Recently our Florida video production company had the chance to work with Grand Villa, a resort style senior living community with multiple locations throughout Florida, to film a TV commercial campaign at one of their communities. We went to their St Petersburg, Florida location to learn more about the services they provide to their residents, take a tour of the facilities, and brainstorm ideas for the commercial.

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Director Christian Cashmir and grip Sasha Sebesta film with our Dana Dolly and Sony a7S II.

Tampa video production services

Once we had a chance to sit down and speak with the marketing team and get a feel for the community, our production team was excited to draft a script for the project and provide our Tampa video production services. With multiple communities throughout Florida, Grand Villa is one of the more popular retirement communities among seniors, hosting a friendly staff, resort-like amenities, and high quality assisted living services.

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Makeup artist, Nikki, puts final touch-ups on makeup before filming the 60’s flashback dinner scene

The video production process

Working together with Grand Villa marketing team’s Ben Rizzo and Clint Dockery, Litewave Media founder Christian Cashmir and writer Mike Garland planned out a fun, emotional story to film. Over the course of a week, the team transformed the idea into a fully developed commercial production- complete with storyboards, costumes, cast, and crew. The concept of the shoot was to journey through the life of a woman at milestones in her life, shown through various decades encompassing the 1950’s, 1960’s, and present day. Our Tampa video production crew was ready to begin filming!

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Steadicam operator Eric Coughlin, director Christian Cashmir, and Grand Villa’s marketing guru Ben Rizzo review footage in between takes.

Stocked, locked, and ready to rock, we drove our St Petersburg grip truck to Grand Villa to begin our first day of filming. Their St. Petersburg location was a great choice for production as it boasts tennis courts, a pool, coffee shop, multiple hair salons, and a grand dining room complete with its own cafe. With multiple areas perfect for cinematic storytelling, our crew began filming with our Tampa video equipment rental package. Using our Canon C300 mkII and Sony A7sII video cameras with Canon cinema lenses, director Christian Cashmir helmed the production, bringing his technical skill and directing expertise to the project. Alongside Steadicam operator Eric Coughlin, our Tampa video production crew flew in our Arri and KinoFlo 4 Bank lighting kits, and also filmed scenes on our Dana Dolly.

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Our Florida video production crew films a scene on Steadicam for the Grand Villa commercial

We recorded a little time lapse of one filming location (shot by grip Sasha Sebesta):

On day two of the shoot, our Tampa video production crew planned to travel in time to the 1950’s. But, since our time machine was out of batteries, we decided on the next best thing: Johnny Rockets, a 50’s-style diner. Our crew loaded up our grip truck and set forth. With a vintage theme, leather seats, and decor reminiscent of the 1950s, Johnny Rockets was the perfect place to film a scene for the Grand Villa TV ad campaign. The quiet restaurant was transformed and set ablaze with colorful costumes, laughing actors, crew members, and of course a classic dish of ice cream. (The crew may have had refills)

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Actors Lexi, Linda, and Chris during the second day of filming at Johnny Rockets, a 50’s-style diner.

Post Production Time

After a lively, creative shoot it was time to head back to our Tampa Bay video studio to begin the editing and post production process. We hired a top notch voice-over actress, who we captured in our sound booth and Tampa recording studio. Our post team even created a visual effect sequence to augment the great work our production crew started.

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The cast and crew at Grand Villa St. Petersburg celebrate completing the first day of filming.

Our Florida video production crew had a great time working with the Grand Villa team on such a fun project. The TV commercial will air regionally in Florida. You can also watch the finished commercial below!

Do you have a Florida tv commercial or Tampa corporate video you would like to produce? Contact us today for a free consultation. Be sure to like and follow us on Facebook to watch all of our latest videos and follow our Litewave Media blog to stay up to date on the latest Tampa video production news.