This was an interesting project to work on because it was shot on 16 mm film using a Bolex camera. Shooting on film requires a great deal more planning since film is much more expensive than video tape. The concept for this commercial was motivated by one of my favorite songs by the Cowboy Junkies, Cold Tea Blues. The ending of this song is actually a bit sad, but I was able to avoid the melancholy ending since the commercial wouldn’t be as long as the entire song.

The desired effect of the commercial was to sell the comfort and warmth of drinking tea; it takes you to a safe place. The entire shoot took several hours, with most of the time spent blocking shots. The cookies in the commercial were baked shortly before filming since my partner, Nicole, shot a commercial about cookies in the same kitchen. When we were planning our shoots, we decided to work together since the concept of our commercials were somewhat related. From what Nicole told me, the tea I brewed tasted awful; but she was a good sport about drinking so much of it for me. It’s too bad I wasn’t able to reciprocate because while my tea was terrible, her cookies tasted great.