Chicken Suit is a dark comedy about a man going on the run from a loan shark in order to protect his girlfriend from the disaster he's created. All while wearing a chicken suit.
It's a wild ride filled with scratch tickets, unconventional robberies, gas stations, road side make outs, fast food chicken, and the great American Southwest.
Winner of Best Comedy at the 2015 USC First Film Festival
Official Selection 2015 LA Shorts Fest
Official Selection 2015 Newfilmmakers LA Festival
Winner of Audience Award at 2015 Beijing Film Academy's Student Film Festival
Television Broadcast throughout Italy 2015 - 2018
Distribution through Exile Shorts
Starring: Daryl Crittenden, Chelsey Crisp, Ludwig Manukian, Bob Rumnock, Sigi Gradwohl
Writer & Director: AK Hottman
Producers: Chris Abernathy & Alan Miller
Executive Producers: Bob Hottman, Sharla Hottman & Mary Jean Hottman
Cinematographer: Jonathan Pope
Production Designer: Jamie Holt
Editor: Faroukh Virani
Sound Designer: Travis Laughlin
Casting: Kevin Mockrin, CSA & Karina Walters, CSA
Costume Designer: Amanda Wing Yee Lee
Original Music: Trevor Welch
Hair & Makeup: Cara Liedlich
1st AD: Alex Vazquez
© University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts 2013
Official Selection: LA Shorts Fest and NewFilmmakers LA
We were brought back on by Sterling Rice Group and Potatoes USA for their 2018 campaign, "Ordinary Turned Extraordinary." For this campaign we wanted to bring out the "Extraordinary" through fun, colorful characters, unique production design, and through fun and engaging "ah-ha" moments.
Client: U.S. Potato Board
Agency: Sterling Rice Group
Production Company: The Salt Brothers & Brand Nu House
Agency Producer: Rachael Thompson
Creative Director: Stephen Dalton
Art Director: Kay Borleis
Copywriter: Sasha Brusovanik
Group Account Director: Eric Friedman
Associate Marketing Specialist: Rose Stein
Client Global Marketing Manager: Sarah Reece
Client Assistant Marketing Manager: Renee O'Brien
Client Director of Marketing: Kim Breshears
Writer & Director: AK Hottman
Producer: Tony Castle
Cinematographer: Benjamin Garst
Production Designer: Roxy Hunt
Assistant Camera: Jameson Walter
Gaffer: Dean Harbour
Hair & Makeup: Thomas Median
Colorist: Benjamin Garst
We were brought on by our friends at New Belgium brewing to create three :15-second spots for their social media accounts in order to promote their 2016 Lost in the Woods party, the annual party in which they release their new sour beers for the year.
The objective was to come up with three spots that fit into the theme of the year's party: an ethereal, experimental, outer-spaced theme.
The original intended outlet for these spots was Instagram. We wanted to utilize Instagram's video loop feature and create stories that could loop endlessly. We thought it would be fun to experiment with a never-ending loop, in order to really drive home that ethereal, magical sensation, as if you were being sucked further and further in. The versions you'll see here only loop two times, but if you use your imagination, you can see them looping forever. And ever. And ever.
Client: New Belgium Brewing
Production Company: The Salt Brothers
Creative Director: Melyssa Mead
Brand Manager: Nora McCombs
Director & Producer: AK Hottman
Cinematographer: Zack Haskell
Original Music: Nik Freitas
We were brought on by our friends at Sterling Rice Group to help bring to life these three pre-roll spots for the Potatoes USA and Potato Goodness. We were able to exceed SRG and the Potatoes USA's expectations by utilizing engaging and interesting visuals, as well as delivering voice performances that not only capture the uniquely colorful characters but that nail the comedic timing.
