Alaskan governor and proud hockey mom/hunter Sarah Palin may be able to take down a 900-pound moose, but she is no match for Terry Tate in the spot “Reading Is Fundamental.”
Yup, he’s back.
The office linebacker became a cultural phenomenon after appearing in “Terry Tate: Office Linebacker,” a 2003 Reebok Super Bowl commercial out of New York’s The Arnell Group directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, who created the character. Now, Terry Tate, who tackled anyone who didn’t follow office policy back in the day, is an enforcer once again in three funny spots made to encourage people to exercise their right to vote.
There wasn’t an advertising agency or even a client involved in the nonpartisan campaign, by the way.
Thurber and producer Jason Ajax Mercer made the spots through Los Angeles-based Time Traveler Films, shelling out their own cash to fund the project and calling in favors from various friends. (Incidentally, Thurber is represented for commercials by bicoastal Sandwick, an affiliate company of Crossroads.)
Republican vice presidential candidate Palin is tackled by Terry Tate in two spots, including “Reading Is Fundamental,” which has been chosen as this week’s SHOOT Top Spot.
Running just over one minute, the commercial opens with footage from an interview that CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric did with Palin in September. We’ve all seen or heard about it–Couric asks Palin to name some of the publications that she reads regularly to keep up with current events, and Palin just won’t get specific.
“I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media,” Palin responds.
Asked again by Couric to name some of the publications she reads, Palin says, “Um, all of them. Any of them that have been in front of me all these years.”
“Can you name a few?” queries Couric, pressing on.
Palin continues to refuse for whatever reason to single out any magazines or newspapers that she reads when all of a sudden Terry Tate tackles her and knocks her to the ground.
“How’s that for drill, baby, drill? You just subscribed to Terry’s Journal of Pain, and the first issue’s free, baby!” Terry Tate declares, exiting the scene with a friendly hello for Couric.
Viewers are then directed to visit maps.google.com/vote to find the location of the polling place where they can vote on November 4.
Football strategy“Palin isn’t getting tackled for her politics. She’s getting tackled for being evasive,” Mercer pointed out. “In Terry Tate’s world, he is there to correct wrongs, so if you don’t refill the coffee pot, you get tackled. If you get asked a question, and you don’t answer it, you get tackled.”
Of course, Palin doesn’t really get tackled in the spot. Rather footage from her interview with Couric was married with footage of Terry Tate taking down a fearless stunt double named Janene Carleton.
Thurber and DP Eric Haase, who worked on the original Terry Tate commercials for Reebok, shot the stunt at Big Picture Soundstage in Burbank, Calif.
Mercer, who also worked on the original Terry Tate spots, admitted that even now he cringes when he sees the actors and stunt people used in the commercials take a hit from Lester “Rasta” Speight, who plays Terry Tate.
“You usually can’t do the hit more than once with an actor because they’ll be up for it, and they’ll do it, but their body language changes after the first tackle, and you can see they’re anticipating the hit,” Mercer said. “No matter how hard they try, you can see it. They’ll start closing their eyes and balling up their fists in the second take.”
Carleton, Palin’s double, took her hit like a pro, Mercer praised.
VFX challenge It was then up to Elad Offer, creative director/lead Flame artist at Los Angeles-based visual effects shop Digit, to marry the footage of the Couric/Palin interview with the newly shot tackle footage.
Offer had also worked on the Terry Tate campaign a few years ago. “The original Terry Tate spots took very little work from a visual effects perspective because most of the stuff was done for real,” Offer said. “But this was a lot more complicated to achieve because we had to make everything match and feel like one continuous shot.”
Normally, Offer would divvy up the work on a job like this, but due to time constraints, he did everything himself–from rotoscoping to compositing–in about a day and a half.
Editor Lance Pereira of Chrome Editorial in Santa Monica, Calif. cut the spot.
The results are impressive. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think Terry Tate had actually tackled the real Palin.
Some people have been fooled, complaining on the YouTube message boards that Terry Tate owes Palin an apology, Mercer shared.
While “Reading Is Fundamental” and another Palin spot titled “From Russia With Love” were posted on YouTube.com, the third commerial in the campaign, “Terry Votes,” can be seen on Funnyordie.com.
All three spots are also posted on Returnofterrytate.com.
You’ve got to wonder what Palin and the members of her camp think of the spots. For his part, Mercer thinks Palin would find the commercials funny. “She’s got a great sense of humor,” he said, noting, “She’s been on Saturday Night Live.”