Opportunities come in many different packages, and for Kevin Bowden, a digital media major here at UVU, his latest opportunity came just in time for Christmas. In mid-December he was fortunate enough to win the “Creative Concept Award” in the 2009 Utah Film Commission “Spot On” Commercial Contest.
The commercial is entitled “Utah: Paint Your Masterpiece.” It wonderfully combines various elemental aspects of the Utah landscape into one brilliant production.
“It shows an artist standing in front of a blank canvas and he begins throwing different elements of Utah on it, the red sands of St. George, snow from the mountains, salt from the salt flats, and water from the Great Salt Lake and other lakes, and it ends up creating Utah,” Bowden described.
The concept behind the commercial is deeper than meets the eye, although it was at first a mere spontaneous visualization.
“It just popped in my head one day,” Bowden said. “I thought it would be cool for a guy to be painting on a canvas, showing the different elements of Utah and in the end the different elements would have painted him, because he represents Utah.”
Bowden isn’t a stranger to this scene, his brother entered and won this contest in the past, so it would seem Bowden is right at home in venues like this. Production began in October of 2009 with one particular goal that was ultimately attained.
“The goal in mind when creating was to enter the contest,” Bowden said.
The five-man team had to build two huge rock walls, one showing the finished canvas and the other blank, before shooting could begin this past November. From there it took about ten hours of shooting and three weeks of editing to get their final creation.
What opportunities has winning this award placed in front of Bowden?
“At the end of this week or the next we will meet with the UFC (Utah Film Commission) to redevelop the idea. Then they rent out a professional crew to shoot the commercial and they will keep me on as the director for the commercial,” Bowden said.
The hope for these commercials is to get film-makers to produce their films here in Utah. It would be ideal not only for the UFC, but also for Bowden to have more filmmakers come to Utah because of his commercial. Filmmakers coming to Utah because of Bowden will give him professional exposure as well.
Final production on the professionally produced commercial should wrap up around the end of March or April when it can be viewed on the UFC’s website. There are hopes that the commercial will begin airing in Park City as well.