Client: U.S. Potato Board
Agency: Sterling Rice Group
Production Company: The Salt Brothers
Group Creative Director: Jeff Curry
Managing Director / Partner: Sheila Rosen
Creative Director: Dan Madole
Associate Creative Director: Patrick Campbell
Copywriter: Kyle Patrick
Art Director: Kinsey Travitz
Senior Producer: Bret Berman
Director & Producer: AK Hottman
Cinematographer: Zack Haskell
Colorist: Paul Sage
We were brought on by our friends at New Belgium Brewing to create this spot! We needed to come up with a fairly simple narrative told through stop-motion photographs that centers on the Snapshot bottle as the hero. We hope you enjoy our colorful adventure!
Client: New Belgium Brewing
Production Company: The Salt Brothers
Creative Director: Melyssa Mead
Brand Manager: Nora McCombs, Adrian Glasenapp
Digital & Media Manager: Kevin Darst
Director & Producer: AK Hottman
Original Music: Nic Turiciano
For this project we were brought on by the Boulder-based agency, Sterling Rice Group, to create these three spots for Punch Bowl Social's social media outlets. The original concept was simply to show an individual placing a record on a turntable and then through a series of reveals, show the entree now rotating on the turntable.
We had the idea of infusing a little more of a narrative as our characters toss out their old, gnarly sounding record, and settle in to listen to something a little more appealing. We wanted to accentuate each cut with a pop-zoom and an exaggerated sound effect in order to really drive home the fun energy of Punch Bowl Social. Then we slowed down on the key moments. We hope you enjoy!
Client: Punch Bowl Social
Agency: Sterling Rice Group
Production Company: The Salt Brothers
Group Creative Director: Jeff Curry
Managing Director / Partner: Sheila Rosen
Associate Creative Director / Copywriter: Miguel Hernandez
Senior Art Director: Ben Spiking
Senior Producer: Bret Berman
Senior Account Manager: Kelly Ives
Director & Producer: AK Hottman
Cinematographer: Ben Garst
Gaffer: Jeremy Gee
We were hired to produce a series for CNN Money, titled "Ahead: Retire Your Way."
The concept was to find and tell stories about individuals who have an amazing retirement story, whether it be sailing the world, moving to a coffee farm in Costa Rica, or jumping out of airplanes. We were lucky to travel all over and meet with some incredible people to tell their stories.
The series premiered on CNN Money's Website as well as several broadcast dates. Episodes air as they are released each week on CNN's "New Day." CNN is also dedicating a 30-minute time-slot to air all seven episodes back-to-back on their Saturday morning show in early May.
We hope you enjoy this 7-part docu-series produced alongside our friends at BFD Productions.
"Sneeze" was created as a spec piece.
For this particular commercial, we wanted to tell a simple, clearly-defined story that culminated to one specific joke. We also wanted to play off the idea of misinformation and miscommunication, something that is so relatable in daily interaction and something that can be so humorous, especially to an outsider looking in. I (AK) for one am always finding myself in situations where there is confusion over what exactly was said. This is that same idea but even more simplified to a single sneeze.
From there we thought it would be a lot of fun to up the stakes by setting the story as a first date in a classy, high-end restaurant.
"Paint Fight" was created for the Dorito's Crash The Superbowl and while it did not make it to the Top 5, we did receive a great deal of press and recognition for our spot.
We wanted to take the main tenants of so many Superbowl commercials; from physical humor, to fast action, to simple jokes, and create something that was very unique and specific to us. All of this leading up to a single moment of humorous misinterpretation.
The characters are also near and dear to our hearts; with our silly, sloppy, Dorito's loving villain and our overly-serious, perfectly organized, Dorito's loving artist.
We wanted to capture the essence of The Salt Brothers in a way that was simple, unique, and delightfully tasty in it's characterization of our own brand. We wanted to communicate that we're a fun team that loves simple stories with refreshing characters.
Instead of creating a talking-head piece about who we are and what we do, we figured we would do what we do best. Create a visual story that's driven solely by an interesting character in an interesting environment with an interesting situation. With this piece, we weren't aiming to tell the world what we do, but instead who we are: lovers of all things salty.
We hope you enjoy this little piece starring our friend and character extraordinaire, Rocko Wheeler.
We worked closely with K2 Sports on a fun new campaign titled SkiHab! Featuring K2's one-and-only DJ Mullet as Ski-habilitation specialist Dr. DJ Mullet, he is out to help those who are recovering from outdated ski gear and ski equipment.
