A New Commercial I Wrote

He's gone to the dark side now

Writing commercials, it turns out, is a lot like writing articles. Except that they’re a lot shorter and the conclusion is always the product you’re selling. But, other than that, it’s pretty much the same deal. Find a hook, build tension, resolve tension.

I had the opportunity to co-write MUD\WTR’s :mushroom boost commercial along with the very talented (and I’m not just saying that) Chris Keener. He’s the head of Mud\Films and you can listen to the podcast we did together here. One of the bigger lessons I gleaned from this little foray into film, (besides how much more money there is, I mean Jesus), was that writing for the screen allows things to be seen but not said. An actor can literally point at a mushroom and the viewer knows what she means. She doesn’t need to say, “Look, a mushroom!” and if she did, it would probably sound superfluous. This might be obvious to an avid Netflix-goer like you, but when you come from the world of a blank page and a 1997 Ford RV with no TV, words are your only tools. Film gives you words and a camera.

Scene two: Authors’ head explodes.

It was a fun new medium to try out. Below is the final commercial as well as the script we wrote. Of course, writing a nice comment in the YouTube thread is appreciated, if you dare venture into that serpents’ pit.

Thanks for your time and attention, I don’t take it for granted.

Kyle