You could say I lucked out. The first big assignment that came across my desk was a fairly substantial one: come up with a Lunchables broadcast ad. They needed the ad quickly which only added to this learning experience.
Here's a few things I learned:
There's no way to prepare for your first commercial shoot.
Because you're essentially shooting a little film in a single day. There are hoards of people (sometimes asking your opinion) and piles of equipment and props all around. For this spot we had something like 20 different lunch box options! And it's your responsibility to make sure everything gets captured the way you need it to be.
Sound design is really, really important
I already knew this to some extent. But watching the cut with music for the first time is a thing of beauty. When your spot only has 2 lines of dialogue the rest of the sound has to do a lot of heavy lifting. Everything we did, hopefully, added to the drama and suspense of this moment.
Trust the experts.
There are things our editor, Graham, and music house, Scandal, did that I never would have thought of. Little touches that helped make the mood or flow of the spot perfect. And the color of the spot, the whole cinematic nature of it, I wish I could take credit for. That was the brilliance of Allan, my art director, and Mike, our colorist. There were things added at every step of the process that made it great but the foundation that our director Seyi Peter-Thomas provided was top notch.
After all of that, here's the result. Hope you like it.
Thanks to Station Films, Seyi, Graham, Scandal Music, NOLO, Lunchables and everyone else for making this spot happen. The process was way less painful than it could have been.