The following is a short story about how a project came to fruition.

(TL;DR: we made a film for Ashton Woods and it won an award. Want to learn a lot more about the process? Scroll away!)

The First Pitch

Back in September of 2019, just before the world turned upside-down and inside-out, a digital agency in Atlanta asked us to partner with them to compete for an RFP from Ashton Woods, an Atlanta-based company that builds luxury homes across the United States. The RFP had a large video component, something this agency had limited experience with. Thus the partnership.

As part of our proposal, we thought it would be a good idea to create a spec video to give Ashton Woods an idea of the type of work we’d like to make for them. We envisioned something both dreamy and aspirational. We didn’t have a ton of designer home material in our existing portfolio, so we requested access to one of AW’s model homes, and thankfully they obliged.

We were in the midst of several projects at the time, so we only had a couple of days to make this thing. We decided to put together something of a tone poem about life and home, with an original script, music from a friend, and footage from our own library along with whatever we could film at the AW model home. For the latter, we determined the best time of day for our shoot by using Google Earth to find the ideal position of the sun, then scheduled a half-day shoot with a very small crew to ultimately gather moving-camera imagery of the empty (but very well-staged) home.

Next we gathered some of the more family-centric lifestyle imagery from our library of footage from past projects along with footage we filmed in the AW model home. Then Blake stayed up all night just, you know, thinking about life, the meaning of it, and the whole concept of “home” and ultimately writing a script.  It ended up being a pretty dreamy piece that attempts to channel Terrence Malick. Check it out:

Then, together with our agency partner, we had our pitch day. It went well, and this little spec film seemed to make an impression. We left feeling… ok? I mean, do you ever feel like you killed it and won the work right after a pitch? I don’t.

Well wouldn’t you know it, we didn’t win the work! We were bummed. The partner agency was bummed. But you can’t win ‘em all, right? Everyone shook it off, marked it down as a learning experience and moved on with their… oh wait… no we didn’t! We shut down! We holed up at home and shut the whole goddamn thing down! Almost forgot about all that.

Second Chances

Let’s get back on track here and hyperlapse our way to October of 2021. The phone rings one sunny Wednesday afternoon and wouldn’t you know it’s Ashton Woods. They had a new need for a Brand Anthem film, and their very perceptive and tasteful Chief Marketing Officer kept thinking about our little spec film from that pitch back before the world turned into a made-for-TV version of The Biohazard From Hell, and wanted to talk. Of course we were all like, “Hah! Ok!”

Well… some things led to other things, including (in rapid sequence) proposals, shock and awe, revised proposals, damn-head shakes, enthusiastic head nods, elbow bumps, and ultimately we found ourselves in pre-production for the Ashton Woods Brand Anthem film. Ashton Woods is known for its inspiring design and exquisite details; the Brand Anthem also needed to show beauty and emotion of people enjoying life in these amazing homes.

Pre-Production

Over the next 30 days, we planned out a series of shoots in model homes in Austin, Houston, and Raleigh. We used AW’s excellent Matterport tours of their model homes along with more visits to Google Earth to virtually scout each property we’d be filming in and to design the scenes that would unfold within them. Our resident casting savant Sir Benjamin Arnold effortlessly cast 50+ people in each of these local markets, mostly comprised of real families, to star in these scenes.

Although the primary goal of this project was to make a Brand Anthem film, another was to create a library of footage that could be used for many years. Think social posts, alternate videos, digital ads, employee engagement, etc. All of the footage would showcase Ashton Woods’ excellent designs through the experiences of actual families being real people in their homes. We were going for warmth and authenticity, and wanted each scene to feel like a dreamy montage that, again, channels our buddy Terrence Malick (we know someone who knows him, ok?).

Production

We had our dream team on this one and we had a blast despite a couple of fun little Covid hiccups and our director breaking his hand. Here are some photos of production:

Twelve days of shooting and hundreds of rapid COVID tests later, we had a 7TB library of footage to work with that highlights AW’s excellent design in a unique and creative light that stands out from their competition big time.

Post

Our first step in post was to assemble a montage of our favorite scenes from the shoot. It took a little while to comb through everything, but we did, and we also included a music recommendation we found from the library of the brilliant composer Keith Kennif www.unseenmusic.com

Ashton Woods had their creative agency to craft the script for this one, and the result? Ashton Woods just won a gold OBIE Award for the video at the Greater Atlanta Home Builders annual gala. Home sales are higher than ever. And most importantly, Ashton Woods has a game-changing Anthem Video along with a library of footage that will last a long time.