Student film rises to top of Firefox Flicks contest

Photo courtesy of Jeff Gill
The able hands of the members of 2205 Productions pose with the Firefox Flicks award they received for their film “Wheee!”

By: Jennifer Long

Published: Friday, May 12, 2006

Amid fierce competition, a commercial produced by four Savannah College of Art and Design students placed second in a worldwide contest run by Web-browser giant Firefox and has taken the Internet by storm with its quirky, contagious humor.

The commercial was created by 2205 Productions, which includes animation juniors Jeff Gill, Will Patrick and Stuart Keenan and film and television junior Andrew Marshall. They submitted their short-film entry “Wheee!” to the Firefox Flicks Ad Contest, a competition asking entrants to create a 30-second live-action or animated advertisement promoting Mozilla’s Firefox brand to Web users. Their entry won second place out of almost 300 submissions from around the globe.

Before the competition even ended, “Wheee!” hit the Internet and garnered hundreds of thousands of hits on various Web sites, including www.ifilm.com, www.you¬tube.com and www.fark.com. “It got amazing amounts of views,” said Gill. “Ours was never featured on the Firefox Flicks main page, but it quickly became one of the most popular ones, highest voted, most voted, most commented on.”

The attention “Wheee!” received came as a surprise to the SCAD students. “It was great to see that the commercial was so well-received,” said Keenan. “It is my first time being a part of something that became so big so fast. All of us were pleased that so many people had seen our ad and that Firefox liked it as well.”

“I don’t think I really expected it to get that much attention so quickly,” Patrick said. “It was pretty satisfying to see something I worked on get such a massive response.”

“I think we were all a bit shocked,” said Marshall. “We have a couple of other things floating around the Internet, but nothing like the avalanche of views that ‘Wheee!’ received. When we found out we got into the finals, we all did a group jumping high-five and froze in mid-air while ’80s rock played. I think that’s the best way to explain our reaction to the news.”

The Firefox Flicks competition was judged by a number of highly visible film, television and music professionals, including cinematographer Jim Denault; StrawberryFrog founder Scott Goodson; producer and director McG; actor Freddy Rodriguez; music video director Geo Santini; writer and director Ben Younger; and producer Warren Zide.

After deliberations, a Firefox Flicks representative called the SCAD students and informed them that “Wheee!” was one of the top five entries. An awards ceremony was held April 26-28 in San Francisco in conjunction with the San Francisco International Film Festival, and Gill was flown in to take part in the event.

He met with the four other top contestants, three of whom work in the industry, and one other student. The Firefox events included a panel discussion on advertising on the Web, an awards ceremony during which the top five entries were aired, and an evening gala. Gill also attended some of the film festival screenings and events, including a showing of the comedy “Art School Confidential.”

In addition to the glory of having their video spread to thousands of Internet users daily, 2205 Productions won a 9X Media triple LCD multiscreen display. The finalists’ videos also will be used in Mozilla’s 2006 marketing activities.

Another reward of the competition, said Keenan, was simply the opportunity to work on a project with his friends. “The commercial was just fun to do,” he said. “The four of us have been living together for a couple years now and it is always a fun time when we get to collaborate on something.”

The others agreed. “The process of making things in our room and working on projects together is always a lot of fun,” said Patrick. “Nothing beats the process of solving problem after problem among the four of us and getting it done in the quickest, cheapest and most backwards way possible. It’s a lot more about making each other laugh than anything else.”

Keenan felt the collaborative nature of the project should prepare him for future ventures. “Coming together to make something as a group and everyone doing their part to contribute, it’s always helpful to work as such, because that is how it is in the animation industry,” he said.

“The best part about making the commercial was experiencing the amazing creative relationship that our team has developed,” said Marshall. “We all bring something a little different to the table, and figuring out how to mesh those different creative inputs into one solid end product is the most rewarding part of the whole thing for me.”

To view “Wheee!,” visit www.firefoxflicks.com/flick/?id=19542.


Long is a publications editor.