Brand New School Brings Nightmares to Life for Sci Fi Network's Estate of Panic

Never have nightmares been so lucrative... or funny.

Designed to promote Estate of Panic, the new reality-style game show on the Sci Fi network, Brand New School, the bicoastal design, promotion and production collective, and member of transmedia resource group LORI PATE+, took an oddly lighthearted look at how a couple of common phobias can lead to a fistful of cash.

Brand New School's Mario Stipinovich and Jonathan Notaro directed the two promos.

"Sci Fi came to us with a whole bunch of creepy ideas," commented Danny Rosenbloom, Executive Producer at Brand New School.

"We wanted to bring a cinematic, yet comic style to these pieces, and those elements are what really drove both the casting and the shoot.

Along the way, we made several references to science fiction movies and horror films.

These spots were created very traditionally.

There were no greenscreens, no computerized effects, just good old-fashioned, in-camera shooting."

In "Walls," an area rug bunches up and a piano splits down the center before a startled looking man realizes that the walls are closing in on him.

In a scene reminiscent of the trash compactor scene in Star Wars, the man jams a table leg between the walls, just as he discovers a thick wad of bills.

His elation is short-lived, however, when the table leg begins to split.

As his screams linger in the air, the camera tracks quickly backwards and out to reveal the huge, dark estate of the show's title.