It started, of course, with a pitch.
Burt’s Bees — yes, the people who make the lip balm in the yellow tube, among so many other natural products — wanted to promote its toothpaste line with a 30-second spot. And they wanted the message to be along the lines of, “Yes, you actually can find a sustainable toothpaste you can feel good about buying, and that actually works on your teeth.” And with all the Burt’s brand identifiers thrown in.
So, in mid-December, our partner and executive creative director, Byron Watkins, and our team brainstormed a story for the toothpaste line. What they came up with was one of the cooler concepts we’ve ever produced, and after Burt’s Bees bought in, it became one of the most labor-intensive, time-consuming, and challenging projects Windsong has done in a while.
When it was done, though, the payoff was worth it and the Burt’s Bees people were stoked. This is a quick story of how the process played out.
Creating a concept that fulfilled all the needs of Burt’s Bees was first and foremost. Byron’s vision was a spot that literally opened a door to nature, where our lead character would reach through a portal and pull back a tube of Burt’s Bees toothpaste that came directly from that new world. That vision turned into a storyboard and inspired the first script draft, which didn’t change too drastically from the first write to the final approved draft and helped tell the story viewers would see on screen.
Once we had those ideas in place, and after Burt’s Bees had signed off on them — of course with tweaks to come — the next step was to present it to our team. And believe us, this was about as complete a team effort as it gets.
As Byron worked with the Burt’s team to keep evolving the script, others on the team, production designer, Max Martinez, and production assistant, Joe Ellis got to building sets and scenes that would bring the storyboard vision to life. That included:
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- constructing a bathroom decorated with just the right style of wallpaper,
- making the medicine cabinet that would act as the portal into the nature setting,
- scouring the city for out-of-season mint plants,
- finding a portion of a tree trunk and making it look like it had been burned by lightning to create charcoal,
- and using a snow cone machine to create “snow.” (Shout out to the fantastic folks at Expo Party Rentals — Michael — you are the best!)
And behind-the-scenes of the behind-the-scenes, our producing team, lead by partner and head of production, Sara Bourbeau, producer, Joann Mercado Hicks, and production assistant, Carolina De La Torre were finessing every possibly detail one could think of to help round out the pre-production stages: talent, wardrobe, filming schedule and securing enough product for any possible scenario.
Director of Photography, Grant Porter was in charge of filming each toothpaste tube reveal in nature, which took some creative camera work and many late nights, while editor, Marianna Pang, was entrenched in making the scenes, script, and music work in unison. Post-production guru Austin Newell did some heavy lifting, tracking/painting and bringing the visual effects to life, and colorist/motion graphics artist Jeremiah Belt spent hours making a 3D forest and making it all look exactly how the client wanted.
Once we had a first cut to show Burt’s, the team had some nervous anticipation. But the feedback that came back in — some script notes and some shot notes — was overwhelmingly positive, which was wonderful considering it was a concept the client had to be sold on as Byron assured them it would look amazing. And it was certainly getting there through that first proof.
Marianna, Austin, and Jeremiah continued putting in hours of work to bring it all together — the vision, the words on the script, the music, and the vibrant visuals.
And more than three months after the initial creative brief and numerous versions produced for multiple markets, reviewed and triple reviewed by Sara and team, the final product was delivered — one that Burt’s was proud to show off as an innovative twist on their “straight from nature” ideals.
