Comma Films, creative studio, Melbourne

Autobarn

To celebrate their 40th year, Autobarn wanted a national TVC. Not only for the car enthusiast, but for every kind of driver: the learner, the family taxi, the off-roader, the A to B.

The location came first: a drive-in cinema we could lock down for the night. Everything after that was logistics. Mud maps, driving plans, and a parking plan supported by a five-person crew.

Throughout the night there was a dance of cast, cars, caravans and boats swapping in and out of bays, each one dressed and ready for its scene. Three crews worked in sync with 15 minutes to set up each scene and its featured product. Two of them shot side by side off the same light source, supplemented with smaller units, which is what bought us the time. The AD team kept us on schedule and ferried talent, with drivers standing by to bring the next car in. We finished on time with every shot covered.

The cast was a mix of actors and Autobarn staff, which is where the best interactions came from.

Nissan Casting Australia Plant

A 90-second video and a series of stills for Nissan Casting Australia Plant's new website. The job was to show the people and the scale behind the plant, and that manufacturing is still alive and well in Melbourne.

A working plant doesn't stop for a film crew, so we didn't ask it to. A small team, one 12-hour day, and a shot list built around when each machine was running. Video and stills crews worked side by side, so one day could cover the whole facility. We flew a drone inside the plant to take in the floor from above, and even strapped a camera to one of the robotic fettling arms and let it run.

Haymes Paint

Four quirky 15-second spots for Haymes Paints, on location at their Ballarat facility. Tongue-in-cheek, taking aim at foreign-owned paint brands with the joke that any colour you love elsewhere, you can get in Haymes.

Four scripts, four locations, one day. To maximise the shoot day we had a team dress and prelight the next location while we moved through the facility.

You'd assume the trickiest part of the day would have been the open paint tins. It wasn't. The real puzzle was the eyeline on the cherry-picker scene, shot across two different locations so it had to read as one. Done right, you'd never know.

The Show

Self-funded, and self-initiated. After shooting promos for the Whittlesea Agricultural Society, we found a story worth chasing: a small group of volunteers who put on a country show for tens of thousands of people every year, and a 163-year-old tradition that might be about to end.

We followed them for eight months. Meetings, working bees, locals prepping their exhibits, and finally the weekend of the Whittlesea Show itself.

Documentary means being on the ground, in the thick of it. That's where the real film reveals itself. The conversations shift, the personalities come out, and you start to see the companionship holding the whole thing together. That's what makes it special.

And then the question that hangs over all of it: after more than a century and a half, is this the last one?

Currently in post-production.

Reddy Express

A 15-second spot for the returning Peel 'N' Win promo, for Reddy Express. With no access to location this time, the gameshow theme was brought to a studio instead.

A studio build, and another chance to work with Oliver Clarke, whose physical and comic timing is exactly what a piece like this needs. With a store location off the table, we leaned into the game-show theme: printed backdrops from existing photos, a hammed-up live-studio-audience feel, and practicals straight from 'The Price Is Right'.

Art department went above and beyond. A Shell V-Power Racing Team Supercar wheeled onto set. A bucket of fake money dropped mid-frame. Two actors sprawled on banana lounges working through piña coladas, little umbrellas and all.

‍Underneath the chaos, it was a precision build. Five backdrops, each printed at 3m x 6m, meant no room for error. Test days locked in the exact distances between talent, backdrop and camera, so we could size each one correctly and choose a frame and focal length that kept them present without dropping fully out of focus.

RSL Victoria

A 30-second TVC, stills, and a run of digital assets for the RSL Victoria Anzac Appeal, to show the Anzac spirit that lives on in all of us.

This was our first big production. Seventeen shots, 26 cast, 20 crew, five locations, and one 12 hour day. It started at 4am at the Shrine of Remembrance, to capture the essence of the dawn service. From there we moved to four distinct locations in the inner suburbs of Melbourne on a schedule planned to the minute. Every shot had been clocked against the storyboard in pre-production, so nothing on the day was a guess. The schedule held.

We shot at 33 frames per second to take the edge off the action. In post, we added a yellow glow, what we called the Tinkerbell effect, to represent the Anzac spirit.

RSL Victoria has been running this spot since 2023.

Straight Bat Private Equity

Every quarter, Straight Bat Private Equity sits down with its investors and shows them the scorecard. Since November 2023, we've been making it with them, and what started as a video has grown to include team photography, the design of the scorecard document and investor presentations. A test match, not a one-dayer.

Same office, same presenter, every quarter. The work is making sure it never looks it. Each time, we find a new corner of the Straight Bat office to shoot in, so the video feels fresh even when the format doesn't change.

The design runs the other way. The visual language we've built with them carries through everything: the video's graphics, the team photography, the scorecard document and the presentations. An investor knows it's Straight Bat before they've read a word.

Harris Capital

Gate 8 was built for one purpose: to supercharge philanthropy, social enterprise and the next generation of Australian entrepreneurs. It is a home for the Harris family too, for their businesses and their family office.

The brief itself was one line: make a video about the building. A purpose like that is not something you can see from the street, so the film had to carry it. Brad gave us the reasoning behind it and left the rest to us.

With a set of anamorphics, we shot most of it before anyone moved in. The empty building gave us free rein and a clear frame anywhere we wanted one. Flying the drone over the inner city meant permits and coordination, which is straightforward enough when you do it properly.

The people were the harder part. Access came in windows, and Geoff was only free at night, which worked in our favour as Speakers Corner lights itself after dark.