomplished – it’s about the ride.

About the director
“Pete Macomber was born in Holland, raised in South Africa, received a degree in English literature from University of Colorado, competed on the US Snowboard Team and now creates music videos, commercials and screenplays from his Venice, California home when he’s not off searching for undiscovered waves in Panama.”

About the ad
“The idea behind this spot was to capture a youthful energy and approach to life that is often lost in adulthood. In order to pull this off I studied the master of truth Errol Morris. I interviewed Ella Hubley (a surfer, not an actress) using some of his techniques. I found that being passive, but engaging, allowed Ella to get lost in her world and when this happens you get the gems. As Errol once said, “you couldn’t write this stuff.” And he is so right. The word “daredevil” has been missing from my vocabulary for twenty years. I did the interview on the beach, which I think helped her relax and the fact that the sound quality is not perfect perhaps makes the spot more believable.”

“Daredevil” was shot with a DVX100 through a fisheye lens. I liked the using the fisheye for this project because the spherical quality of the image lends itself to the global nature of the product. (Please take all this with a grain of salt.) The skateboarding was shot from a bicycle. I like the silhouette of the rollercoaster on the pier in the background. I think it reflects the magical nature of a kid’s imagination.”

“I made an effort to color the scenes to match the hot Firefox logo. The tag line changed several times, but I like the juxtaposition of this one. The music reminds me of something Ennio Morricone would write if he were an outlaw surfer. And one final note: Please remember it is much easier to make this stuff up after the fact.”

About the Vail Film Festival

This year’s festival screened 75 films from around the world, including 20 feature films, 16 world premieres, as well as 55 documentaries, short films, animated films, action sports, student films and television pilots.

“The Vail Film Festival promotes independent filmmaking, with a special focus on new and innovative filmmakers. Besides screenings, the festival also features workshops, seminars and panel discussions with award-winning actors, writers and directors. The Vail Film Festival is produced by the Vail Film Institute, a non-profit arts organization that is dedicated to fostering independent cinema and creative filmmaking.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 6th, 2006 at 7:39 pm and is filed under Firefox Flicks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.