Biola alumni Kevin Wilson ('01) and Stephen Yao ('05) may crash this year's Super Bowl as part of Doritos' fourth annual competition, Crash the Super Bowl The two were part of a team created from the community of filmmakers at their church, Mosaic, in Whittier, Calif. Their commercial "Casket" was selected as one of the six finalists from more than 4,000 entries and has already been awarded $25,000.

"We were hopeful that we would be a finalist, but out of 4,000 plus entries, we just didn't know," Wilson and Yao, both graduates of Biola's Cinema and Media Arts program, wrote in an email to Biola. "When we found out we were in the top 6, we were ecstatic!"

The hard part for the crew was not being able to tell anyone for two weeks until Doritos made the official announcement. Now, the commercial has been featured on Fox News and in USA Today.

Including pastor of Mosaic, Erwin McManus, who produced the film, there were 30-40 people who assisted in the making of the commercial. Wilson directed the film and Yao assisted on set as well as acted as editor.

"It's a miracle and a divine comedy that we've made it this far," McManus told USA Today. "I think it's God's sense of humor."

"Casket" features a man who fakes his own funeral so he can watch the Super Bowl and eat Doritos undisturbed. The story was inspired by one of the crew member's experience at a funeral where his deceased grandfather requested to be buried with a beer and cigarettes.

They filmed "Casket" in one day, however pre-production took three weeks prior to the film date, which was one week before the deadline creating a tight timeline for editing.

The three final commercials chosen through an online voting system will be aired during the Super Bowl XLIV broadcast on Feb. 7, 2010. If "Casket" is one of the final three aired, they will receive another coordinating prize of up to $1 million. Five million dollars was up for grabs in the competition as a whole.

"We are both grateful to the Biola film program for the encouragement it gave us to continually improve our craft of telling stories that have an eternal significance," said Yao.

If "Casket" wins, 10 percent of the winnings will be given to Mosaic, 50 percent to the cast and crew and 40 percent will go back to Wilson and Yao's production company, Boy and Rocket, to cover production costs.

"We are very grateful and excited for the opportunity to possibly air during the Super Bowl," said Yao. "The attention we are getting from this contest gives us greater influence on people's lives for God's kingdom through our work and relationships."

Written by Jenna Bartlo, Media Relations Coordinator. Jenna can be reached at (562) 777-4061 or through email at jenna.l.bartlo@biola.edu.