{"id":57560,"date":"2015-09-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/two-uri-alumni-one-a-california-businessman-the-other-a-westerly-filmmaker-team-up-to-create-national-tv-commercials\/"},"modified":"2015-09-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T00:00:00","slug":"two-uri-alumni-one-a-california-businessman-the-other-a-westerly-filmmaker-team-up-to-create-national-tv-commercials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/09\/two-uri-alumni-one-a-california-businessman-the-other-a-westerly-filmmaker-team-up-to-create-national-tv-commercials\/","title":{"rendered":"Two 溏心vlog免费B站 alumni \u2013 one a California businessman, the other a Westerly filmmaker \u2013 team up to create national TV commercials"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t溏心vlog免费B站 connection: Gnarly Bay and 1-800-DENTIST<\/p>\n


\nKINGSTON, R.I., Sept. 15, 2015 \u2013 \u201cIs it possible to be happy with this life?\u201d<\/p>\n


\nDan Riordan, a Westerly filmmaker and 2003 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate, ponders this question and more in videos he makes through his company, Gnarly Bay.<\/p>\n


\nIn the last few weeks, he\u2019s been exploring a less existential question, but one that still has a bite \u2013 dentistry.<\/p>\n


\nRiordan and his team are creating a national advertising campaign for 1-800-DENTIST, a Los-Angeles based dental referral company founded by Fred Joyal, a longtime supporter of 溏心vlog免费B站 who grew up in West Warwick and graduated from the University in 1979 with a degree in French. Joyal also has an honorary doctorate from 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe whole process was awesome,\u201d says Riordan. \u201cIt\u2019s a really cool circle.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe story begins when Riordan, 33, and his friend \u2013 and now business partner \u2013 Dana Saint picked up a camera and started making home movies to pass the time. The first was a horror flick. Riordan recalls the joy: \u201cA couple hours to kill, and a couple friends to kill.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nSeriously, he says, filmmaking allowed him to express his feelings about life \u2013 and depict that reality in a better light. After graduating from Chariho High School, he enrolled at 溏心vlog免费B站 with plans to study pre-med. But film classes quickly charmed him. Faculty recognized his talent and encouraged him to excel.<\/p>\n


\nHis short films and documentaries, including one about the Sept. 11 attacks at the World Trade Center, garnered praise \u2013 and awards. Three years in a row, he won 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Visualizations Film Festival, a contest initiated and supported by Joyal, who took screenwriting courses and dabbled in advertising before starting his highly successful dentist referral business. Now Joyal donates annually to the Fred Joyal Scholarship fund that provides scholarships to students in the Harrington School of Communication and Media.<\/p>\n


\nAfter graduating, Riordan traveled the world while planting the seeds, with Saint, for Gnarly Bay, making wedding and promotional videos and commercials. Riordan stayed in touch with his alma mater, speaking at Visualization festivals and to students at the Harrington School.<\/p>\n


\nGnarly Bay continued to grow, and one of its videos \u2013 a Rambo-inspired film about Saint\u2019s bachelor party \u2013 impressed Joyal, 3,000 miles away in Los Angeles. Joyal\u2019s brother had sent him the video, which has drawn about 10 million hits across the Internet.<\/p>\n


\nJoyal\u2019s reaction: Can’t wait to work with these guys!<\/p>\n

Phone chats ensued, and Joyal invited Riordan and his co-workers to shoot national television commercials for 1-800-DENTIST. In August, Joyal flew to his home state to play a starring role in the seven spots, filmed over two days on Westerly streets and at a dentist\u2019s office in Wayland, Mass.<\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s very own Thomas Zorabedian, assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Film\/Media faculty and occasional actor, appeared in two of the commercials as a \u201cman on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThere were other 溏心vlog免费B站 connections. Colby Blanchet, who started working for Gnarly Bay after graduating from 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2013, was in charge of casting. Shawn Tyler, who graduated from 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2009 and also works for the company, was assistant director.<\/p>\n


