This Director Depicted the Struggle of Impossible Choice for Salvation Army Canada’s Latest Spot

Here’s a hypothetical question for you. If you only had the money for one option, would you buy your family dinner, and temporarily pause the inevitable, gnawing hunger for another night, or get your child crucial medicine for their wellbeing?

Don’t worry, there’s no right or wrong answer to this question. However, if it made you feel uncomfortable, that’s the point. Even if you’ve never had to adopt this mindset at any point in your life – a luxury unto itself – your reaction is clear confirmation that the decision is not a pleasant or easy one to make, and it doesn’t take much empathy from there to know exactly why nobody should ever have to. But yet, that’s just not how it works. Even in a first-world country like Canada, hypotheticals like these aren’t thought experiments – they’re the reality people face on a day to day basis, where it feels like no matter what gets done, it’s always going to be wrong in some capacity. The weight of these split-second choices is immense, and that’s exactly what Salvation Army Canada’s latest spot captures in painfully poignant fashion.

Created by Grey Toronto, and directed by Dear Friend’s Andrew Litten, this black-and-white film does not need dialogue to send a clear and loud message. Depicting various people struggling with the impossible nature of such choices, it serves as a powerful reminder that it falls to people in positions of privilege to play their part in making things better. It may not be joyous content, but it’s honest – a reality that needs to be faced, addressed, and, crucially, not ignored, if things are ever to get better and real change is to be made.

To learn more about the process of how this emotionally heavy piece came together, LBB’s Jordan Won Neufeldt sat down with Andrew for a chat.

LBB> From the top, what was the brief for this project, and why was this something you were keen to be involved in?

Andrew> I received the script from Garth Collins (managing director at Dear Friend) and immediately knew we had to do it. A lot of what’s in the final piece was already there – the real-life title cards that play out as the characters’ inner dialogue were baked in from the start – so I immediately knew this was a necessary project to be a part of.

A lot of my work is rooted in putting my own life story into my projects, and the script reminded me of moments I was confronted with as a teenager. I saw a lot of distant but familiar parallels I wanted to explore. Huge shoutout to the team at Grey Toronto (Sebastian Benitez, Tomas Soares, Jamie Spears and Deena Archibald) for spearheading such a powerful concept.

LBB> It’s said that you created a treatment very early on for this project. What did you envision, and how did you ensure it would effectively reflect such a simple but bleak premise?

Andrew> Right when we received the script, before the shortlist was announced, I sent over a few pages of thoughts and ideas. We all knew early on that we had to really take the idea seriously, as it was dealing with poverty in a very confrontational manner. My first reference was the black-and-white photography of Eugene Richards. There’s a powerful rawness – an unpolished beauty and respect – in his imagery that I began to look towards as our North Star.

LBB> You also personally did location scouting, even before storyboarding. What was the process like, why was this important to you, and how did it inform your final vision?

Andrew> Location scouting was imperative to our process. Weeks before the shoot, I went to Toronto to cast and location scout with our producer, Neil Bartley, and production designer, Dialla Kawar. We never wanted our piece to feel like a PSA. This was about hidden poverty at the most emotional level, and the subjects had to be respected.

The goal was to find locations that would give dignity to the characters’ impossible ultimatums. Without seeing these places in person, that could have never happened. We left the first scout trip with a rough cut of what we wanted to do, and ran with that as we casted.

After that, we did photo boards that showed exactly what we wanted in terms of structure, progression and tone, but with the knowledge that it was vital to give the actors room and space to reinterpret on the day. That’s how the emotion rings through. I worked very diligently with our amazing cast to ensure their faces, without dialogue, could amplify the tension.

LBB> Speaking of actors, what was casting like? And how did you work with them to elevate their performances?

Andrew> Casting is my favourite part of the process! I like to get very involved and really get to know people during callbacks. Relatability to the script was important on this one, so we tried to bring people in who could relate to the stresses of poverty on a deeper level. Then, on the day, we just leaned into our shared pain to create something that hopefully gave levity to it.

The lead actor who plays the mother, Nicole, and I worked a lot together, swapping scenes back and forth from films like ‘Mommy’, ‘Morvern Callar’, and ‘Rosetta’. We closely watched the body language of these characters who were numb with trauma, and talked about how to do this in our own way. With the rest of the ensemble, we did the same and talked a lot about personal trials and tribulations with poverty, tapping into real-life experience to find reality in the performances.

LBB> What sort of equipment did you use for the shoot? And what inspired these decisions?

Andrew> We shot digitally, in 2.35, to create a more photographic approach to the story, splitting the frame to accentuate the internal indecision. The black-and-white look took a lot of tweaking and conversation with our amazing DP, Peter Hadfield. He created a LUT that cemented the look before we got on set, and we worked hard to create those textural beats that glue the stories together using a myriad of practical effects: oil on the lens, boiling water, bendable mirrors and more.

In particular, the final scene where Nicole finds clarity and the world fades to colour was a very challenging and delicate journey. Peter and I worked closely with House Post and colourist Connor Bailey to find the right balance for this transition, testing ideas out before we even showed up on set.

LBB> As a whole, what was the shooting process like? How long did it take to capture everything from start to finish, and do you have any anecdotes from the experience?

Andrew> Surprisingly, the shooting process was a breeze and so much fun! We did a lot of prep and shot at almost all of our locations within a four-block radius, making it possible to knock out multiple scenes with multiple characters in a very short amount of time.
The day was also meticulously planned with our first AD to allow all of our ‘nice to have’ moments to actually be shot. We even created new scenes on the fly that we were able to pull off while staying on schedule – a testament to prepping!

LBB> The choice signs throughout the spot are striking. What did it take to bring these to life?

Andrew> Again, I have to give a major shoutout to Dialla for making this happen. We immediately knew we wanted to do them practically, which took a lot of thought on how to embed them into the real world comfortably. We were very aware of how cheesy it could become, and looked to films like ‘Biutiful’ and photographs from Robert Frank, Trent Parke and more to pull the look off. In the end, everything except the ATM screen was built in-camera.

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, colour and post?

Andrew> We purposefully experimented with different colours in real life that would give us the right amount of contrast in our black-and-white world. We needed to make sure shades of grey weren’t too similar, especially when creating multiple things happening in the foreground, midground and background of a single shot.

Aside from colour management, the film was designed to build a rising tension within each character's vignette, whilst having a photobook feeling in terms of sequencing. We wanted the imagery to hit you in the stomach, make you feel for the characters, and lean into spontaneity to make the ultimatums hit harder.

For post, Grey was amazing enough to keep me on to edit and bring in my post house anchor, House Post, into the fold. We did the edit, colour and sound, meaning we could really ensure each part of the process had the integrity of the script in mind.

LBB> What lessons have you learned in the making of this campaign?

Andrew> Follow your heart! I did this one for my mom who left this Earth almost a decade ago. She went through a similar time in her life and always pushed forward. I wanted to do this for her memory.

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

Andrew> I’m most proud of the friendships and camaraderie between the people involved in this; it felt more important and urgent than what you normally are trying to achieve in advertising. We all learned something about ourselves on this one.