By Robert Goldrich

This spec public service spot puts us out on the street–actually on busy city streets and sidewalks. We see a woman and a young child pushing a stroller and about to step off a sidewalk into a crosswalk. Subsequent scenes show assorted pedestrians making their way through town, walking across heavily trafficked intersections.

This slice of urban life doesn’t seem all that out of the ordinary. But this mundane daytime commute takes an extraordinary turn when a female voiceover relates, “Every day, three thousand Americans start smoking.”

Suddenly, the vehicles are seen zipping past the crosswalks a little faster and coming dangerously close to the pedestrians. Cars speed in-between the people, who continue to try to make their way across busy rush-hour streets.

The voiceover continues, noting that a third of those Americans who begin smoking “will die from it.”

At that point, a car hits a pedestrian with an impact that appears fatal. Another vehicle runs over yet another person. Quick snippets showing stunned onlookers are interspersed with the horrifying accidents.

The voiceover concludes with the rhetorical question, “How do you like the odds?” We then see more pedestrians become victims to onrushing cars, the people paralleling those smokers who succumb to cancer and other tobacco-related illnesses.

The spot concludes with the logo of the American Lung Association against a black backdrop.

Titled “Odds,” this gritty, high-impact PSA was directed and co-written by Paul Santana on spec. His producer and writing partner was Steven Gould. Santana and Gould have teamed regularly over the years on a mix of spec and real-world projects. The DP on “Odds” was Greg Daniels.

Santana–who is currently seeking a new production house roost after recently parting ways with Hollywood-based ka-chew!–deployed a mix of CG and live action to depict people being run over by cars. The piece was shot with a handheld DV camera to lend to the realism of the scenes and help make the effects seamless.

Additionally, Santana handled post effects and CG, compositing all the shots on an Apple Mac. Only a few of the pedrestrians seen were hired extras, with the rest being real people on the street. This made editing a challenge since there were no repeatable takes. The editor was Los Angeles-based freelancer Tod Modisett. Sound designer/post audio mixer was Marc Levisohn of Big Ears, Santa Monica.

The spec :30 was finished last month, after shooting took place in December.  “Odds” was produced on a shoestring budget, made independently through the collaboration between Santana and Gould.

Santana has steadily come up through the industry ranks. He served in such capacities as visual effects supervisor, camera operator and first assistant cameraman on features, commercials and music videos before making the transition to director, securing his first production company affiliation, ka-chew!, in late 2003. Now “Odds” is helping to generate a buzz that has started to elicit interest from others in the production house community.

    Besides his practical filmmaking experience, Santana benefited from a formal education in advertising, design and photography at the Brooks Institute of Photography and Motion Pictures, Santa Barbara, Calif.

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