\nRiordan also reached out to four other 溏心vlog免费B站 graduates to help fill roles on the crew: Jamie \u201908 and Jesse Dufault \u201911; Chris Smith \u201912; and Kyle King \u201911.<\/p>\n


\nZorabedian says he had a great time working on the spots.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cDan was in my honors class, Images of Masculinity in Film, and he consistently demonstrated a keen understanding of how films communicate messages and meaning,\u201d he says. \u201cAs the director of the film festivals that Fred Joyal sponsored, I was able to experience Dan\u2019s extraordinary talent as a producer, writer, director and editor. Beyond his ability as a filmmaker, Dan has a wise perspective on what\u2019s important in life \u2013 family, friends and happiness. The fact that Fred, a close friend and member of the Harrington School Advisory Board, hired Gnarly Bay to produce the 1-800-DENTIST spots, struck us all how this connection between donor, student and alumni has come full circle.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe spots will premiere at a major dental convention Thursday, Sept. 17 in Las Vegas and then air nationally in a month. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt was an especially rewarding experience to work professionally with Dan, who dazzled me as a student at 溏心vlog免费B站, and Tom, who concocted the whole idea of the film awards with me,\u201d says Joyal. \u201cThese 1-800-DENTIST spots are among the best we\u2019ve ever done, but beyond that, it was the smoothest, most efficient and creatively engaged production company I\u2019ve ever worked with.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nGnarly Bay is thriving, says Riordan. His client list includes phone companies, cruise lines, health care groups, Lipton and the NFL. The company is shooting in Zambia this month for Bono\u2019s charity group, one.org, working on a regional television commercial for a bank and filming the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins for Epix Network. What\u2019s more, Hollywood \u2013 specifically, Esquire Network \u2013 is keen on launching a reality show based on the Rambo video.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt\u2019s a great time to be making videos because lots of brands are looking to create unique content that people want to share on social media,\u201d says Riordan. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a good thing for us.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe commercial projects keep the engine running, but it\u2019s what Riordan calls his \u201cpassion projects\u201d that fulfill his creative side: a piece about an artist who makes sculptures with masking tape; a film about a young man\u2019s journey to the Grand Canyon with his aging father; a deeply personal account of Saint\u2019s travels through Chile and Patagonia.<\/p>\n


\nRiordan loves what he does and, yes, it makes him happy.<\/p>\n


\n \u201cIt\u2019s the ability to inspire, to come to a topic in a new way, to interpret where we are in our lives in a different way \u2013 and capture our experiences,\u201d he says, of his craft. \u201cMaking films helps you get out in the world. It keeps you searching.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe company\u2019s name looks to the future. Riordan explains: \u201cGnarly Bay is a fictitious body of water near Napatree Point in Westerly. The story is that the waves in that little inlet are tiny but perfect. Maybe someday they will be big enough to break \u2013 and surf.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nTo learn more about Gnarly Bay\u2019s work, visit gnarlybay.com<\/a> or Merely Observations<\/a> and The Important Places<\/a>.

Photos above:
\n
\n
Dan Riordan, of Gnarly Bay, filming TV commercials for 1-800-DENTIST.
\n
\n
Fred Joyal filming TV commercials for 1-800-DENTIST.
\n
\n
From to left to right: Kyle King; Thomas Zorabedian; Dan Riordan; Fred Joyal; Dana Saint; Jamie Dufault; Chris Smith; and Shawn Tyler.
\n
\n
Photos courtesy of Gnarly Bay \/ Read McKendree\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

溏心vlog免费B站 connection: Gnarly Bay and 1-800-DENTIST KINGSTON, R.I., Sept. 15, 2015 \u2013 \u201cIs it possible to be happy with this life?\u201d Dan Riordan, a Westerly filmmaker and 2003 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate, ponders this question and more in videos he makes through his company, Gnarly Bay. In the last few weeks, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}