Anchor Hot Chocolate: The Making Of

Last Christmas, we made a commercial.

and the very next day, we were still shooting.
Just a heads-up: this blog post may make you view the Anchor Hot Chocolate commercial in a completely new light-one you might never unsee! If you haven’t watched our commercial film for Anchor Hot Chocolate yet, do that now and then come back here.

Ever wondered what goes into creating some of those 30-second ads you see on TV in between your favourite movies (yes, the ones that rerun about 50 times a month)? Some are annoying, some are funny, and a few stand out as heartfelt enough to tug at your heartstrings. So, let's "Take a moment" and show you how we made Christmas with Anchor Hot Chocolate.

If i'm being honest, as the editor on this, and in general, working in the commercial production space changes the way you see those back to back commercials. I find myself in constant analysis, trying to figure out how they did this, that, and what not. It goes something like this:

• Where the heck is this place in Sri Lanka?

• The editor must've hated this song...

• How on earth did they do that???

And I know it's not just me - this is normal speak in the industry, especially when it's a really good commercial. A DOP can't not think about how the shot looks and a producer can't not estimate how much it would've cost. My boss however has an easy-fix-alternative to every "complicated" shot we see in just about any commercial. That mechanical engineering degree does come in handy (most of the time).

Having been there to witness the ideation and pre-production process, I noticed that we hadn't shot a few of the shots we had initially planned, way before it went through pipelines. Personally, If we had the allocation of extra time both on the shoot day(s) as well as in the video itself, I feel it would've taken this commercial to whole new heights. Here's one of the sequences:

The camera zooms across the steaming Hot Chocolate which transitions to the living room, filled with decorations, only to reveal that the shot is upside down. The reason for this is because it's the POV of the daughter who is looking at her mother topping the Christmas tree with the Star.

Shot by Shot

This Shot above lasts for approximately under a second if not on the dot. How long did it take to shoot? How many people made that shot possible?

The reason this shot took so long was for a number of reasons:

• Getting enough light to expose the Hot Chocolate mix with a probe lens.

• Shaping the powder to make it look like the aesthetic mountains of Belgium.

• Getting the right 'scoop'.

Now picture this; a girl spinning gracefully, her movement transitioning seamlessly into the next shot. Sounds simple, right? Except we had to mount a RED Helium camera on two bars, 25 feet high, upside down. The stress levels in the room were palpable - the heartbeats of our director, DOP, and producer might as well have been the soundtrack. After an agonising process to bring the camera down safely, we moved to the next shot: a top-down view of Hot Chocolate being stirred.

Pressing record was a feat by itself

Now this shot looks natural doesn't it? Authentic, home-made, bubbly Hot Chocolate?

Well if you drank it, you'd probably clean out your colon. That's because in order to keep that frothy texture, we used an old industry trick - Dish soap. "Why?" you may ask. It's to keep the 'frothiness' of the Hot Chocolate through multiple takes, without having a new cuppa made every single take. Like the previous shot, we needed the stirring speed and directionality to be as close as we could possibly get it.

Next up, my personal favourite: the bauble shot. This was achieved with a makeshift rig created by our Unit Manager, Samorn (a.k.a. “Rig-it-Sam”), alongside the director, Shenick Tissera. Using a Sony FX3 paired with a Tamron 17mm Lens, it took seven attempts to keep the bauble perfectly in focus (Fun fact: that’s Shenick’s hand, not the actor’s!). The goal was to highlight the bauble with bokeh lights, a recurring theme throughout the video.

Focus testing with our producer, Meshari Fahim

One of the more challenging shots involved capturing the luscious pour of Hot Chocolate. While some production houses might opt for CGI, we wanted the natural flow of the liquid. So began the trial and error of how much water, milk, and Anchor Hot Chocolate mix we had to include to get the flow we wanted. And once we did, everyone had just a little serotonin overdose on how well it came out (I mean look at it, seriously).

This shot would then transition to the nostalgic moment of mounting the star onto the Christmas tree. The light leaks from behind the Christmas tree were powered by an Amaran 300c light, to simulate the time of day (Keep reading to see how and why we simulated day time).

The final shot, to our surprise, ended up being 100% practical. Initially, the plan was to composite the packaging and steaming Hot Chocolate in post-production. Instead, we captured it exactly as you see it - two varieties of Anchor Hot Chocolate amidst a happy family enjoying their Christmas memory.

Lights, Camera, Patience

Now of course, none of what you see in the final video was shot in order. In order to keep to a schedule (the very best we could) we had to sort our schedule in order of what's easiest to set up and shoot, to what's hardest. The faster we get the easier shots out of the way, the more time we'd have to shoot the considerably complex ones and have room to improvise. Then again like most shoots in just about any production house, things tend to happen, and we go over schedule. Our call time was 6AM to 10PM (22 hours). And on a technical aspect, we did finish at 10. Just that it was AM the next day. Lighting played a critical role in this commercial. From location scouts to art direction, every detail was meticulously planned.Instead of using harsh lights, we relied on smaller lamps to create a cosy atmosphere. The only sizeable lights we used were for the probe shot and to simulate daylight. Fun fact: only three shots (1, 2, and 6) show the actual time of day. For the rest, any light streaming through the windows was simulated with external lighting.

And with that, it moves on to my department. The editing. When it comes to storyboarded commercials, the edits are pretty straight forward, and only the duration needs to be worked in as TV Commercials have very strict time frames (even though watching them feels like forever!) With a little colour grading treatment there, sound design and treatment here, we wrapped up this commercial a few weeks before Christmas and sent it off for the holidays. If you want to learn more about our post production process or the type of equipment we use (and improvise), stay tuned for future blogs!