Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino came to us with a task that almost every client is looking to accomplish — make a commercial that is interesting enough to run for an extended period of time, without becoming tiresome or repetitive.
Easy right?
The client wanted two generic commercials, one featuring the casino and one featuring its amenities. Casino commercials tend look and feel the same. Aside from the tag line, they can be indistinguishable from casino to casino. We knew we needed a concept that would make Tachi Palace stand out from the rest of the local competition.
Our answer?
Create a unique, unscripted commercial made up entirely of real sounds you would hear if you visited the hotel and casino.
The first step was creating two catchy sound beds to serve as the base for our commercials. Our very own writer/director extraordinaire, Anthony Taylor was in charge of the music bed and had three weeks to create what would become the foundation for our commercial. The first sound beds were created using Garage Band. Once we felt the tracks were nailed down, we replaced each Garage Band layer with sound effects that corresponded with the images we wanted to feature of the hotel and casino. Low resolution images were then cut to the music and served as our shot list.
GAMING STORYBOARD:
AMENITIES STORYBOARD:
Five weeks into the project we were set to shoot. We had two days to shoot 37 scenes. On location in Lemoore, California, were Windsong Productions’ creative director, Byron Watkins; producer, Sara Bourbeau; and BLARE Media’s Justin McAleece and Ian McAleece. Two, 15-hour-days later, we had all the footage and foley we needed to complete the spots.
Our senior editor, Tony Bennett, created the final spots, while editor/colorist, Kyle Gentz built the end tag graphics — which was a project in itself!
In the end, two really unique spots were created that set Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino apart from its competition and stand out in the local market. We are proud of the work our team and BLARE Media did on this project and hope to produce more commercials for Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino in the future.
FINAL GAMING SPOT:
FINAL AMENITIES SPOT:
