Well, we survived our Renton Redneck video shoot! The ads are busily being edited, but I thought I would post a few pictures from the shoot.

The fabulous and terrific Elizabeth Ogle scouted the most amazingly appropriate location that could not have been closer to my original ad comp. When I first showed her the below comp, she was like “hey! I know a place that looks like that!” Here’s a reminder of what we started with:

And what we ended up with:

The original idea was to have a guy and a girl who were playing a couple, but our female actor had another commitment. We thought we would have to settle for one guy for the shoot, but we found him a buddy!

The video is hilarious and I couldn’t stop laughing while we were shooting. What a fun time we had.

For now, feast your eyes upon a few stills… video to come soon enough!

I heard this morning during the Bob Rivers show that the Almost Live folks are back with a show called The 206, which features a sketch called “Renton Abbey”. In keeping with the Almost Live tradition of butchering the hell out of a joke, these are sort of gross and not very funny. However, I decided to include a couple of them here, as it shows the set decoration I hope to achieve with Renton campaign. I pray to the heavenly Gods that my videos will be funnier than this.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQBb1wXzbBY&w=560&h=315]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALIBNmYiRyo&w=560&h=315]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awwT9zA0BHM&w=560&h=315]

We will begin shooting video as well as still shots this weekend. I am looking forward to seeing the results!!

I am happy with how this project is developing! I have secured a photographer, Elizabeth Ogle, who is very excited to be contributing to this project. I wanted to collaborate with her because of her use of bright colors, animated, gestural poses and most importantly, humor in her portfolio (www.elizabethogle.com). And since humor is at the core of my concept, I knew that I needed a photographer who understands the joke. Luckily for me, she accepted the challenge!

Elizabeth and I met last Saturday morning at a cute little coffee shop in old downtown Renton (Common Ground Coffee & Cupcakes), and I shared my ideas with her for the photo shoot as well as the video. We battled the blustery weather over to the museum and met some of the people who work there, who are always super friendly and full of wonderful information. We drove around and did a little location scouting afterward and I took her to the Cedar River to see the salmon spawning.

Turns out, Elizabeth knows some people who might be interested in acting in the video and being models for the shoot. They are unemployed and keen to be compensated with six packs of PBR tall-boys. We have requested their participation and are awaiting their reply.

Here are some further refinements of the ads for the Renton campaign, with some comps of what they would look like in actual advertising scenarios.

The video component of this project would consist of 2-3 short, 30 second television commercials, which would air on JoeTV in the evening from 6-8pm alongside Vern Fonk, The Jewelry Exchange and other local commercials. The ads would show the beauty of Renton, juxtaposed with the humorous perception that people have of the community. The interviewer would be off-camera, asking the actors questions about the history of Renton and the Renton History Museum, and the actors would reply with ridiculously inaccurate responses. This is my rather simplistic storyboard for the concept of the ad.

We won’t likely be able to start shooting for another week or so, but we are both chomping at the bit to get started on this. I think the outcome will be hilarious.

Here is my mood board for the my promotional campaign for the City of Renton.

We did our initial planning shoot today and I got some video (the audio isn’t good, but it’s pretty funny and captures where I would like to go with this project):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYrEIyB2nkQ&w=420&h=315]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mgaLe94ZZk&w=420&h=315]

I would love to do a short TV ad, as well as a poster campaign. I am not sure about the third piece yet. I have a photographer lined out who is very excited to work on this project.

And here is my initial shot at layout: