When I signed up to produce a spot for the Great Canadian Commercial Contest, I knew I wanted to surround myself with the best team possible. I started calling advertising agencies to see if they had any copywriters who might be interested in doing some charity work, and within the first few calls, I was put in touch with Rob Showell. Rob is the former Associate Creative Director at DDB Canada, and is now working as a freelance copywriter in Vancouver. He loved the idea of trying to conceptualize, shoot and edit a 30 second spot in two days, and eagerly jumped on board, bringing with him over 25 years of commercial production experience. Next up I called Kaare Andrews, an award winning local director who has competed in and won fast film events in the past. I knew that with this team, plus the production team we had assembled, we had as good a shot as any to win this contest.
When we arrived on Friday night and found out that we were assigned the Variety Children's Charity, I was upset at first: how were we supposed to make a comedic commercial about an organization that helps sick and disabled children? That's where the brilliant teamwork of Rob and Kaare came in to play. By researching Variety's website, we found out that one of the ways that they raise money for children is by recycling newspapers. So at about 11 PM on Friday night, Rob came up with the idea of having children on a paper route. Instead of the kids throwing the papers on to the porch, however, we would have the adults throwing the papers back to the kids. Kaare and Rob tossed ideas back and forth for the next hour, and then we got on the phone and started calling for talent.
At 8 AM Saturday morning we were back on the cell phones. Kaare and Rob went to scout for locations, while Craig (the art director) and I drove around town collecting props for the shoot. Crew call was at 1 PM Saturday afternoon on a quiet, cherry blossom-lined street just off of Victoria drive. It may have been a 48 hour film festival, but I started pre production on it about 2 weeks in advance. By the time Saturday afternoon rolled around, we had a full crew, and all the toys they needed to make a professional looking commercial. With the help of Susan Zanaillo at Madison Talent, we got 6 children and 3 adults together for the cast and we were ready to film. The shoot went flawlessly. We wrapped at about 5:30 PM, just minutes before a hail storm kicked in, which by the way, seemed to only be coming down over a three-block radius above our chosen location.
Sunday morning at 11 AM, we arrived at our editor's office. We assembled the rough cut within two hours, and emailed it over to our composer. While he wrote a jingle for the spot, we got to work creating titles and sound effects: golf club number two for papers flying through the air, and punch number seven for when they hit their target. Brent sent back the song by about four o'clock, and we plugged it in to the timeline. We were four hours away from our deadline, and sitting pretty. We spent much of the next three hours "agreeing to disagree" on where to place the client's email address on the screen, and now with just one hour to go, we agreed on the placement and finished the commercial. It was 7:15 PM, and we made our mini DV copy, and copied a QuickTime file to my laptop so we could burn a DVD in the car on the way to the contest drop-off point. We arrived at the drop off at 7:45, but my computer was yet to finish burning the DVD. We sat there for another ten minutes and then decided to go in anyways. As we arrived, my laptop spat out the DVD, and we handed in our work (as did most of our competitors) at about 7:57. Just three minutes away from disqualification.
The rest is history. We took home first place our category, and then later in the night we captured the "Best in Show" award. I can honestly say that none of it would have been possible without incredible teamwork by every one involved, including the contest organizers who found a way to showcase local talent, and give back to those less fortunate all at once. My hat goes off to our entire team, and everyone who helped organize such a wonderful event!
When I signed up to produce a spot for the Great Canadian Commercial Contest, I knew I wanted to surround myself with the best team possible. I started calling advertising agencies to see if they had any copywriters who might be interested in doing some charity work, and within the first few calls, I was put in touch with Rob Showell. Rob is the former Associate Creative Director at DDB Canada, and is now working as a freelance copywriter in Vancouver. He loved the idea of trying to conceptualize, shoot and edit a 30 second spot in two days, and eagerly jumped on board, bringing with him over 25 years of commercial production experience. Next up I called Kaare Andrews, an award winning local director who has competed in and won fast film events in the past. I knew that with this team, plus the production team we had assembled, we had as good a shot as any to win this contest. 
of Rob and Kaare came in to play. By researching Variety's website, we found out that one of the ways that they raise money for children is by recycling newspapers. So at about 11 PM on Friday night, Rob came up with the idea of having children on a paper route. Instead of the kids throwing the papers on to the porch, however, we would have the adults throwing the papers back to the kids. Kaare and Rob tossed ideas back and forth for the next hour, and then we got on the phone and started calling for talent. 
Sunday morning at 11 AM, we arrived at our editor's office. We assembled the rough cut within two hours, and emailed it over to our composer. While he wrote a jingle for the spot, we got to work creating titles and sound effects: golf club number two for papers flying through the air, and punch number seven for when they hit their target. Brent sent back the song by about four o'clock, and we plugged it in to the timeline. We were four hours away from our deadline, and sitting pretty. We spent much of the next three hours "agreeing to disagree" on where to place the client's email address on the screen, and now with just one hour to go, we agreed on the placement and finished the commercial. It was 7:15 PM, and we made our mini DV copy, and copied a QuickTime file to my laptop so we could burn a DVD in the car on the way to the contest drop-off point. We arrived at the drop off at 7:45, but my computer was yet to finish burning the DVD. We sat there for another ten minutes and then decided to go in anyways. As we arrived, my laptop spat out the DVD, and we handed in our work (as did most of our competitors) at about 7:57. Just three minutes away from disqualification.