1 Visually Stunning Sewell Lincoln TV Commercial
Today marks the culmination of several months of planning, scripting, storyboarding, shot listing, shooting, editing, and coloring, as the Sewell Lincoln spot is approved and getting sent out for delivery!
Overcoming overwhelming odds, we have done what we once thought impossible: producing a large-scale television commercial for the greater West Texas area.
Several months ago, in the spring, Jacob and I were going around to different businesses simply trying to get the Hamil Bros Studios name and our video work in front of people.
The Sewell Family of Companies was one of the places that we had planned to visit. We were nervous. Having grown up in Odessa and Midland, we knew the Sewell name and knew they weren’t your typical car lot. They had standards, and we wanted to meet those standards.
We walked in and asked to speak to someone in the marketing department. Much to our surprise, we were ushered in fairly quickly and had a meeting on the spot. We met Tyler and Nick, and our trajectory, as a business, was about to change forever.
As it turns out, the timing could not have been better. They were re-structuring the marketing division and looking for a video production company. At the conclusion of our introductory meeting with them, they told us that we were exactly what they were looking for: a company that focuses on commercial work while not adhering to the normal, cookie-cutter genericism that the television stations and dinosaur video production companies had relegated themselves to.
Big Things Move Slowly, Until they Don’t
Since the marketing division was only about a week old, we knew that it would be a little while before there would be any movement. As excited as we were, patience was the only option.
After a couple of months, we finally got an email from our contacts at Sewell and they wanted to have another meeting and discuss a few ideas and introduce us to their copywriter.
We weren’t exactly sure what to expect, but what we didn’t expect was to be ushered into the big conference room, introduced to the president of the company, and served lemon water by his butler. Yes, you read that correctly: the butler. We felt pretty out of place since we weren’t wearing tuxedoes, but we were treated as though we were. What an experience!
The meeting went wonderfully and, what we initially thought would be a single television ad turned into multiple and we walked away with 3 ideas, the first of which was the Sewell Lincoln ad.
We were given the concepts with the mission to script them out and make them production ready.
Hailing from Lubbock, we figured that the two-hour drive back would get us started. However the creative juices were flowing in overtime and I’m pretty sure that we had the majority of the script and shot list completed by the time we completed our journey.
Once the scripting was done to our satisfaction, we sent it to the guys at Sewell for further collaboration. In an unexpected flow of events, they came back with the go-ahead to start planning the shoot.
Once June rolled around, we nailed down production dates. The production schedule came to a total of about three and a half days spread out over 3 weeks due to everyone’s summer schedule.
Investing in a big Hamil Bros Studios future in video production
New Gear, Who Dis?
With the size of this commercial shoot, the budget was the largest we’ve ever seen. Coming from shooting television ads for $500 to receiving a budget of mid-range 5 figures, we seized an opportunity to do some heavy equipment investing.
Having been a member of Shane’s Inner Circle for some time, and having followed his blog, there were some very specific purchases.
Lights
Something we had been sorely lacking in our productions was a sufficient amount of light. We had some Home Depot lights and a few Amazon compact fluorescent lights in soft boxes, but they just didn’t cut it. This production was going to require some night shooting and we would need all the light we could get.
For this we turned to CameTV and bought a knockoff set of Arri tungsten lights (two 1k lights and two 650w lights) complete with stands.
We also purchased a set of LED panel lights (also with stands) that were daylight colored but came with tungsten CTO filters.
Finally, we bought some support for these and acquired some impact C-Stands. Boy are they heavy, but we’re confident they’ll stand up to anything.
The final step was something that was a bit more personal. Anyone who knows anything about light stands knows that safety comes first, and that the first line of defense with light stands is good sand bags.
This is where our mother, Donna, came in clutch and made us our first sand bags, which we are certain will last us for years to come.
Camera
Our first big buy was working our way into the Blackmagic 4k Production camera. We’d been in the 2.5k Cinema camera for over a year and wanted to take advantage of the bigger resolution, not to mention the global shutter on this camera. Kitted out with a full Tilta cage, shoulder mount, and matte box, this was going to be our new go-to rig.
We also purchased some new monitors. Our big boy was the SmallHD DP-7 Pro, which was loaded with all sorts of features. Second was the SmallHD DP-4 EVH kit which turns the small 4” monitor into an electronic viewfinder, which is a must in the West Texas sun.
Lastly, we purchased an Atomos Ninja Blade, which is a 5” monitor/recorder. This monitor was to give us a little more quality out of our Canon T3i by allowing us to record directly to ProRes and bypass the camera’s internal mp4 compression.
One of the smaller purchases that made a big impact was the purchase of a neutral density filter kit along with an adapter for our GoPro, but more on that later…
With all of this, we bought some rather large Pelican Storm cases to house all of the cameras and monitors.
Action
Next, we purchased a 32’ CameTV camera jib. You know those big sweeping shots you see on primetime television or concerts where the camera starts low and raises way up there? Yeah, we are going to be able to do that now.
Searching craigslist, we were able to find some weights that would be perfect for balancing this thing out.
Along with the jib, we purchased a basic tripod dolly with a 20’ rail.
Lastly, but certainly not least, our single biggest purchase for this project was the Freefly MōVI M5 gimbal. This was an extremely exciting purchase as it allowed us smooth motion to move the camera wherever we wanted while eliminating the handheld look.
We’d been using different iterations of the small steadicam units for several years and they were always much more trouble than they were worth. But, this was going to be next level.
