By Demorris A. Lee, Times Staff Writer
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Vincent Talenti, 24, directs on the set of his winning Go Daddy commercial at a high school in Van Nuys, Calif., in September.
Vincent Talenti, a 2004 graduate of Tarpon Springs High School, applied to film school at Florida State University, was rejected, applied again, and was rejected again.
Now, he has 250,000 reasons to argue FSU made a mistake.
Talenti did attend the university. But when he graduated in 2008, he was awarded a degree in business, not filmmaking.
"I have a conflict in my brain," Talenti said during a phone interview from Burbank, Calif. "I have a business side and a creative side, and they are always battling it out."
The creative side paid off first.
Talenti, 24, won $250,000 last month for creating the best 30-second commercial for the website GoDaddy.com. Go Daddy registers Internet domain names and some related services and is known for its racy Super Bowl commercials. Talenti's commercial can be found on GoDaddy.com's website and will air on ABC, ESPN and other stations.
"It's amazing," Talenti said. "Ultimately, it would be great to use this as part of my (portfolio)."
The commercial is called Russell's Notebook. It stars a character named Russell, a student who describes himself as "a no one, a nerd, a dork, a dweeb."
With a catchy tune in the background, the character Russell creates a website on GoDaddy.com and starts charging students for using his study notes.
"So thanks to a bright idea and a couple of clicks I got my ball rolling," Russell sings. "Now, I'm a household name and I owe it all to Go Daddy."
Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons was the sole judge for the contest.
"Bob really liked the way 'Russell's Notebook' told a clever story about a young man who leverages a Go Daddy website and domain name to transform himself from the 'class nerd' into a wildly successful entrepreneur," said company spokeswoman Marianne Curran. "It's a fun story."
Out of 800 entries, Talenti and three others who took part in the effort won first place and $250,000.
Talenti said he was awakened by a call from Go Daddy at about 8 a.m. on Oct. 19.
"'We just want to call you and say congratulations,'" Talenti recalls being told. "Then there was this long awkward pause. They then said 'Russell's Notebook won first place.'
"I said, 'Are you serious, is this a joke?'"
It only took about $1,000 to make the commercial. The actors worked for free and the equipment was donated.
Talenti, the commercial's director and executive producer, said the plan is to pay the folks who helped at union wages. The bulk of the earnings will be used on a future feature film project.
"We decided to pay the entire cast and crew," Talenti said. "It's a great victory for us, but the idea is to move everyone's career forward."
Talenti has always wanted to make movies. But since FSU rejected his film school applications, he's had to learn the craft by trial and error. Over the years, he's made nearly 30 short films. He moved to Burbank shortly after graduating from FSU in 2008.
"I have a bunch of failures before I make something," he said, laughing.
Making films caters to Talenti's nonbusiness side.
"It's like an excuse to be creative and have fun in your adult years," Talenti said. "It's also an excuse to escape from me and to do a lot of things that you normally wouldn't do, go places that you normally wouldn't go and tell stories that you normally wouldn't tell."
Philip and Christine Talenti, who still live in Tarpon Springs, are happy with their son's accomplishment. Philip said for as long as he can remember, his son has had a camera in his hands.
Because Vincent Talenti was so "driven," Philip knew his son had to make it out to California to give movie-making a try. But the father said getting the business degree is going to benefit his son just as much.
"That's probably one of the best things he could have done," Philip Talenti said. "When he really becomes successful, and he will, that degree is going to help him manage his business."
Contact Demorris A. Lee at dalee@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4174.