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Since high
school, St. Louis natives Nathan Brown and Geoff Pilkington
have shared a passion for filmmaking. In high school, the two
collaborated on several films including a documentary, a narrative
short film and a feature-length screenplay. Soon before graduation,
the two discovered the strong writing abilities of their classmate
Joseph Ackerman. They recognized his talents and knew his abilities
could take their creative endeavors to new levels. The summer
before their freshman year of college, Joe, Nathan and Geoff
made a commitment to continue pursuing film projects in college
under the name of Rouse Productions.
That Fall
Joe and Nathan left St. Louis to attend college at the University
of Illinois while Geoff headed to North Carolina to study theatre
at Elon University. As Geoff developed his craft as an actor
at Elon, Joe and Nathan worked together at the University of
Illinois developing short films and later television commercial
concepts, creating their first speculation television commercial
for an advertising class at the University of Illinois. Geoff
even made it out to Illinois to act as a lead in the commercial.
Joe and
Nathan decided to focus on advertising concepts over their Christmas
break and the spring semester of their freshman year. In January
the two set a goal to sell some of their newly developed advertising
concepts to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Geoff stepped up and made
a contact with the Midwest marketing director of Krispy Kreme
and scheduled a meeting. Joe and Nathan met once a week for
two months brainstorming hundreds of television commercial concepts
for Krispy Kreme. Over their spring break Joe, Nathan and Geoff
presented their ideas to Krispy Kreme. Although not interested
in television advertising, Joe and Nathan were hired to develop
radio and print advertising for the company. Geoff was offered
an internship that summer with Krispy Kreme, where he assisted
the director of marketing. The three could now consider themselves
professionals, at least for the summer.
Over the
next two years the three would go on to produce two short films,
the thriller "Shutter" and the comedy "Bad Idea".
Geoff continued theatre and film acting at Elon and produced
and directed his first short film. Nathan started freelancing,
shooting documentaries for the University of Illinois, Duke
University, designing promotional pieces for the feature film
"Defiance" and working as a video editor. Joe and
Nathan continued developing short film ideas and commercial
concepts during their free time. Over the next two years, the
three almost completely forgot about all the television concepts
they had developed for Krispy Kreme. After two years at the
University of Illinois, Nathan transferred to Washington University
in St. Louis and the three went about pursuing their own creative
endeavors.
During the
summer of 2003, two years after working with Krispy Kreme, Nathan
stumbled across their commercial concepts for Krispy Kreme.
Joe, Nathan and Geoff were all home for the summer so Nathan
called the two of them and suggested that they produce one of
the concepts as a speculation ad and see if Krispy Kreme would
be interested this time around. The three pooled together some
money, Joe took on duties as production designer, Nathan directed
and Geoff was to act in the spot. They completed the commercial
within two weeks, sent the spot off to Krispy Kreme and waited.
In the mean time, the three produced two more speculation commercials;
one for the St. Louis based Fitz's Root Beer and another spot
for Krispy Kreme. Unfortunately, after several follow-up attempts
they still heard nothing from Krispy Kreme. The three were determined
to do something with this spot, and they knew if Krispy Kreme
was not interested, another company would be.
During the
fall semester of their senior year, Nathan learned that Kentucky
Fried Chicken was holding a contest open to consumers to submit
a 30 second spot for their Bigger, Better Popcorn Chicken product.
Nathan called Geoff and Joe and they decided to switch out the
Krispy Kreme doughnut in their "Big Fish" commercial
with KFC's popcorn chicken. Geoff flew in from North Carolina
to act in the new shots, Nathan picked up Joe at the University
of Illinois and they re-shot and edited their entry. They mailed
it off and waited. Soon they heard they had been selected as
three finalists from over 1,000 entries. The public voted for
the number one spot on KFC's web site and Joe, Nathan and Geoff's
commercial was selected as the winner. The three received $10,000
for their commercial and their spot played on NBC and FOX primetime
television in October.
As their
college careers come to an end, the three continue to work hard
in their creative endeavors. Geoff and Joe will graduate in
May of 2004 and Nathan in December of 2004. All hope to pursue
careers in film or advertising.
Joe continues
to work hard in the very demanding physics major at the University
of Illinois. He finds time to write screenplays and develop
creative concepts in his spare time. Whenever Nathan or Geoff
needs creative advice Joe is their first stop.
Nathan just
wrapped post-production on a documentary he produced in Ukraine,
is freelancing on commercial shoots in St. Louis and is interning
between classes at the St. Louis based advertising agency Kupper
Parker Communications. This November, Nathan makes his debut
as a Director of Photography for the film "Triad"
showing at the St. Louis International Film Festival. Nathan
is also producing his first feature film with director Yu Hasegawa-Johnson
which he hopes to film over the coming year. Nathan is finishing
up his degree at Washington University in St. Louis, studying
economics and communications.
Geoff is
currently playing the lead in the theatre production "The
Boys Next Door" and is producing and directing his second
short film at Elon. Geoff spent part of this past summer in
LA interning for a talent agency and participating in the TVI
Actor's Studio. In his final year at Elon Geoff continues to
act in Elon theatre and student films from Elon's film program.
Joe, Nathan
and Geoff's creative work can be found online at www.rousepro.com.
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