"Little Red People" opens with inline skaters performing extreme maneuvers inside a red-lit tunnel. One of the roller-bladers wipes out while negotiating a turn, stalling the action. As the camera pulls back, we see that the bladers are inside a neon Budweiser sign, hanging in one of America's watering holes.

Noticing that the sign is not fully illuminated, the bartender flicks the tube. Inside, the fallen skater brushes himself off and comments on the difficulty of the "S" curve. As the little red people skate on, the signature Budweiser light shines brightly and the bartender serves up the King of Beers.

The concept for "Little Red People" had been kicking around DDB a few years before it was revived by the agency. According to senior vice president and group executive producer Greg Popp, the script had been submitted to top live-action directors with effects experience.

"With Anheuser-Busch you were looking at too much of a risk in terms of the price point for a sci-fi spot like this," states Popp. "The amount of money that would be invested given the chance that it could be a failure wasn't worth it to them, so they walked away from the project."

Prompted by creatives Bart Culberson and Kevin Kearns, Popp continued to look for an opportunity to produce the spot affordably. Riot bid on the job, proposing that they develop a first-time director and shoot the commercial at cost. The effects-driven spot was still considered a financial risk by Anheuser-Busch who passed on the project a second time.

"[A]t that point Deak [Ferrand] took it upon himself to actually shoot a test spot with digital video and finishing effects work through Riot that totally gave us a working example of what his vision would be for a futuristic commercial of this nature," says Popp. "And that concrete piece with sound design was enough to make the client say the risk of the investment feels worth it.

"I shot a guy in the skate park and did a 12-second test spot with a CG tube so they could see the concept was going to work in reality," explains Ferrand, who collaborated with director Kinka Usher to develop boards for VW's "The Dream" and design the opening movement for Mystery Men. "For me, the only unknown was the actors," comments Ferrand. "But I welcome new challenges."

"We work with a lot of people who are up and comers. The way to keep price down is to offer an opportunity to someone who would otherwise not have it. That really is why we end up in situations with first-time directors and with Anheuser-Busch -- it's a working model for us."