The week before the production commenced, we spent somewhere near 20 hours building and rigging our dolly track with a motor for a time-lapse shot. Now, when I say that “we” spent time, I mean that Jacob, our dad, Lonnie Hamil, and I all spent time. Without his help, that venture would have been a lost cause.
Since we had no options for real motion control, this was our best option. Using some heavy duty fishing line, a 2×4, and a rotisserie motor, I devised a method of moving the camera for a timelapse. Lonnie’s engineering prowess brought it all to life. In the end, the shot was cut from the TV commercial…
The Time Had Come
Production Commences
This commercial shoot was our first time to really put our new gear through their paces. One downside that we hadn’t anticipated was that, upon its release, the 4k camera only shot ProRes and the firmware had not yet been released that would unlock its Cinema DNG raw capabilities. That meant that we were limited on what we could do in post production.
The other thing was that our gimbal was underpowered for using either of our Blackmagic cameras, so we were forced to use the Canon t3i.
Day 1/2
On our first day, we shot at the home of a family friend. We tackled the day-to-night timelapse of the exterior of the home.
We placed the 4k camera on a tripod, set the timelapse interval, and let it run.
Our second day was spent on the interior motion controlled timelapse. To be candid, that was a nerve racking day. We started the recording and the motor and went inside to watch on the monitor…
But the monitor was registering no signal. Setting up the dolly took longer than expected, so restarting the timelapse run wasn’t really an option. We had to just have faith that the shot was going to work.
Turns out that I had simply plugged the cable into the wrong port on the monitor. That made for several stressful hours.
Day 3
The third day, we were back at the same house. This time, we assembled the 32’ jib to get the shot of “Dad” coming home from work in his Sewell Ford truck.
The jib took a while to get built, but we got it done in time.
Now, you may be asking yourself, “why on earth did this take 3 days?” The answer is that, we had to wait for specific times of day so that the different shoots would visually look the same since it all takes place between the end of a work day and the evening.
After a few takes, we got the shot we wanted and had to tear the whole thing down.
Once evening arrived, we got our talent, BJ Huey and the lovely Ashley Brooks to jump in the hero vehicle for their departure from home.
Day/Night 4
The final night was the grand finale. This night we were going to be out at the new Sewell property, Parks Lagado.
Let me tell you, this was one of the nicest places we’ve ever filmed and that made our job so much easier.
A good location is paramount to getting a good result in any video production.
Again, we built the jib to get our shot of the family arriving at dinner.
This was the most difficult night because it was the first time we would have on-set talent performing an action other than driving away from the camera. and it was a night time exterior, so we needed lighting.
Something that we didn’t have was a generator. Tray Dix, one of our fishing buddies came to the rescue, loaning us a generator that gave us enough power to run everything we needed that night.
We had a whole crew that night. Some working, some spectating, but it was a blast.
It Takes a Video Village
During the production, we had a really great team around us and we owe a debt of gratitude to a plethora of people (yes, I know what a “plethora” is for all of you fans of El Guapo). I am going to try to remember everyone here, if I forget someone, let me know and I will make sure you are added:
- Shawn and Megan Miller – You guys gave us invaluable information on what needed to happen to get our business really going.
- Kyle Bullock – You gave us the “how” to execute on the “what” and had you not given us a verbal butt-kicking to make us get out and meet businesses, this blog post would not be happening.
- Tyler and Nick (Team Sewell) – You guys took a risk to place your bets on us as your production company and we are eternally grateful. You’ve been extremely encouraging and incredibly easy to work with.
- Ashley Brooks – You have volunteered yourself on more than one occasion and this time you volunteered your child. You’ve not only been extraordinarily supportive, you’ve helped us out of a bind a few times. You show up early, leave late and are always willing to lend a helping hand (like moving jib weights while you’re dressed up for a night on the town). We are sad to see you moving, but, we are excited for your new journey with your family. We also want to thank Alan for loaning you to us and for being cool headed about you having a different husband in every shoot you’re in for us 😉
- BJ – You are a darn, fine-looking man and I’m pleased as can be that we got to use you for this commercial. We are thankful that you and Natalie gave up a couple of your evenings to help us out on this.
- The Whiteheads – Thank you for loaning us your house on a couple of occasions. It was the perfect location and you make it extremely accessible and were very gracious hosts.
- Tray Dix – Thanks for loaning us your generator. It would have been dark and lonely without it.
- Dad – You have helped us out more than we could ever thank you for. From building a motor mount for our dolly to sanding a guitar off the side of a trailer, you have gone above and beyond.
- Mom – The list could go on forever. There is no hat that you haven’t worn for us: babysitter, hotel manager, housekeeping, caterer, sandbag maker, chef, cast & crew, bookkeeper, go-fer, banker, chauffeur, nurse, and mother (and that’s just in the last month!) I’m sure I’ve missed quite a bit of your duties, but, I think people get the idea. You are the glue that really holds this thing together.
- Mom and Dad – Your work ethic has been passed on to Jacob and I. You can never do anything half-way and neither can we. You both have been supportive to a degree that neither Jacob or I can even imagine and you don’t really complain about it which is miraculous because Jacob and I tend to drive people bonkers.
Ready to stop looking like every other dealership?
Sewell Lincoln didn’t settle for the same recycled footage and cookie-cutter scripts that flood the market. They chose Hamil Bros Studios — and the difference shows.
If your dealership is tired of blending in, let’s create work that actually stands out.
Call us. Let’s make your next campaign the one people notice.
Hamil Bros Studios
West Texas video production that refuses to look average.