Friday, July 20th was Digital Design’s first-ever 30-Second Commercial Slam Day, a flat-out design sprint, in which students across terms were divided into teams and given an assignment first thing in the morning – and a deadline of 5pm the very same day.

It was an enormously fun challenge, so we tagged along as teams hurried to the finish line. Here’s our fly-on-the-wall account of the day as it happened:

The Brief

The students will be handed a project brief first thing in the morning. The challenge? A fictional vitamin company called Body Reach has had a production problem with their “Reach for Gold II” vitamin C supplement – it turns out there’s no vitamin C in it at all!

Now the company needs an ad campaign to apologize. Students will need to create a 30-second spot to prove their approach is best to winning back the public’s trust.

Teams won’t hear the brief until 8:30. Their commercials need to be in the can by 5 because they’ll screen at 5:30.

The Event

8:30 – Students try to shake their grogginess as they file in to the theatre that’s affectionately called “The Bear Pit”. The brief is distributed and eight teams of four to five students are assigned.

9:00 – Teams stake out their corners of the VFS Cafe to start spitballing ideas.

9:50 – Teams are still hard at work in the Cafe. This is nothing new – there are always groups of students here throwing ideas back and forth. It’s just not usually quite so urgent.

10:00 – Back at the Bear Pit, the faculty panel waits – Head of Digital Design Sebastien de Castell, Program Manager Tom Fedechko, and instructor Robin Mitchell will give feedback on concept and story, while instructor Bun Lee and T.A. Danny Chan tackle questions of logistics – locations, equipment, studio time.

10:04 – The first team arrives to pitch their idea. Team 1’s got a funny one – they’re talking about people trying to cram oranges into pill bottles.

10:18-11:19 - Teams 2 through 7 give their pitches. “Funny” seems to be the order of the day. And a lot of oranges. Nearby grocers aren’t going to know what hit them.

11:20 - The last team to pitch, Team 8, breaks the mold. They’re looking at some real metaphorical imagery – and the suggestion that they might try to animate it in the time remaining! Maybe back to the drawing board on that one.

11:32 - The concepts hammered out, all eight teams have headed off in all directions – some are shooting on location, some right here in our halls, and others have booked time in the production studio and photography station. Now they’ve got to rustle up equipment, cast all the parts, and start thinking about audio and post-production.

12:06 – From the blog team’s vantage above the big blue production studio, we can see Bun prepping lights. It’s on!

12:35 - After weeks of sun, it’s been drizzling today – but now the skies have opened up into a full-on downpour. It probably won’t last long, but it’s surely putting a kink in any outdoor location shoots. All part of the fun.

1:50 – The studio’s in use pretty much constantly. Right now, one team member’s been dressed up in suit and tie to play an apologetic CEO.

2:33 – Several takes later, the team finishes its blue screen shoot. Not bad for time. On her way out, Term 2 student Ana Abitia Hill – who’d been serving as camera operator – called the day so far “crazy.” As for working with students from different terms: “You learn from others, and they learn from you.”

2:40 – We visit the “Orange” room – an apt name, given the abundance of citrus – where Team 1 is hard at work cutting their spot together. The audio needs finishing, but the shots are there – this team’s in really good shape.

3:25 - Ana’s team is back in the studio – and we don’t want to get in their way. 1:35 to go!

5:00 - The finishing bell rings, pencils are set down, checkered flags wave. While students catch their collective breath, the finished films are readied for screening.

5:30 – The big moment! Students settle in to see their work, and the results? Well, you can find recaps – including some of the films – here, here, here, and here.

Student Leah Bancroft tells us after it’s all over, “It was a rush to have to do pre-production, production, and post-production in those 8 hours, but it really seemed to spark a lot of creativity in everyone.”

Program Manager Tom Fedechko agrees: “By halfway through the day, all of the teams had settled into workflows that made it look like they’d been working together for years.”

All in all, a great day, a unique challenge, and something we hope continues!