A Race Against the Clock
A Dobbs Law Firm 2026 Super Bowl Commercial on a Deadline
If you know Hamil Bros Studios, you know that we can work with tight deadlines. This Dobbs Law Firm 2026 Super Bowl commercial was no exception.
When Spencer reached out on Monday, January 26, with an idea, we had to prepare and be ready to go on the 29th.
This meant the tightest Super Bowl deadline we had ever faced.
A Story Needing Told
On January 26th, we were in the middle of shooting a music video for a new LABOR XII song, Breathe. We were working with Ross’ son, Jonathan, and trying to get footage in the snow, since it is so rare in West Texas.
Just as we wrapped that day, Spencer called and told us what he wanted to do for his 2026 Super Bowl commercial.
He told us about Michele, a client of his who had pulled over on the shoulder on Interstate 20, just outside of Monahans, TX, when, out of nowhere, she was struck from behind.
The driver that hit her was driving a company truck and he was streaming videos on his phone while driving.
The story was pretty unimaginable.
Spencer Dobbs asked us to do what we’ve done for him in the past: make it memorable.
Dreams Can Be Good Things
The morning of the shoot, Ross woke up to a dream. He dreamed of getting some shots of Michele in her car from various angles and bringing those into the commercial.
Hands gripping the steering wheel. Buckling the seatbelt, adjusting mirrors.
All things that we do regularly, but we don’t really think about until we imagine having been in such an accident.
It didn’t take any convincing to get Jacob on board.
We also wanted to get some interaction with Spencer and Michele.
We wanted the ad to feel personable. We see lots of personal injury attorney commercials and they almost feel like they are coming down from an ivory tower to work with you and Spencer is not like that. In fact, he is quite the opposite: humble.
No mascots, monkeys, medals, or super hero poses. What you see is what you get.
The Shoot Day
As we packed the car, early on the 29th, to make our journey through the West Texas sunrise and into Odessa, there was an excitement in the air; we hadn’t been under the deadline gun like this in quite some time.
As we made our way to Midland, Hope, Spencer’s paralegal, emailed us some information on the case. She also emailed us a copy of a Google review that Michele had done for the Dobbs Law Firm.
The review was absolute gold and would definitely be getting used.
Cameras
As is the case with most of our shoots, we opted to pair up our Blackmagic Pyxis and Blackmagic 6k Full Frame Cameras. Each had its respective Tokina Cinema Vista Prime lens, monitored with the Osee G7 Pro monitor, and, of course, powered by BlueShape Batteries.
Lights
This shoot was a bit unique in that we were shooting somewhere we hadn’t before in the Dobbs Law Firm office building.
Spencer has a sitting room that opens directly into his office and Ross had the idea of wanting to frame Michele in the doorway looking into Spencer’s office.
This meant that we would need to light both Michele and the office behind her since its color palette is based in darker wood and green colors.
While Jacob worked on building the Aputure 600C Pro for Michele, Ross headed outside to start building the Aputure 1200d Pro for our room fill.
For the key light (the 600C) Jacob built it with the Aputure Light dome with its heaviest diffusion and the grid.
On the 1200, Ross built it with the Aputure Light Dome 150 and removed the diffusion to give more of a parallel light look.
This lifted the room wonderfully. It gave the office a warm and inviting feeling.
In the back was a hallway that goes into a private study. In this room, Ross rigged our new Aputure 80C with the bulb modifier. This lifted that room just a touch and made it not fall off too harshly into darkness. It simulated a small window light and gave the hallway a touch of character.
Finally, the backlight was set with the Amaran 300C. This gave Michele and Spencer a great little rim of light that would brighten their edges against the darker office behind them.
Audio
The final parts of the set up were done when we rigged our audio system. Using the Zoom F8n Pro 32-bit recorder along with our Slate ML-2 microphone, Saramonic boom pole mounted to a C-Stand.
This was one of the first times we’d had the opportunity to use the Slate mic since outfitting it with a new shock mount and Rycote wind buster, which worked amazingly well.
