Garlic Tabasco "Vampire"

Vision Crew Unlimited has won a 1998 Aegis Award for "Garlic Tabasco". The Aegis Awards are the video industry's premier competition for peer recognition of outstanding video productions and non-network TV commercials.

The spot is also a 1999 Telly Award Winner in the Packaged Food catagory and a Finalist in the Use of Humor and Special Effects catagories.

Vision Crew was awarded a 1999 Axiem award for the spot.

 

Director: Evan Jacobs

Director of Photography: Douglas Miller

Producer: Wendy Mashburn 

CAST:

Vampire: Carlos San Miguel

Vampire Killer: Jay Beeber

Production Designer: Jimmy Stewart

Composer: Jeffrey Silverman

Visual Effects: Douglas Miller

 

 

This production marks Vision Crew's first complete production, utilizing many of VCU's in-house production resources. Vision Crew founders, Evan Jacobs and Doug Miller, served as Director and Cinematographer respectivly. While Wendy Mashburn, VCU's production manager, served as Producer for the spot.

The photography took place over a two day period on a set built on VCU's main stage. The team atmosphere was definately in place with many VCU crew members donating their time to the effort.

With photography complete, the post-production process began. Jacobs served as Editor while Miller took on completeing the necessary visual effects shots.

The visual effects for the spot included a dramatic opening featuring a dark haunted mansion. The majority of the image was computer generated using Electric Image and Adobe After Effects.

 

Other effects in the spot included flashy effects such as the vampire's magical powers destroying a bucket of holy water and the vampire's final demise from injecting garlic. Not so obvious, was the use of visual effects for wire removal, and set extensions.

 

Finally, Jeffrey Silverman composed a dramatic score featuring Scott Grusin's harmonica riffs.