We delivered a short film as well as nine 15 second teaser videos for use across all social media platforms. The campaign is aimed to get skiers to submit their friends and family for the "Ski-Hab" program where the individual who is struggling with outdated ski equipment will be given a brand new K2 Skis set up thanks to Dr. DJ Mullet!
For this particular campaign we worked incredibly close with K2 in order to help develop, produce, and ultimately deliver a final product that far surpassed their expectations.
Keep an eye out for more teasers to be released throughout the month of October!
We worked closely with K2 Sports to create two unique videos for their 2015 Digital Catalogue. These videos will serve as the "home page" for two of their sections within their digital catalogue. Rather than creating a traditional catalogue with traditional images, K2 wanted to have several small visual stories for the catalogue that break the mold of what you might typically find in a ski catalogue. As opposed to skis, snowboards and snow bunnies, we used everything from dinosaurs to sexy music and from miniature cars to a candle-lit shower.
We worked with our friends at Sterling Rice Group to produce this holiday video for the Almond Board of California.
They wanted a culinary time-lapse piece to showcase all of the ways in which almonds can be used to decorate a gingerbread house. Rather than just simply having a one camera set-up to capture the entire experience in exact chronological order, we decided to use lots of slow, steady camera moves and specific editing techniques in order to give the piece a somewhat narrative structure - building to the final climactic moment when the final pieces are added and the house is complete. We hope you enjoy and that it puts you in the holiday spirit!
We went with Fast Company reporter Mark Wilson on an inside look into how the creative process at Taco Bell works.
This short episode is sure to make you laugh as you'll follow the overly-ambitious Mark through everyone's favorite Mexican fast-food restaurant.
We also created a 15 second teaser for Facebook and Instagram to garner up even more interest!
To read the Fast Company article and view the post on Fast Company's site, click here!
We worked with our good friends at BFD NYC to create a web series for Fast Company Magazine titled, "Who's Next."
We wanted to approach this series in a way that was completely different from the other content that Fast Company was producing. We wanted to tell stories about entrepreneurs that centered not only around the individual's business, but primarily we wanted the stories to center around the entrepreneurs personal life. We aimed to show how each individual's up bringing and life-decisions led them to a place of passion, and that their business was not only born out of an interest, but that their business is truly an extension of who they are as people through their struggles and choices.
We wanted to then layer these stories with beautifully composed interviews, colorful and exciting animation, and a tasteful collection of b-roll and found footage.
O'Gara Coach is a luxury car dealership that sells everything from Lamborghini to Aston Martin and from Bugatti to Bentley. If you want to buy a luxury vehicle in the Los Angeles area, odds are you're going to go to O'Gara Coach.
As such, we wanted to create video content that not only showcased the beauty of the vehicle itself, but that also exemplified the lifestyle. We wanted to create something that was sexy and sleek. It's easy to search the internet for an image of a Lamborghini but we wanted to give the audience an experience.
We wanted to create images that were almost jarring in their stark contrast: cutting from a very opaque, white image, to a very dark, black image. We also wanted to create a narrative structure that escalated to the most dramatic shot within the piece: a beautiful crane shot that carries us from an overhead, exterior shot down into the actual driver's seat. For the first time in the piece the audience is not only inside the car, but they're now placed directly into the driver's seat.
For "Hope" we wanted to create a music video that not only exemplified the themes of the song but that also exemplified the style and structure of the song itself.
In regards to the structure, we wanted to showcase the difference between the down-tempo verses and the up-tempo choruses. The best way to accomplish this we felt was to incorporate the use of slow-motion, over-cranked scenes for the verses and fast-cut, fast-shuttered photography for the choruses.
In regards to the content itself, the obvious theme of the song was "hope." We wanted to explore this idea through the eyes of a child, as there is no one more hopeful than a child. However, every story needs drama. So, from there we decided to create this tension between the bullies and the long-ranger-type hero.
All of this set in a fun, beautiful, Lord of the Flies type setting. Perfect for a cinematic story.