A young Glendora resident will find out Saturday if his commercial will be amongst the top five in the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl VIII competition.
Jordan Allen, 22, was chosen in the top 24 semifinalists for the Doritos commercial from a pool of 8,000 from around the world. The online video competition's top prize includes plane tickets for the top two winning filmmakers to venture to the Super Bowl and a chance to serve as a consultant on the upcoming Marvel film "Avengers: Age of Ultron."
The top five commercials will be chosen Jan. 4, with voting beginning the same day on the Doritos website.
Allen is ecstatic that the video was chosen as a semifinalist.
"I was just worried that we wouldn't be seen. That was my biggest fear," Allen said.
A former film student at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Allen first heard of the competition about two years ago, but felt he didn't have the idea, skill or team needed to execute a commercial. Eventually, Allen felt he had the knowhow and connections to final film a commercial.
Eventually, Allen met fellow filmmaker Luke Rocheleau who gathered a crew to film the commercial.
"It was initially a car commercial," Allen said about the concept for the Doritos entry. "Not for any specific brand, but it was just an idea I came up with about two and a half years ago. Someone mentioned something about the Doritos competition … and it kind of hit me that the idea could be segued into a commercial or Doritos."
The commercial was filmed in a home in San Dimas. Allen, co-director Rocheleau and the crew took one week to prep for the film shoot. Filming took place over a two-day period, with post production taking another week, Allen said.
The first place winner will also take home $1 million, with $50,000 going to the second place winner, finalists receive $25,000 and a trip to New York for a private Super Bowl XLVIII broadcast and $1,000 going to the semifinalists.
The two grand prize winners will have their commercial aired during the Super Bowl.
As for the potential to be a finalist in the contest, Allen doesn't want to get ahead of himself.
"We're just sort of taking it one step at a time. It would be too easy for us to solely focus on January 4 and kind of get tunnel vision. If we are a finalist, it would truly be a blessing. Just being a semifinalist is a blessing in itself," Allen said
Allen's commercial "Doritos Makes Everything Better" can be seen on Youtube.
