Bringing Many Talents to the Table

Every project demands something different—whether it’s bold, stylized visuals or a heart-wenching story. That's why at Skalawag, we’re more than our job titles. Each team member is a multi-talented creative, ready to adapt and deliver exactly what your project needs to shine.

So when we began brainstorming ideas for Twisted Hippo’s new THC Seltzer "Shine On" - it felt like the perfect project to make my Skalawag directorial debut.?

I was excited to dig in, since I already loved the artistic style of the brand. The designs of the Shine On cans, accompanied with their flavor characters, felt very dated in the “Let’s All Go to the Lobby” 1950s cinema era. Since I am a cinematographer at heart, my approach to directing is often very visual-focused, and very playful and purposeful with its editing.?

This brought about the idea of having the first half of the commercial be a homage to the black & white television of that time. I thought it would be funny to set-up the story by doing a channel-switching gag, where the sentence continues along each channel despite the subject matter changing (in an ode to Edgar Wright’s “Shaun of the Dead.”)?

Once we “go inside the tv,” I wanted the second half of the commercial to be an explosion of color and fun, since the Shine On cans are beautifully saturated, and the product itself contains real fruit. Many fruit call-out shots we’ve done in the past have been done very actively (slow-motion shots of the fruit flying up into the air,) but for this ad, I wanted to arrange the fruit as if it were still-life paintings.

Then, the cherry on top (ba-dum-tiss) was animating the fun fruit characters on the can. (Ryan Kelly, our lead editor/animator, brought them to life.)

In addition to this being my Skalawag directorial debit, this project was also one that was handled entirely in-house with the Skalawag team. Including beautiful food and prop styling by one of our very own editors, Syd Beil. Broadening each of our expertises empowers us to still craft a perfect final product even when the budget may not allow for specialized roles.

So whether you want something vibrant and a little whimsical, something mouthwateringly delicious, or a moving, emotional story, someone here at Skalawag is capable of taking the reins to deliver exactly what you need.

Watch the video below!