Up-and-coming GCC filmmaker Nicholas Weber, 20, entered an online video contest called the Doritos Challenge, in which the winning commercial could bag more than $2 million if voted the most popular to air during the Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 6, 2011.

“It’s exciting,” said media arts Professor Mike Petros. “I’ve looked at some of the other entries, and (Weber’s Rabble House) has a good shot. I wasn’t impressed with anything else I saw.” Rabble House is the production team name.

Due to the enormous TV audience, Super Bowl advertising spots for commercials are typically the most valuable of the year, costing as much as $2.6 million for a 30-second spot.

This year’s game will be played at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, pitting the AFC (American Football Conference) champions against the NFC (National Football League) champions.

Weber produced and directed his 30-second entry, which can be viewed on the Doritos website, crashthesuperbowl.com, by typing in the gallery title, “art crasher version 3.”
Judges will pick the top five videos based on creativity and overall appeal. Online voting begins on Jan. 3, 2011 and ends on Jan. 30 at midnight.

“What I see in Nick is a drive to succeed in (filmmaking),” said Petros. “Talent is important. But more important is drive – a drive to keep doing it.”

There’s a language – a cinematic language that we’ve gotten used to over the last 100 years of watching films, said Petros. “If you learn those things, you learn to tell the stories the way you want – how to communicate the emotion and say what you want to say.”

A graduate of Burbank High School, Weber has been making films for four years – two years before college and two years while at GCC.

“So long as I’m making these films, these commercials, and music videos – I’m pretty much happy,” said Weber. “I love the Media Arts Department here [at GCC]. It’s probably one of the best-kept secrets.”

GCC’s film program is tucked away in the Media Arts Department under the guise of TV production, videography, and visual arts.

“I’ve made about 100 short films so far if you ask my girlfriend,” said Weber. “If you ask me, I’ve made about 60.”

Beside commercials and music videos, his demo reel comprises narrative short-films, public service announcements, and experimental videos.

Of course, these are mostly what Weber calls “just practicing.” He’s been trying to put together a feature film for about a year now. It’s a comedy about a kid who tries to make a YouTube video, and everything goes wrong, he said.

For the feature, Weber has already talked to actors and crew and said, “Hey, I’m not even going to be able to feed you this time. We’re going to make it as cheap as we can.” And they all said, “We’re totally fine.”

They believe it could be their big break.
Weber produces his videos as economically as he can. “I have my own camera, my own editing station, and whatever I don’t have, I find people that do have,” he said.

Weber is currently the president of the GCC film club, which has made it easy for him to find students from GCC and Burbank High eager to volunteer for the crew. “They’re willing to learn how to be on set, and I’ve got a considerable amount of experience,” he said.

In his Doritos commercial entry, Weber said, “A man crashes an art gallery, gets tackled, and unwillingly shares his Doritos.”

While enjoying very crunchy chips to classical music, the disruptive young man carrying a “do not enter” sign, is rolled by a security guard causing three perfect Doritos chips to float into the possession of a gleeful young woman, who looks around before she enjoys one mischievously.

“When we did the Doritos set-up, we were rigging props with duct tape trying to get things to stand up off a three-story building,” Weber said.

For the tackle scene, everyone wanted to see the hit, so as soon as they heard it was happening, they wanted to jump in on the action and have some fun, said Weber.

“By the 20th take all the chips landed on the ground and we had to pick them up to put them back in the bag until there were only crumbs,” he said. The take he finally used was one of the last ones, but it didn’t matter; the tackle happened so fast that it was impossible to tell they were mostly morsels.

Weber cut to an animation of three perfect looking chips to set up the final scene.
“You definitely have to know how to act because then you can know how to talk to everyone -actors, grips, editors in their own terms,” he said adamantly as he prepared to do anything that needed to be done such as lighting, editing, color correction, and special effects.

