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THE LION & UNICORN
In the spring of 2002, we found out that a local comic book store wanted to advertise with us. As luck would have it, the production department featured more than one comic fan. Fellow producer George Little actually owned a competing comic book store for several years, so he and I handled the pitch meeting and offered several ideas.
The very initial concept gets lost, I think. We tried to show the store as a place where superheroes and other odd characters hang out, much like the athletes hanging around the ESPN studios in their promos. This doesn't get conveyed very well, but it explains the vampire visible in the background of a couple of shots.
This was not originally my project. George was going to produce this spot and if I recall correctly, he did storyboard it and shoot it, so I cannot take credit (or blame!!) for the footage. But I ended up cutting this together in post-production because George went on vacation or something, so the comic-style graphics are a part of my contribution, as is the ghosting effect I discovered in post used to provide the illusion of superspeed. The sound effects were all done by yours truly, just using my mouth. The opening special effect was achieved by locking down the camera and shooting the background action in one pass and the foreground action in another. In post, I simply dissolved between the two shots. Since there was no change in the camera position, the background players seem to magically disappear as the hero whizzes by. The shot of the girl laughing is genuine, it happened to get captured by my camera between takes.
I wasn't supposed to star in this commercial, but when it came time to shoot, our lead actor chickened out and didn't want to put the costume on in public. So I fearlessly jumped right in there, put on the thermal underwear and aluminum foil and did my best to ham it up. I was a little embarrassed at first but soon got into it. What was funny was that actual customers were entering the store with no clue we were shooting a spot and I would immediately greet them, in character, with a grandiose "Greetings, citizen!". When I told one departing customer to remember to buckle for safety, he returned with a salute! As you might imagine, we had a BLAST making this spot.
Look quick for a cameo appearance of Marvel's AVENGERS comic series! I did another version of this spot using the theme music from the classic Batman TV show, and it worked much better, but I wasn't allowed to use it for legal reasons.
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