Dr Pepper commercials are famous for their elaborate musical/dance numbers but this one–in the form of a spec spot from director Kerry Bellessa–has a certain finality to it. The spot opens on a young man in a post-apocalyptic, desert-like world, singing of how his parents are dead, a meteor torched his girlfriend and his dog lost its head.
Yet all is not lost as a reflection from below shines up on his face. Buried in the sand is the source of that reflection–an unopened can of Dr Pepper. Suddenly he and all those hapless folks around him are exuberant and they sing and dance in celebration of his having “the last Dr Pepper.”
He triumphantly takes a swig from the can as the Dr Pepper logo and slogan, “One Taste & You Get It,” are supered on screen to conclude the spot.
Bellessa not only directed the spec piece but conceived of it and wrote the lyrics to music composed by musician Aaron Watane who also handled the audio post mix. The DP was Bengt Jonsson.
Josh Oram, a freelance motion graphics artist, served as editor and visual effects artist.
Bellessa, an Art Center College of Design graduate several years ago, is seeking a commercial production house affiliation. This spot came about when he went to New Mexico last year to shoot a film he wrote. But three weeks before the scheduled start date, the rest of the funding didn’t come in. So he thought it might be fun to shoot a happy post-apocalyptic commercial, leading to this spec creation.
Supreme Court Seems Likely To Uphold A Law That Could Force TikTok To Shut Down On Jan. 19
The Supreme Court on Friday seemed likely to uphold a law that would ban TikTok in the United States beginning Jan. 19 unless the popular social media program is sold by its China-based parent company.
Hearing arguments in a momentous clash of free speech and national security concerns, the justices seemed persuaded by arguments that the national security threat posed by the company's connections to China override concerns about restricting the speech either of TikTok or its 170 million users in the United States.
Early in arguments that lasted more than two and a half hours, Chief Justice John Roberts identified his main concern: TikTok's ownership by China-based ByteDance and the parent company's requirement to cooperate with the Chinese government's intelligence operations.
If left in place, the law passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in April will require TikTok to "go dark" on Jan. 19, lawyer Noel Francisco told the justices on behalf of TikTok.
At the very least, Francisco urged, the justices should enter a temporary pause that would allow TikTok to keep operating. "We might be in a different world again" after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on TikTok, also has called for the deadline to be pushed back to give him time to negotiate a "political resolution." Francisco served as Trump's solicitor general in his first presidential term.
But it was not clear whether any justices would choose such a course. And only Justice Neil Gorsuch sounded like he would side with TikTok to find that the ban violates the Constitution.
Gorsuch labeled arguments advanced by the Biden administration' in defense of the law a... Read More