Hybrid
production studio teams with Cramer-Krasselt for creepy broadcast, web and
social campaign.

CHICAGO—If the new ad campaign for Knott’s Berry Farm is any indication,
visitors to the park’s annual Knott’s Scary Farm event are going to get the
bejesus scared out of them. Chicago hybrid production studio Vitamin Pictures produced the
multi-platform package for agency Cramer-Krasselt. It consists of a series of
gritty, high tension television ads and webisodes populated by sinister clowns,
macabre dentists and ravenous zombies.

The creep
factor is high. Clown follows a young
woman through a bleak warehouse scattered with children’s toys. Turning a
corner, she’s confronted by a demented clown with a tortured grin. Just as he’s
about to pounce, the scene cuts to a title card reading “Whatever you’re
imagining, it’s here.” Tooth Fairy
reveals an even grimmer encounter between a man and a dentist who’s performing
oral surgery without the benefit of anesthesia.

Vitamin
creative director Danny DelPurgatorio notes that all of the spots are
structured to end a split second before something nasty happens. “We’re playing
on the fears viewers bring to the spots themselves,” he observes.

Vitamin’s
creative team worked closely with their counterparts from Cramer-Krasselt in detailing
the scenarios and visual style. “From the treatment stage we were in sync,
visually and conceptually,” DelPurgatorio recalls. “We developed a trust that
allowed us to push things in a direction that is pretty cool, and really
scary.”

Vitamin,
which handled everything from live action production through editorial and
post, knows something about scary pictures. It produced the short horror film Other¸ which has won numerous awards
including Best Short at Elvira’s Horror Hunt. “It was great to be hired to make these little horror films
for Knott’s,” DelPurgatorio says. “There were severed heads, body parts, blood
and gooey stuff all over the place. It was a dream come true.”

Or maybe a nightmare.

Vitamin is
located at 232 East Ohio Street, Chicago, Illinois 60611. For more information,
call 312.664.6683 or visit www.vitaminpictures.tv

Credits

Client:                   Knott’s Berry Farm

Titles:                    Clown, Tooth Fairy

Agency:                Cramer-Krasselt. Will Meyers,
producer; Pat Hanna, creative director; David Vaca, art director; Tom Katers,
writer.

Production:        Vitamin. Danny DelPurgatorio, director; Larissa Berringer, executive producer; Melody
Hinkley, line producer; Chris Vinopal, director of photography; David “Big”
Krause, production designer; Cirque FX, prosthetic makeup; Rob Foster, art director;
Danny DelPurgatorio, compositor; Michael Siegel, concept artist/3D generalist; Francis
Vallejo, storyboard artist; Andrew Maggio, editor; Fred Keller, colorist; Lauryn
Grimando, associate producer.