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Behind the Work in association withThe Immortal Awards
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How Scotts Left No Room to Question If ‘Daylawn Saving’ Is a Big Deal

10/05/2023
Production Company
Toronto, Canada
147
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Director Jared Lapidus discusses turning a book fulfilment warehouse into a hardware store for the lawn care brand, working with ‘cold sparks’, and what it took to throw a bag of ‘fertiliser’ to a five-year-old on top of a tall pile, writes LBB’s Josh Neufeldt

The arrival of spring’s daylight savings time is always a treat. Sure, you lose an hour of sleep, but the additional hours of sunlight, warmer weather and blooming flowers outside are more than enough to make up for it. ‘Nice’ would be a fair descriptor. But ‘big deal’? That might be a bit of a stretch… unless you’re a fan of Scotts. 

In fact, for the lawn care and maintenance brand, this calendar event is the biggest deal of the year. After all, it heralds the arrival of ‘Daylawn Saving’ which, according to the 30-second spot created by VaynerMedia and directed by Jared Lapidus, is cause enough to indignantly question anyone who can’t see what a big deal this is. Whether it’s passing employees, regular shoppers, or a little girl atop a giant pile of Scotts bags, this event is one worthy of celebration - from confetti and raining sparks to bright, brassy marching band tunes. 

LBB’s Josh Neufeldt sat down with Jared, to discuss how this fun spot grew from concept to final, joyous product. 


LBB> What was the script for this campaign like, and why was this something you were keen to get involved in?


Jared> The script for this campaign was spare, absurdist, and tongue in cheek, with lots of opportunities for physical comedy and silly spectacle. It had a strong central premise: a bizarro world where everyone celebrates daylight saving time, save for our everyman lead, who functions as the analogue for the audience, reacting incredulously to the mania around him. I loved it from the moment I read it! 



LBB> What immediate ideas came to mind, and how closely does the final spot mirror that initial concept?


Jared> In comedy, there’s the rule of threes, and the rule of a thousand. This script fell firmly into the latter category, hammering the single refrain ‘What’s the big deal?’ over and over again, albeit heightened each time as it’s uttered under increasingly absurd circumstances.

For reference, I looked to other spots where the tagline is hammered over and over - Kmart’s subversively funny ‘Shipped My Pants’ spot, along with Wendy’s legendary ‘Where’s the Beef’ campaign. Somehow, in each of these, the tags only get funnier with each instance.



LBB> What was the early creative process like? How did the spot evolve, and how did you collaborate with Vayner to craft strong work?


Jared> The creative team at Vayner was wonderfully collaborative and decisive, and our instincts were aligned throughout. In terms of evolution, the initial tagline was ‘No Big Deal’, and over the course of development, we tweaked it to ‘What’s the Big Deal’, but managed to film both versions and were able to compare apples to apples in the edit.


LBB> Going into shooting, what was the preparation process like? Were there any limiting factors that you had to work around?


Jared> The primary challenge with this shoot was finding the right location. We needed it to look and feel like a big box hardware store, but Scotts has partnerships with all the major American retailers and they didn’t want to show favouritism by choosing one over the other. So, we resolved to shoot in Toronto, where you can find big box retailers who’s colour scheme and branding aren’t immediately recognisable. 

But, this opened another can of worms - if we wanted to shoot in a genuine store, we’d have to shoot consecutive overnights, and with the amount of dressing and redressing required for our Scotts product and signage, the load became too big to bear. Our Toronto production team came up with the clever plan of shooting in a book fulfilment warehouse, which had all the hallmark industrial shelving you’d expect in a big box store, but we could own it for our shoot days and dress it to our liking, without having to reset everything until we were through.



LBB> Tell us more about this! What was the on-set experience like, and what type of gear did you bring to the shoot?


Jared> After remote scouting and settling on our location, I took a quick trip up from New York City where I’m based (it’s only a 45 minute flight!), to walk through the location, plan my shots, and game plan with department heads. I returned a week later for our two-day shoot, which went great. Our crew was rock solid and our cast was a delight.

In terms of equipment, we shot the spot on the Arri Alexa Mini LF, using Arri Signature Prime lenses. This is among my favourite pairings of cameras and lenses for commercial work - the full frame lenses are spectacularly detailed and add a tremendous amount of character to faces and expressions, along with a sense of clarity and scale, which is particularly helpful when filling our wides with tons of text-based signage.


