Walmart | Summer Trend

The Challenge:

The team at Walmart Creative Studios came to me with a brief for their summer line of furniture. The idea was for the spot to evoke the feeling of an Italian-inspired summer. We had two core challenges to solve together, one logsitcal, the other creative. Logistic Challenge: The team had already picked a great location, however, only one room in the house really fit the brief that called for three different interiors. Creative Challenge: The team wanted the rooms to feel alive but talent restrictions didn’t allow us to have people in the spot.

The Solve & My Approach:

I leaned into my past experience working closely with production designers to help solve the space constraints. Creatively, I knew that a mix of lighting gags and intentional styling details would bring just the right energy to each frame.

Production Design

Our job was to make a single room feel like three distinct spaces. Here’s the room from the start.

Two of the looks could be achieved by reversing our angle and changing out set dressing, but the third required a more involved approach. I brushed off my SketchUp skills and started playing with layout options. It quickly became clear that we’d need to fly in some flats and tile flooring to build a room within a room.

The flats and vinyl flooring ended up being the perfect differentiators for our rooms.

For our exterior scene, I pitched the idea of covering the concrete patio with terracotta tile to help sell the European summer vibe. These choices gave us the variety we needed without losing visual cohesion.

Lighting Gags & Touches of Life

In order to make these homes feel lived in, my DP Max Magerkurth and I worked to design lighting gags that would highlight our hero furniture and make these rooms feel alive.

I also worked closely with stylist Cat Dash to make sure no detail went unnoticed. We were constantly talking about each frame feeling like someone had juuuuust stepped out each room. Of course, we had to include some gently billowing curtains as well.

We did have to battle the rain all day but were ready for battle with a great G&E crew.

And the final spot. Enjoy!