Ross monitored audio with his DirectSound EX-29 isolating earphones.
Getting the Interview
Michele took her seat and was nervous if not uncomfortable being there.
In cases such as these, Ross will silently start recording while Jacob talks to our interviewee and lead them into the interview without letting them know.
This is a great technique for getting people talking and comfortable while getting the parts of the story we really need.
As Michele told her story, we listened in awe as we didn’t just hear a court case story, but a true story of survival.
Soon after, we had Michele read a few lines that would play to the Super Bowl commercial specifically and then some more generic lines.
We wrapped Michele’s interview part with her reading her Google review.
Building Michele’s World
Following the interviews, we went outside to get the footage of Michele in her car.
Ross handheld the Pyxis, loaded with a Tokina Vista and a couple of Firecrest IR Neutral Density filters.
Outside the car, Jacob held an Amaran 150c with an Amaran Light Dome Mini (with no diffusion) to bring up the luminance in the car.
Since this was in the parking lot, we powered the light with an Aputure power bank with a couple of Blueshape Batteries.
We got through these shots fairly quickly and made our way back into Spencer’s office where we got a few shots of Spencer and Michele greeting each other and conversing.
This was the last bit we needed from Michele.
Spencer
Once Michele was done, it was time to get the man, Spencer Dobbs, into the chair so he could shine some light on his side of things.
One of the things we learned is that they were able to quickly get a hold of the driver’s phone before it disappeared, which greatly helped Michele’s case since it was a key piece of evidence.
He also spoke to how they used forensics to prove that, contrary to the defense’s assertion, Michele was off the road and on the shoulder as she should have been.
Finally, after some time with Hope, we got a few specific lines for the commercial.
Soon after, we packed up, grabbed a very late lunch, and headed home.
Back in Lubbock
The next day, we went out to get some more b-roll.
We rigged up the Pyxis and got some footage of Jacob driving while holding his phone.
*Important disclaimer: we used a green phone tracking image and replaced the phone screen later. Jacob was driving safely and not watching the phone during the filming.
Coincidentally, this wasn’t the first time we had used this PPE and an actor for a Spencer Dobbs commercial.
Post Production
Once we got back into the studio, we hit the ground running.
Very quickly, we got the base of the ad assembled and quickly got into doing the visual effects and cleanup.
The Driver Shot
Since this entire story pivoted around a driver who was watching videos on his phone, that was an important element that we wanted and needed to have.
As mentioned before, the phone had a green tracking image on the screen that is specifically designed for screen replacements.
Using several tools in After Effects, Ross tracked the screen and replaced it with a stock footage clip of someone doing parkour (we didn’t know what the driver was watching, but it really wasn’t the point).
The Red Giant VFX Suite came in clutch on this. Between King Pin Tracker and SuperComp you can’t tell that the video wasn’t playing directly on the phone.
The Ending Title
Arguably one of the best shots in the entire ad (or at least Ross’ favorite) was the ending title.
Jacob had a vision for a 3D football with the Dobbs Law Firm logo on it.
Not being able to leave well-enough alone, Ross decided to make it bigger.
Going through their stock resources, Ross found a really cool field that was full of people.
The problem was that it was a still photo.
Again, using After Effects, Ross applied an effect to the crowd that gives the illusion that there are people moving.
From there, he added the 3D football and made sure it looked like the bottom had the correct shadows and was being obscured by field grass. Next, he took the football textures and added the Dobbs logo to it.
For the finishing touch, he added light flares to the stadium lights and brought it all together with SuperComp.
Once it was all said and done, we sent the commercial off to Spencer and got his quick approval.
We took the ad and finished the sound mix and did a little more polishing and sent it out.
In the end, we’re very proud of how the Dobbs Law Firm 2026 Super Bowl Ad turned out, especially as little time as we had to put it all together.
Get Super Bowl Ready!
While we’re not huge fans of tight deadlines, we understand that sometimes it happens, and when it does, there is not another video production company in West Texas that can do it like Hamil Bros Studios.
Contact us today to discuss your next big idea!