- Published in Web
During a recent college basketball game, Sam Fuchs, designer and musician working in San Francisco, spotted a familiar face and sought out an answer online. He soon wrote on Facebook, “hey. i just saw the 76 commercial while watching the basketball game, recognized Liam, looked it up, and FWD:labs came up.” The commercial was directed by Chris Yi and search engine traffic is the second most popular way people find him and his work online. (First place goes to direct links to chrisyi.com.)
Aaron Proctor: What’s it like to have this 76 spot — and the Green Dot School spots — running on television at age 22?
Chris Yi: I’m not going to lie, it’s pretty sweet. I still can’t believe it, getting phone calls from friends saying, “Hey I just saw your commercial during the game!” It’s more than I could’ve asked for, seriously. I’m really thankful for getting these opportunities and hopefully — fingers crossed — more will come in the future.
AP: How did the 76 project come together and with whom did you collaborate?
CY: Over the summer I was interning at an ad agency and my friend Natalie, who runs the UCLA Ad Team with me, heard about this commercial contest for 76. Natalie knew how I was into advertising and filmmaking, so she thought it’d be perfect for me.
When we found out, there was only a week before the deadline, so I threw together a small team. Jesse Epstein helped me write it and Liam Humble acted in it but also created the entire piece on the wall. I also had a lot of help from the people on my Ad Team and we all came together to pull this off.
AP: What’s your biggest fear with filmmaking and how do you deal with it?
CY: With all the creative work in my life, I’ve always been insecure about it. I always second guess myself and worry that it won’t turn out as great as I see it in my head. To combat that, I work my ass off to make sure that it turns out the way I want it to and I guess through some miracle. It always ends up working out.
AP: What are your goals for the near future?
CY: With filmmaking and advertising, I just always want to be better tomorrow than I am today. I just want to learn as much as I can and keep working on projects that help me grow my skills and keep growing as a filmmaker. So I guess my immediate goal is to find some cool people to collaborate with, make something awesome, and just learn from it. Any takers? Hit me up.
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