LBB> The actors throughout the spot are brilliant. Did you have a hand in casting? And if so, what were you looking for?


Jared> Casting might be the most critical step in the whole process, so I like to be as involved as I can. In this case, we had actors submit self-tapes, and after reviewing and making selections, we did a live callback session over Zoom. For our lead couple, likability and relatability were paramount. As the sanity baseline for the spot, our husband needed to remain dubious throughout. For our shoppers and employees, we were looking for real ‘characters’ - folks with that intangible quality that makes them singularly funny and engaging. Since their dialogue really boiled down to a single line - and it needed to be unique with each delivery - I asked our actors to have a specific subtext in mind as they each gasped, ‘What’s the big deal?’.


LBB> This humour is certainly evident in the final spot! How did you work with the actors to bring out their best performances?


Jared> I love working with actors, particularly comedians who can take what’s on the page and elevate it tenfold. But more than anything, I like to cultivate a fun, creative and collaborative environment on set. Unlike long-form, commercial work doesn't allow time for the actors to truly rehearse or ‘find the character’. Creating an atmosphere for them to feel loose, comfortable and willing to experiment on the fly is really important to me. It makes the experience enjoyable for everyone, and inevitably yields a better (and funnier) finished piece.



LBB> In particular, the cut to the child on top of the bag stack saying ‘what’s the big deal?’ is super memorable. What went into achieving this, and how did you capture it in a safe fashion? 


Jared> I was particularly excited to shoot this segment, and pleased with how it all turned out. While the character was always scripted atop this massive pile, I’d pitched the idea in my treatment of her dad heaving a bag of Scotts up to her like he was competing in the World’s Strongest Man competition. 

In order to pull this off, we had our child actress, Lerato, rigged with a body harness and safety cable (which we painted out), seated atop a fixed plank at the top of the pile (which we simply dressed out). The bag tossed up to her was filled with styrofoam balls (rather than heavy fertiliser), and we covered it with sticky double sided tape to aid her catch.


LBB> Equally memorable is the confetti and dancing portion. How did you bring this to life?


Jared> We worked with a great SFX team to bring these effects to life. We set a crossbeam pre-rigged with our ‘waterfall’ pyro effects and drop down banners (which were low-fi pulley operated). We rigged several pairs of sparkle pyro from the ground, and everything was triggered to go simultaneously on ‘action’. Notably, the sparks were ‘cold sparks’ - safe for the actors nearby, and critically, safe for all the potential kindling in our book warehouse.



LBB> Do you have any anecdotes to share from on set?


Jared> Lerato, our child actress who sat atop the tall pile of Scotts was the most adorable and precocious five-year-old you could imagine. She was an instant and unanimous ‘yes’ during casting, and a total star on set. She couldn’t wait to be rigged into the safety harness and hoisted atop the pile of Scotts, smiling and waving nonstop to her mom on the ground. And, as a bonus, she utterly nailed every take.


LBB> When it came to aesthetics and the look and feel, what were your main aims and ambitions, and how did you achieve them through lighting and colour?


Jared> We knew that our Scotts signage and product would bring a ton of colour and life into the space, but first, we needed to make certain that our converted warehouse looked every bit the big box hardware retailer. It was a heavy lift for our production designer, Daria Savic, but her team managed to pull off an incredible feat - transforming the dingy cardboard-lined shelves into a handsome showcase for Scotts product, along with an entirely fake store entrance (masking more warehouse space behind it). Additionally, our director of photography, Matt Ryan, nailed the tall task of overhauling the dingy fluorescent house lights and replacing them with the bright, even, modern feel you’d expect in a Lowe's or Home Depot.



LBB> Did you have a hand in the post process? And if so, what was that like?


Jared> I came up as an editor, and view editing as an extension of the directing process. When I develop a shot list I’m cutting the piece in my head, and while on set, I’m always shooting for the edit. So, I like to be as hands-on and involved as possible in the edit, working early on with the editor to craft and hone the timing, rhythm, and pacing of performances and jokes, and to make sure that the cut remains as close to the original vision as possible. In this case, we had a terrific editor in SNL alum Jeremiah Shuff, and the process was wonderfully collaborative.



LBB> Are there any elements of the project you’re particularly proud of? And why?


Jared> Given the specificity of the visuals from the agency’s original boards, I’m particularly pleased with how closely we were able to stick to them and bring the vision to life. I’m also relieved at how many different vignettes we were able to squeeze into 30 short seconds. 


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