A camcorder home-movie style POV makes us privy to a juvenile prank as it unfolds before our eyes. But one good prank deserves another—and the retaliatory salvo turns the tables with considerably more firepower, making the original intended victim the one who gets the last laugh. Just as unexpected is the serious message this lighthearted slice of life delivers to its young target audience.
We open on a couple of teenage boys slinking down a hallway in a home. They sneak past the room of another boy, presumably their younger brother, who is playing a trombone. Stalking their unsuspecting prey, the two kids skulk back through the corridor and stealthily fire spitballs at the trombonist. Their mission yields a direct hit.
However, never mess with someone who can blow a mean horn. The trombonist proceeds to make his own spitball—but super sized. Rather than a small peashooter, his tool for launching a large wet wad of paper is his trombone. He then fires the huge saliva-soaked bomb into the hallway, covering the face of one of his assailants with an enormous soggy coating. It’s a disgusting sight. But there’s a real purpose to this measure of sweet revenge, as related in a series of end tag supers, the first being the question: "Want great lungs?"
This is followed by supered advice to "Be cigarette-smoke-tar-poison-phlegm-cancer-tobacco-FREE." The words appear in rapid-fire succession across the screen as each is spoken by a different male or female teenager. The sponsor of this message is also identified: The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi.
Titled "Spitball," the spot is one of eight in the "Free" campaign, which extends the Partnership’s longstanding statewide youth tobacco prevention education initiative into the areas of drug and alcohol use. Other ads address being "booze-" and "buzz-FREE."
"Spitball" is part of a campaign co-directed, shot and edited by Jim Smith and Philip Scarborough via Dollarhide Films, Jackson, Miss., for agency Maris, West & Baker, also in Jackson. Jim Dollarhide executive produced for Dollarhide Films.
The Maris, West & Baker creative team on "Spitball" consisted of creative director Eric Hughes, associate creative director/copywriter Marc Leffler, senior art director Keith Fraser and art director Chris Nolen.
Independent visual effects DP Eric Swenson worked on the job; he also served as post effects supervisor, working with a team at Amalgamated Pixels, Westlake Village, Calif., which consisted of executive producer Michael Morreale, president/head of production Derry Frost and digital artists/compositors Michael Uguccioni and Roger Mocenigo. Freelance computer animator/visual effects artist Matt Beale also did some compositing for the project. Audio post mixer was Sam Watson of Jackson-based Sound By Sam.
