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Rejected Gametap TV Commercial (Mega64 Vault)
🕑 Added 2020-05-18 09:00:07 +0000 UTCOur run of TV commercials created for the video game service Gametap may carry our biggest ratio of "biggest opportunity" to "least desire to reminisce about." We had a long history with the Gametap service- when it was founded by Turner Broadcasting, we were among the first to be approached to provide video content for the service (which ultimately never happened due to disputes over ownership of the segments).
Years later, Gametap was sold to a different (French) company, who reached out to us once again in 2009- this time, to make a series of TV commercials to be aired on Adult Swim. We couldn't have been more excited for this project- we felt as though our years of doing promotional videos online had finally prepared us the big leagues: real commercials on actual TV! We were also told the president of Adult Swim would be reviewing them himself, which to us was a great foot in the door for maybe doing even more for the network in the future. We were absolutely determined to blow them away. In a fairly short timeframe, we wrote out a handful of the most insane commercial concepts ever- time travel, helicopters, clowns in a hockey rink, monsters destroying a grocery store- almost everything that has ever existed in the universe was in our pitches (and probably exploded at the end of them).
But when we submitted our ideas, only one particular concept caught their eye- a really simple one where some guy accidentally grabs a computer mouse at the same time as another guy. We thought it was (at the time) a funny, quiet "awkward" contrast to our other more explosive concepts. But the ad crew we worked with saw differently, and determined that ALL our commercials should be just like that one... essentially "awkward office moments." We couldn't believe that was the favored direction after all the effort and creativity we put into the other ideas, and it was kinda crushing. We were able to wiggle a couple of the other commercial concepts out of being inside an office, but the other two (out of four) were stuck there- the last of which was one we weren't particularly proud of.
We wrote a super quick "awkward office moment" because it was insisted upon, and just had Derrick awkwardly stare at our friend Nicole. They approved the first cut of all our other commercials, but we were told this one was simply too creepy. Nicole was one of our longtime friends so we didn't really think that way when we shot it, but watching it objectively we could see how it came off that way (especially back then at a time where we kinda weren't particularly aware of how things could be interpreted). We totally agreed and offered to recast Nicole with just one of the other guys here. However, they also insisted we replace Derrick. We couldn't get an answer why- and to this day, we don't know. But with the impending release of "Mega64 Version 3" looming and our desire to move onto finishing it growing more and more, we simply reshot it their way and moved on without ever looking back.
Comments
Amy Hua
This is amazing and even better with the context <3
0daze
The most recent one I can think of is the SNK 40th anniversary video that had her in it.
HHoney Software
hahahaha why would they reject this i fucking love this
Kevin
Is she nice?
Brad Dunford
i miss Nicole. best unofficial member
Mega64
We still do, but we’re a little more picky about doing them now since they take a lot of our time and we don’t rely on them as much as we used to. When something sounds cool, though, we’re in!
Evan Pappas
Thanks for writing all that context behind the video. Super interesting!
gmedley
I have a strong feeling that was implied....? Wild, but I love hearing these back stories, this patreon rocks keep it up
Adam N. A.
Is Nicole in any more recent videos? It's been a while.
vEisDe4d
Was this the one rejected because they may have been racist toward Derrick?
zeeco
Wow this was amazing, loved getting all the behind the scenes on it
Kevin Fermini
This was great! Love how in depth you went with the bts. I work at a commercial production studio and this stuff happens ALL the time. Was super cool and informative though to read about the whole process behind these weirdo ads — awesome work!
Metaleggman
Do you guys ever get asked about doing ads these days, or did that end back during the gametap/ubisoft era?
Troy Taylor
I still remember the first time I actually saw Mega64 was on an Adult Swim commercial, the one with Garrett in a coffin. It wouldn't be until the next year that I started following everything you guys do.
AJ Seabrook
oooo
