Tampa, Fla.- When HCC student Kaitlan Corsell and her boyfriend Saulo Zayas of Three Studios Media saw that the popular fan company, Big Ass Fans, was having a contest to make a commercial, they jumped at the opportunity. Shrouded in mystery, Zayas and Corsell created a commercial starring a donkey, catching the eye of the judges and winning them the $5,000 award.

  When the team of three sat down to brainstorm, their mission was clear. “We saw their marketing and their brand was pretty much laid back, their logo has this donkey and its a play on words,” Zayas said. “We really beat up a bunch of ideas, and the last one that came up was the one we went with. The donkey is the hero, it kicks down the door and brings the fan… We felt that that kind of quirky idea really translated well with their brand. Its obscure, but obscure enough that it fit their brand.”

  Once the idea was cemented, Zayas and Corsell set out to find the star of the commercial, the donkey. “It was funny because we were looking for a donkey, especially one so particular, well fed and groomed. It ended up being that we found the donkey first, before we even started to cast. It was actually easier to find the donkey than it was to find the people!” Zayas said with a laugh.

  Shooting with the donkey proved to be harder than they anticipated. The donkey was afraid of the green and blue screen, meaning that Zayas and Corsell had to “rotoscope” it, (they had to film the donkey and cut it out frame by frame). “It took about five production days to film the 30 seconds that we used,” Corsell said. “We definitely hustled.”

  When Zayas and Corsell thought of the color palate of the commercial, they wanted to make sure that the viewer could feel the heat. After making changes in post-editing, they were very satisfied by the end result. “We wanted to make a humourous type video, we did a lot of research on what’s popular right now, animals are very big right now. We wanted to make sure that we reached a little farther than what they were asking… We wanted it to look hot so that people will look at it and say ‘oh we need to buy a fan, its hot!’” Corsell said. “It was kind of a fun personal project.”

  The contest still remains fairly confidential, with only thumbnails of the finalists videos available to view. Contestants were unable to tell even their casting what company they were creating this commercial was for or why. “If Zoopa [the company conducting the contest] hasn’t made it public yet, there is a reason for it,” Zayas said. “We love getting to see our competition so that we can learn from it and so that we can kind of collaborate with them in the future,” he added.

  The future for Three Studios Media looks bright. With hope, this commercial is just the beginning of a working relationship with Zoopa. The media company also plans to participate in the Action Film Festival, where their film “Pawned” placed last year. For more information on Three Studios Media, visit www.ThreeStudiosMedia.com.