Filming a commercial for Okanagan Spirits ‘BRBN Whiskey’ proved to be ‘thirsty work’ for CAT’s Professional Filmmaking Q3 students.

Professional Filmmaking students have been in high spirits recently – quite literally! As part of their Cinematography and Production course, the Q3 students have spent the past term creating a commercial for ‘BRBN Whiskey’, from Okanagan-based craft distillery Okanagan Spirits.

“The purpose of the assignment was to offer the students who are currently working on a TV show support in developing advertising content for it,” explains Victor Poirier, CAT Professional Filmmaking Department Head.

“As part of the project, students are expected to develop a treatment for the commercial, then storyboard, script, film and edit it into a finished product. Students were specifically looking at using high-speed camera techniques and macro lens work to construct advertising content.”

“Shooting with a macro lens was really fun, and brought our work to the next level.” says Nadja Penaluna, CAT Professional Filmmaking student.

The commercial uses beautifully lit closeups of product to create a moody and sophisticated filmscape. It was the students’ first foray into corporate advertising, and was an excellent learning experience.

Shooting so close up really demands that you consider compositional principles. A constant thought is ‘this looks good, but how do we make it better?!’

Nadja Penaluna

“When you are shooting product the details are critical – you have to nail them to sell the product. Placement of the lights, camera, and product itself has be perfect, as that is what the consumer/audience is ultimately responding to. Setting up took us a long time. We didn’t realise before the project how long the set up of lights and set design would take!” explains Nadja.

“Shooting so close up really demands that you consider compositional principles. A constant thought is ‘this looks good, but how do we make it better?!’ Victor really emphasized the need for precision; perfectionism is what is called for!”

“Our crew was made up of six students and instructor Victor Poirier as Executive Producer We didn’t really designate roles on this project, as it was a learning exercise, but we all took turns on the various aspects of filming,” says Penaluna.

“I really enjoyed working with the lighting. Experimenting with different lighting set ups was really valuable and I learned a lot having this hands-on experience. It’s also nice to take something from A to Z – we started with an idea and brought it to fruition. It is so rewarding to see the final product turning out so well. Hopefully the client agrees!”