Tree Of Life
Clogau.
TV Commercial
So what do you do when you need a tree in full bloom, in the perfect spot, in the middle of winter?
This is what our producers were asking themselves after S3 Advertising asked us to create Clogau’s Valentine’s Day TV Commercial. The film would feature the Clogau family, which included Welsh presenter Gethin Jones and the tree would play a vital role too with the campaign based around Clogau’s Tree of Life collection. It needed to be big and have character.
However, you tend to only have evergreens in the Cardiff and South Wales area during winter, which scream Christmas… not quite what our client, nor we as a video production company want for a Valentine’s Day TV Commercial!
Time was running out on finding the ideal location, and bringing in a tree seemed expensive and far too complicated, so we decided the strongest option would be to add a CGI Tree in Post. This allowed us to use any tree wanted, dialling in on the foliage, bark, size, with, branches – etc.
After shooting tests and integrating a reference tree, we decided on an Oak tree to symbolise longevity, strength, stability and endurance amongst other positive things – all symbolic details that helped to bring our family even closer together. During the shoot, stands with tennis balls became our tree stand-in, the director explaining to the cast and crew about how this would look in the final stages.
“Amazing work on the commercial, looks beautiful!”
S3 Advertising
Work began in earnest once we got to the edit. Working with self proclaimed CGI Nerd, Stephen Thomas, we fine tuned the tree’s design and the way it sat within the scene. It had to look real and seamless – anything else and the concept would fall in on itself. As you can imagine, our director had a few sleepless nights – but it all came together in the end.
A strong performance from the Clogau family, Stephen’s CGI abilities and a fitting colour grade came together to create an emotive film that both agency and client were very happy with.
