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Director, Ashley Wing, put his experience in filmmaking to use as he guided the Marketing team throughout the production of the commercial.

With exception to the cast of talented actors, the advert was produced completely in-house by Re-flow’s marketing team, written, and directed by Head of Sales & Marketing, Ashley Wing. Putting his background in film production to work, Ashley headed up the team throughout the shoot, which spanned several days over multiple locations.

The crux of the shoot took place in Doug’s home, proving to be the most logistically challenging part of the production. Though only a single location, the story called for shots both during the day and night. With a short two-day shoot schedule, the team had to get creative, using tricks and lighting to achieve their desired effect.

Under the guidance of Ashley, as well as Assistant Director, Ellen Cotter, the crew transformed the daytime set into the dead of night, using only bin-liners, tape, and a lot of clever lighting. Ashley collaborated with Cameraman, Patrick Tinkler, to ensure that each shot had interesting lighting, aiming to create a visually engaging yet believable final product.

The team worked to a tight schedule, requiring airtight organisation to set up equipment between shots and achieve a visually engaging final product.

This part of the shoot would also feature the entire main cast. James Cotter, who plays Doug Jones, was joined by Joanne Rogers, as well as the Director’s son and niece, who played the roles of Ellie Jones and the couple’s children, respectively. With only one spoken line, the shoot provided a unique challenge for the actors, having to convey the character’s emotional state solely through facial expressions and gestures.

Even with such an unconventional set of circumstances, the cast did a fantastic job, bringing Doug’s family to life and expertly conveying his emotional journey throughout the short story.

Additional shooting took place in the Re-flow office, which served as the fictional base of operations for Doug’s company, Foundations. This allowed Re-flow team members, Josh Sims and Mikolaj Pawelczyk, Marketing Executives, who usually stay behind the scenes, to cameo as background extras.

The final filming location was a remote worksite, which was kindly provided by long-term Re-flow client, Glanville Environmental. As real works were ongoing at the time, these shots were captured by a smaller crew, as not to cause potential hazards for the operatives at work. Once more, the entire Re-flow team would like to extend a huge thank you to the Glanville team for opening their site to us and participating in this production.

Once filming was completed, the team was on a tight deadline to turnaround the final edit, including visual effects and music. Editing was mainly done by Patrick Tinkler, who was also the main cameraman on the shoot, with additional edits by Director, Ashley Wing. At this stage, the team had to select the best shots from the shoot and condense the story into a succinct 1 minute and 30 seconds.

The entire Marketing team at Re-flow contributed to the production, both on and off-set. From left to right, Josh Sims, Mikolaj Pawelczyk, Ellen Cotter, Nick Cox, Ashley Wing, and Patrick Tinkler.

One of the final stages of the project was the soundtrack. Composed by Siddhartha Barnhoorn, the soundtrack captures the classic Christmas spirit, while reinforcing the emotional journey of the main character. As the last stage production, adding the soundtrack was the cherry on top that brought the entire production together.

With the production complete, the team is now preparing to debut the advert on Tuesday, the 21^st of November, at 8:30AM. To watch, subscribe to the Re-flow YouTube channel or follow us on social media.

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