According to media arts lab instructional technician Ryun Hovind, Weber used an interesting technique to animate the 3D angle of the set of three Doritos chips, almost like the effect in the movie “The Matrix.” He taped off grids, put the set of chips on a Lazy Susan, took a picture, moved it, took another picture, and then moved it again until he had gone all the way around, so that he had a 360 [degree] clip of the Doritos chips.

Other GCC students on hand for the production consisted of Alan Legrady, assistant director and assistant producer; Jordan Miller, the audio engineer; and a sizeable cast and crew.

“I cast and crew all of my films off of Facebook,” said Weber.

But not every volunteer is picked automatically, he said. The lead guy for the commercial was an aspiring young actor who had just arrived in L.A. and happened to be Weber’s long-lost cousin, Justin Price. But Weber did not bring him on the set until he had been interviewed to verify that he was a good fit for the role and a good fit on the set.

Several of GCC’s well-known actors were cast in the ad among others. The security guard was played by Jess Collette; Jenny Pacelli was the fluky one that eats the Dorito; the art snobs from right to left were Travis Riner, firefighter; Julie Belknap, blonde; Khoa Nguyen, Asian; and Sonia Jackson, African American.

“We run our sets pretty professionally,” said Weber. “That’s how we get people to keep coming back. People like working.”

Weber’s speech and debate teacher, Ira Heffler, who is a published screen writer, said, “Pursue your dreams because that’s what it’s really all about. Whether it’s speech or whether it’s filmmaking – that’s why we’re here – to help the students accomplish all that they can. I’m real proud of Nick.”

Provided his ad gets enough votes to get on the air, Super Bowl XLV 2011 should have the whole GCC community glued to its flat-screens, rooting for their own Nicholas Weber.

If he wins the contest, Weber is planning to use the money to pay his way through film school, namely the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

If he loses the contest, it’s “on with the next project.” Weber’s found that by talking with just about anyone in the industry that, “you don’t need to have a degree. You don’t need to have a college education. What you need is experience.”

how to act because then you can know how to talk to everyone – actors, grips, editors in their own terms,” he said as he prepared to do anything that needed to be done, such as lighting, editing, color correction, and special effects.

According to media arts lab instructional technician Ryun Hovind, Weber used an interesting technique to animate the 3D angle of the set of three Doritos chips, almost like the effect in the movie “The Matrix.”

He taped off grids, put the trio of chips on a Lazy Susan, took a picture, moved it, took another picture, and then moved it again until he had gone all the way around, so that he had a 360 [degree] clip of the Doritos chips.

Other GCC students on hand for the production included Alan Legrady, the assistant director and assistant producer; Jordan Miller, the audio engineer; and a sizeable cast and crew. “I cast and crew all of my films off of Facebook,” said Weber.

But not every volunteer is picked automatically, he said. The lead guy for the commercial was an aspiring young actor who had just arrived in L.A. and happened to be Weber’s long-lost cousin, Justin Price. But Weber did not bring him on the set until he had been interviewed to verify that he was a good fit for the role and a good fit on the set.

Several soon-to-be well-known arctors are cast in the ad. The security guard is played by Jess Collette; Jenny Pacelli is the cute young woman who eats the Dorito; and the art snobs are Travis Riner, Julie Belknap, Khoa Nguyen and Sonia Jackson.
“We run our sets pretty professionally,” said Weber. “That’s how we get people to keep coming back. People like working.”

Weber’s speech and debate teacher, Ira Heffler, who is a published screenwriter, said, “Pursue your dreams because that’s what it’s really all about. Whether it’s speech or whether it’s filmmaking – that’s why we’re here – to help the students accomplish all that they can. I’m real proud of Nick.”

Provided his ad gets enough votes to get on the air, Super Bowl XLV 2011 should have the whole GCC community glued to its flat-screens, rooting for their own Nicholas Weber.

If he wins the contest, Weber is planning to use the money to pay his way through film school, namely the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

If he loses the contest, it’s “on with the next project.” Weber has found that by talking with just about anyone in the industry that, “you don’t need to have a degree. You don’t need to have a college education. What you need is experience.”