September Serve Commercial Campaign 2010
In August of 2010, I was asked to create a series of television commercials to promote a ministry The Woodlands UMC had planned for the community throughout September: an outreach program based on volunteerism and personal responsibility. My challenge was to make the community aware of the program through a trio of narrative commercials. I needed to come up with a concept, three unique stories, find locations and actors, shoot and edit the spots - and the first one had to start running in two weeks.
I cut corners like crazy and called in a few favors, but we hit all the deadlines, mostly because of a major leg up from Dori Barber, who stepped in as a line producer to help me out - finding volunteers to act and making phone calls. A month after we started, all three commercials were up and running.
Of all the corners I cut, this one was my favorite, because the storyline of the spot is so separate from what I actually shot. My actor - chef Clive Berkman, whose excellent cooking book can be found here - was cooking a sumptuous meal for an informal dinner party. I filmed him making the meal, despite the fact that the dinner party was actively taking place in the kitchen I was shooting in. I lost a regrettable amount of good shots from guests wandering through in the background. Then we swung out for a quick shoot at a highway overpass a few days later. Instant commercial. Bam!
The other two spots can be found here and here.