Tiptree

01 The brief

The brief

Wilkin & Sons have been making jam in Tiptree, Essex since 1885. Their products are stocked in first class cabins and five star hotels and their brand has the heritage and the quality to back it up. What they didn't have was a television campaign - at least not in a generation.

MVad brought us in to produce and direct. Although perhaps not phrased as such, the brief was basically to make something that looked expensive. Something that felt premium and showed the product in exactly the kind of settings it belonged in - first class travel, luxury hotels. The sort of place you'd expect to find a pot of Little Scarlet on the breakfast tray without thinking twice about it.

02 What we did

What we did

Two days. Four locations. Seven setups - all with a core cast and a crew of fifteen - getting logistics running smoothly was just the half of it. Our art department and wardrobe spent plenty of time ahead of the shoot sourcing with serious attention to detail, including contributions from British stand-outs like Gresham Blake, Heals and Karen Mabon. We shot on RED with Cooke S2/3 lenses - the sensor allowed us the latitude we needed for the bright sun-drenched scenes and the Panchros helped give characterful warmth.

We cast a family of actors who'd worked together before. That bought us time on set that a cold cast never would have - and we needed every second. With four locations in two days, the light running out on the second afternoon is not when you want to be reaching deep for a performance from a seven-year-old.

One of the locations was Terminal 4 at Heathrow. We'd applied for permission weeks in advance and chased (and chased). Finally, the day before the shoot, the airport confirmed it would be fine but that someone needed to accompany us and that there would be a fee, payable in advance. Despite agreeing and asking for any paperwork, we never heard from them again.

So on the morning of the shoot, executive decision time. We loaded a small unit into a van - just the director, DOP, gimbal op, AC, and the talent - and then drove to Heathrow. We walked in, introduced ourselves to the staff at the exec lounge and said we were filming. Then we filmed.

Music was the last piece of the puzzle. MVad had landed on a cover of I'm Into Something Good by The Bird and the Bee. It had the right tempo, the right warmth and was exactly what the edit needed. With the clock running out before broadcast cutoff we couldn't reach their management in Los Angeles. Their PA checked her notes and told us they were at a conference. In the UK, as it happened. In Brighton. About five minutes from our edit suite. We cleared the sync, paying considerably for the privilege, and got it to air.

03 The result

On screen, on air and looking every penny

The spot was well received - particularly the music, which had been the last thing anyone agreed on. For a budget that would barely register on a London production company's rate card, it looked like considerably more. And that was the intention from the start - put every penny on screen.

It was the first television campaign we produced. And in some ways it set an unhelpful precedent - fifteen crew, a proper art department, locations that required not a small amount of creative problem solving. Not every client since has had the appetite for that level of ambition. But some have, and the approach remains the same: work out what the budget can do and make sure the screen shows all of it.