BURNABY — Landing a dream job at Universal Pictures and becoming a millionaire would be the ultimate touchdown for Simon Fraser University alumnus Graham Talbot.

A graduate of SFU’s film program, Talbot has a one-in-10 chance of winning $1 million and a year-long dream job with the prestigious film studio — if his 30-second commercial wins the grand prize next month in the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest.

As one of 10 finalists recently selected, Graham, 25, has already won $25,000 and a five-day trip to Phoenix, Arizona to watch the Super Bowl (from a private box) on Feb. 1. He’ll be taking his fraternal twin Nelson, also an SFU film school alumnus, who collaborated on the commercial they call "When Pigs Fly."

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The amusing 30-second spot features a small boy who wants to share some Doritos with a farmer, but is told he can only have some “when pigs fly”. The desperate boy sets to work, launching a pig into the sky with a rocket. The dumbfounded farmer finally hands him the chip bag.

Graham and Nelson entered the contest last year as well, under Nelson’s name, and made it into the semi-finals.

“This year, we wanted to improve on that result, because it did help our careers a little bit last year,” says Graham. The twins broke into the market through a Toronto agency, Spy Films, and have already made one commercial for them.

Graham expects bigger career results this year, even if they don’t win the contest. Since graduating from SFU in 2011, the Talbot twins have done a variety of music videos, short films, corporate videos and a few feature films.

“Where we’ve settled now is into low-budget online commercials for a crowdsourcing site called Tongal,” says Graham. “We do a pitch, go up against a few other competitors and then the client chooses one or several of the commercials.” The duo has produced close to 20 commercials this way, including such clients as Icebreaker Mints, Microsoft as well as Tostitos, with a 75 per cent success rate.

Graham says his SFU education was crucial in developing his perspective on the world. “I loved my SFU film experience. Not only did it craft my artistic vision but it also shaped me as a person. I’m just very happy to have gone to that school—it’s been a big part of where I’ve gotten to in my life.”

A win with When Pigs Fly would go a long way towards Graham’s ultimate career goal of becoming an established director of photography for large-budget feature films—and provide the financing to help make that dream fly, too.

The first-prize winner will be chosen by Doritos, while a grand prize winner will be selected via online fan votes.

       

Surrey Now