We celebrate the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week as Grouper Week in St. Pete/Clearwater, at least we did for a few years. One of our big creative endeavors was creating Grouper Week, a week full of restaurant spotlights, grouper cooking videos, a grouper food truck rally, a grouper week commercial, a week to celebrate everything grouper. Since summer is a slow time for tourism, we wanted to promote something the locals can celebrate along with the tourist, after all you do have to eat no matter where you go.

I came up with the Grouper Week logo, placing the silhouette of a grouper in the U. It is a play on the real Shark Week logo. We also produced several commercials, one even featuring Gary Busey. I also designed the shirts for each year, along with all the collateral that was distributed. Grouper Week was always a favorite of mine because it challenged us to do something no one has done and top the previous year.

2015 was the inaugural Grouper Week. We decided to imitate sharks thrashing their meal in slow motion - which was a nod to previous Shark Week commercials. Somehow, this was green lit and actually broadcasted on local TV. I also starred in this commercial, check it out below. I edited and mixed this project. I wanted to have this gradual build of action set to the music. I wish I had a color calibrated screen at the moment, but I think the action gets some sort of reaction out of you.

How to top the previous year? Add Gary Busey. Mr. Busey was in town for the Sunscreen Film Festival and he agreed to let us record his voice reading a script for our commercial, Love thy Grouper. I found a really obscure image of a fish head on a human body as inspiration to transform Gary Busey into Grouper Busey. The point of the commercial was to show you the different ways and places you can enjoy grouper with Gary Busey chiming in, “Grouper Busey?” My role was to edit, grade, sound mix, did the end VO along with designing and animating the grouper Busey head. I also helped direct the shoot. I also designed all the mouth shapes for the grouper by looking in a mirror and shaping them in Photoshop. Lastly I also guest star in this spot, playing the grouper as an ukulele. And yes, this also aired on TV.

With the popularity of the movie La La Land, we wanted to make our own musical for Grouper Land. You’ll hear the similarity of this song and Another Day of Sun from La La Land. We hired several dancers and musicians to come up with an original score along with choreography. I helped direct on set, edited and graded and did all the on screen graphics.

This is an animated logo, all procedurally done in After Effects.