Olly Williams Assembles B&Q's Christmas Ad

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Say 'Christmas' and the words 'do it yourself' don't immediately spring to mind. At least til now, as Another Film Company's Olly Williams helms this new Christmas spot for DIY giant B&Q.

Williams, who's the focus of our director profile in the new issue of shots, issue 153 (which, if you're a subscriber, you can read here) goes through the production process of this tricky shoot below... 

What was it like working on this campaign?

Jane [Briers], Dave [Cornmell], Ross [Neil] and the whole team at WCRS were awesome to work with. It's so refreshing to be able to work in such a genuinely collaborative manner with people who are passionate about the right bits to be passionate about.

As a production designer I’d had a lot of experience exploding costumes off people in various different ways and essentially all the tricks are fairly straightforward - we’re just using all of them at the same time. The important thing for me was to get a shedload of character into the performances – especially in the intentionally uninspired lacklustre ‘before’ moments. 

How did you actually do this? It looks complicated; does it involve a lot of takes?

It takes loads of takes. The trick is having a really good master take that has the costumes pre-cut and rigged on wires running off to tensioned bungee lines that release on cue so you get that explosive transform.

Once we have a take in the bag that everyone is happy with, we go back in and shoot plates for everything else. So, for example, we lock-off the hand at the wrist and shoot a catch in reverse on blue sticks or a wire, or animate a pair of socks to jump off a pair of boots. Each bit is relatively simple but there’s lots of layers, so it's fiddly.

Tell me about the music? Did you re-record this?

The client liked the idea of a Christmassy version of the track, but we didn't just want to put some sleigh bells on it. I’d like to think the finished track sounds like what would happen if Aled Jones, The Snowman choir, and a Salvation Army Christmas band got stuck into the mulled wine and had a go at recording it. We had a blast in the studio with a great group of artists and producers.

Was it a hard spot to cast? 

I knew we had cast the right person for the main role when Laura Checkley came in to play the first woman. She was the only person who actually understood the direction notes I gave; “decorate the tree like you’re Elvis in his kung-fu period, with magic in his fingers only a bit more Roger Moore”. She basically nailed it first time. I imagine it was like the moment Harrison Ford turned up for the casting of Star Wars.

What was the best and maddest part of this shoot or prep?

The millions of Christmas toys all jiggling around all played their own music for a run of about 15 seconds. I think it was a One Direction song, but they were all playing at once, and by the time you’d triggered them all, the first lot had stopped and you had to start again. Being on set for that moment felt like a scene that should have been in A Clockwork Orange.

Also I’m particularly proud of the ‘double turkey’ moment. We happened to have a spare and I just slipped it on her fist. Nobody seemed to mind, even the actress, who was a vegetarian. 

There's a lot going on here, did you have to cut any of the scenes?

In the true spirit of Christmas I wanted to make the end of the piece feel a bit apocalyptic. I quite liked the idea of having a 40-foot tall Christmaszilla monster made from presents or tinsel tearing through the suburbs like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man fro Ghostbusters, but for some reason that got canned?