Format gets Bougie on a Budget for White Castle

The Format team ignited a strong collaborative relationship with agency Merkley + Partners in the start of 2021. 

The New York-based Merkley tapped Format for a national campaign for their client, White Castle. The agency’s vision aligned with Format’s ECD Nic Reader and in January 2021, the Bougie on a Budget project was awarded to the rising Philadelphia production company. 

Reader worked in lock-step with Format’s staff design lead, Farah Fauzi, to carefully detail each storyboard. “This was a major step in the pre-pro process. Our storyboards needed to not only match the agency’s vision for the spot but also act as the framework for which the entire set would be designed,” says the spots’ director Reader. The production would take place in-studio as opposed to on-location as finding the proper home in Covid times just was not a feasible option, especially with a tight deadline and taking homeowner, crew, and talent comfort and safety into heavy consideration. After a week of dedicated storyboard work, Format had crafted frames to begin designing the space to shoot them in-studio.

Set design was the most pivotal step in the process and long-standing local Production Designer Tim Stevens took the lead in collaboration with the Format team. Working entirely remotely, Stevens immediately took to Readers’s vision, and soon they were hard at work brainstorming how to bring their vision to life. “We knew when we landed this job that the key component was the set design. The client really wanted to showcase an elegant lifestyle, but thread the needle in a way that the audience could imagine this lavish lifestyle in any home anywhere. It’s a tough line to walk, but with the right team we were able to make it happen,” said Reader.

As the remote pre-production window closed, it came time for a handful of days in the studio for production. The Format team utilized Bud’s Studio (East Falls) which had the key factor of enough space for a larger set build, refrigeration for loads of White Castle product, and comfort of on-site personnel. Custom-built remote production technology allowed Format to broadcast a live feed of both the crew hard at work and the direct camera feeds into the homes of multiple client and agency personnel. With a constant line of communication across all parties, production moved efficiently. “Remote production monitoring is a complete game changer. It really adds a level of involvement that clients otherwise would not have on-set. With all of the moving parts, people, equipment - it’s nice to provide our clients with a clear visual of the shots and a direct-line to the creatives on-site,” said Mike Gualtieri, Executive Producer at Format. “I don’t think this aspect of remote client, remote agency, even remote crew, is going away anytime soon.”

The remote, virtual experience on-set transitions to post-production seamlessly at Format, with post personnel present even during the shoot to both manage media and begin editing promptly on-site. The turnaround for this White Castle project was particularly tight, leaving Reader and Editor Steve Rivera with only two weeks to put all the pieces together, including cuts for Broadcast, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Fortunately, even before a global pandemic, the Format team had been mastering remote editing session capabilities. The technical experience they have molded allows for clients to be “in the room” during editing sessions, and collaborate frame-by-frame when necessary. Reader and Rivera would craft edits in the morning, review live with the agency in the afternoon, rinse and repeat. It was a seamless process that yielded great creative energy without actually being in the same physical location.

After a month straight of work, The Format team delivered the campaign to Merkley and White Castle which launched in late February 2021. Reader closes, “Nothing beats being in the room. But with this White Castle project, we came damn near close to it. The energy of the virtual creative process was electric from pre-pro meetings all the way through color sessions, and we’re so happy with the results. To have clients and agencies across the country be able to virtually work with us in real-time, even be on-set, is a remarkable feat of technology. It allows us to ignite and maintain those fresh creative conversations between all parties and that’s very important to what Format is about - I’m excited to see what’s next.”