Filming Family Through a Child’s Eyes for Avonmore Milk

This week, Ireland’s number one milk brand, Avonmore, has launched a new campaign that puts family reunions at the heart of the story. Banjoman director, Duncan Christie, was tasked with balancing the sentimentality in a way that felt believable and true to the essence of the brand’s heritage.

“Music is always a key element when it comes to striking this balance,” he tells me. “We tried lots of approaches – piano, for example, felt too sentimental. We landed on a guitar-based track that had the emotion, but also that warmth we were after, as well as the sense of excitement and anticipation.”

The choice to portray the story from the viewpoint of a child was decided in the early stages. “We made the call to really ground the story in one perspective, which we felt would deliver the most emotive story possible, and offered a real clarity of storytelling,” says Duncan.

One of my main takeaways from watching this spot was the performance of the young protagonist. When it came down to finding the right individual to play the role, Duncan says they “cast the net far and wide," auditioning a number of children in the process. “We knew we would have to be incredibly detailed and committed in the casting process in order to capture what we needed in the time we had,” he says.

“But Riley [the main character] just blew us away from the get-go,” he tells me. “During the casting, she could so easily commit to the imagined reality of the scene and delivered a truly unselfconscious performance.”

Duncan explains that when working with child actors, he’s always looking for raw talent; “and she has it,” he says of Riley. “Dialogue in particular can be tricky, but she had real emotional intelligence that belied her years, and was able to deliver the lines in exactly the way we wanted,” Duncan adds.

The message of Avonmore’s commitment to quality is highlighted at the end of the film, without feeling shoehorned. Duncan says that is all owed to the script, “which is a clever metaphor for the brand’s commitment to quality. It was important for us that the branding was seamless and natural to the storytelling. Because the milk is such a staple to everyday family life, this was easy to achieve.”

When it came to conveying emotion, Duncan tapped into his own experience. “Now that I have a daughter myself, I can definitely feel that excitement when I return home from a shoot in a completely different way – both hers and mine!” says Duncan. “I think that emotion definitely feeds into the project one way or another.”

While Duncan says Riley’s performance was a standout from the shoot, he’s also incredibly proud of how much story they managed to fit into 30-40 seconds without the pacing ever feeling rushed.

Rousing this level of emotion from an ad about milk is no easy feat, but that’s something Duncan has pulled off with care. It feels genuine and wholesome – enough to leave you feeling warm and fuzzy for minutes to come.