The concept of a stick man in need of a portable restroom landed Virginia high school student Tim Thompson a classroom filmmaking honor, a limo ride to an awards ceremony and a few smiling faces at the offices of Johnny Blue Inc. in Winchester, Va.
Thompson, 17, a junior at Sherando High School in Stephens City, Va., was assigned to make a rudimentary commercial for a local business as part of a design, multimedia and Web technology class. The students in Diana Crites’ class were asked to focus on a product they’re interested in.
Passing on a subject related to sports, girls or video games, for instance, Thompson decided to make his pitch for portable restrooms … more specifically, for the Johnny Blue restrooms that have been handy for the Boy Scout camper when nature called.
“Everybody else was doing fast-food restaurants and things like that. But I was thinking that I’m a Boy Scout and have grown to appreciate Johnny Blue when I’ve been out on spring, fall and winter camperees,’’ Thompson said. Aspiring to become an Eagle Scout, Thompson said he’s used Johnny Blue units at Scouting events at venues like the Warren County Fairgrounds and Camp Rock Enon in Gore, Va.
USING HUMOR
“Also, everybody enjoys a little toilet humor, don’t they?’’ Thompson asked rhetorically.
Snicker-worthy subject in hand, Thompson started drawing the animated frames, starting with a camper sleeping in a hammock in the woods. In the brief commercial, the stick man wakes up and dashes around looking for bathroom facilities. The stick figure magically finds a Johnny Blue restroom in the woods and gives it a big hug. The commercial is available online at http://www.fccareerconnections.org/JohnnyBlueMovie.wmv. Right-click and "save as..." to view it from your desktop.
What happened next was surprising to everyone involved. At a public showing of all the commercials in Crites’ classes, 400 people voted to give Thompson’s Johnnie Blue commercial the Audience Choice Award. He and winners of several other categories received a miniature Oscar-like statue, $25 and a limo ride to the reception.
“Everybody’s got a Johnny Blue story to tell and when they talk about it, it gets pretty funny,’’ Crites said. Soon after the awards, Thompson received local media attention for his commercial, “and the hysteria is growing,’’ Crites said at the prospect of Thompson being featured in Pumper.
This was the third year for the filmmaking contest, part of a class designed to help students build skills for employment in technology fields, Crites explained. Thompson said the training might help him in future studies. He’d like to study either video game programming or architecture in college.
“It was completely unexpected. I had no idea a stick person could grab this much attention,’’ said Thompson, who scratches another creative itch as the guitarist and singer for a metal band, Scatter the Ashes.
DESERVES ATTENTION
“It’s been kind of interesting. I know what people like to see in commercials and I think I could convince people to buy stuff,’’ he said.
Kristen Emerson, vice president of Johnny Blue, coincidentally happened to attend the debut of the commercials, taking her younger sister who is a student at the high school. They had no idea the longstanding family business would be among the entries. She later learned of Thompson’s involvement in the Boy Scouts and said that Johnny Blue often donates units to the Scouts.
“I thought that was great,’’ Emerson said of the award. “It’s something that was neat and he deserved a little bit of attention for his work.’’
