Client: Bojangles’
Agency: Ep+Co
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Production Company: Remedy
Director/DP: Josh Sliffe
Producer: Austin Simmons
Production Coordinator: Catherine Schramm
Camera Operator: Allen Baker
1st AC: Brian French
Gaffer: Brian DeContreras
Grip: Jim Mahorney
SFX: Barry Davis
Sound Recordist: Josh Duncan
Art Director: Ashley Hutchinson
Art Assistant: Birdie Tobias
Art Assistant: Caroline Morrow
HMU/Styling: Ashley Watts
HMU Assistant: Megan Deputy
Wardrobe: Dear Hearts
Food Stylist: Chris Valanne
Food Assistant: Taylor Gill
PA: Jeffery Pollina, Kevin Muenzer, Kirk Gunton

Remedy partnered with Ep+Co and Bojangles’ for their latest holiday campaign featuring the super-huge “Bo Box” dropping in on the scene.

The campaign was made up of 3 spots; Holiday Staff Party, Football Watch-Party, and Late Night Snack. For starters, we first heard about it only 10 days before filming would need to happen. We were also tasked to film all 3 spots over just 2 days at the same location. Speaking of location, it’d need to be near the Bojangles headquarters in SC but not too far away from the agency in Charlotte. Luckily, we found a house that kinda sorta worked for all three spots that was right in the middle of them both. With just a short time to prep, we quickly honed in the creative, hired crew, found/purchased/hand-sewed one of a kind props (we’d need a couple in a conjoined sweater to realistically rip apart from each other for multiple takes and a box of food to fall through the ceiling each time), auditioned actors, and finalized a plan. We were ready.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

For the Staff Holiday Party, we had quite a few things boxes we had to work within. First, there were quite a few “un-movables” to work around or avoid; piano, furniture, columns, etc. Second, the set for another one of the three spots was in the room just next to us in full view and because of the short timeline, we had to prop+light all three rooms from the get-go. So that means no looking in that direction. Third, we didn’t have much budget for actors, so we had to mostly fill the party with extras who couldn’t be “featured”. All of that and more was going to be heavily limiting our camera placement and blocking to where we basically had to block everything out for all three spots the second we walked in to fit our featured actors, main set pieces,and bo box action all into a dynamic variety of angles and sequences and be committed to that plan throughout the two days. And we did it!

The Drop SHOT

For each of the three spots, our featured action would be the Bo Box falling through the ceiling down onto a table in front of our actors. This would obviously need to happen multiple times including time for rigging as well as clean-up after each take with an already tight timeline. We went with an riggable trigger with an overhead “diaper” full of a ceiling debris cocktail to sell the effect in a repeatable way that we could hone in more and more over the course of each take. This proved to be a huge time-saver and a way to make the box drop+debris look just the way everyone wanted.

THE FOOD

Originally the plan was that we wouldn’t be filming any of the food close-ups on the day-of because the agency+client had their “go-to” food director they wanted to use for that and in hopes that it would help make up some time for our already tight production schedule. So with that, they filmed all of the food and table close-ups in Chicago the day before our production started. We didn’t get to see what any of that looked like until the morning of our production, but after seeing them, we decided it would be safer for us to steal some time away to go ahead and film the food close-ups ourselves. Luckily we did, because ours ended up matching much better and were lit in a more food-flattering way, so our shots are ultimately what were used in the final edits with the agency scrapping the shots they got in Chicago.

As always, we learned a ton and have been carrying those lessons into our recent productions, but are really happy with how everything turned out. Bojangles’, Ep+Co, Remedy, and crew all share in the success of this one, as it truly was a team effort!