After almost a month dedicated to planning, scheduling, hiring actors, sourcing props and locations - we finally jumped into production for our television commercial for Concord Coach Lines, Dartmouth Coach, and Boston Express, starting Monday the 7th.

Three days may not seem like a long time, but in reality everything is planned out hour by hour, and with shoot days lasting up to 15 hours, we need to make sure we can maximize the most out of our shoot days.

The Ask - With Tourism beginning to take strides towards returning as vaccination rates increase and infection rates decreasing Concord Coach Lines approached us with the idea of creating a series of vignettes which highlighted what travel meant for their travelers. We came up with the concept of 3 different traveler archetypes, the family re-connecting, the adventure traveler, and the business traveler finally getting back into the routine.

The Shoot -

Day 0.5 - Sunday night our Director of Photography Erik, Director Brett, and Operations Director Steve all took a drive down to our first location to load in equipment and discuss the plan for the next day.

Day 1 - Crew call was 7 a.m. to start setup for our first day, in our first location in North Andover, Massachusetts. Our group was small day 1, with just a few actors in addition to the crew.

Of course, in-between downtime doesn’t come too often when you’re in the midst of production we spent time eating, taking pictures for our social media pages, and coloring (would you believe us if we said it was for work?). Those of you who are familiar with the process will know the patience and time it takes to reach that finish line, and even then, this was only the finish line for the first day. We left North Andover after wrapping up at 9pm, so that we could get ready for the following day in Londonderry and Boston.

Day 2 - The next morning started early for some, splitting into two teams to accommodate a morning drone shot, at 4:30 a.m., Brian and Ian traveled down to the Zakim Bridge, coordinating the capture of aerial footage of Concord Coach, Boston Express, and Dartmouth Coach buses.

The rest of the team met at the office at 5am to make crew call at 6 a.m. a sunny (near 100 degree) Tuesday, to jump back into production at the North Londonderry bus terminal. We stayed in the shade or inside the terminal, and there was plenty of water to go around.

To navigate the tight filming schedule, and tighter on-bus shots we relied heavily on an easyrig system to take some of the pressure off of tripod setups (and Erik’s back). It came in handy as we took laps around the parking lot on a Boston Express bus, getting the shots we needed of folks sitting together for a ride to wherever their characters were headed.

We had a variety of characters, each with their own stories: we had some going to visit grandma, hurrying to make an important meeting, or visiting their beloved. The terminal saw them all coming together, their journeys briefly intersecting on this bus. Bet you didn’t think a bus terminal could be so magical, huh?

When we were finished at Londonderry, the crew split up again to tackle the rest of the day.

While half of us packed up in the bus terminal then drove to Laconia to prepare for the next day, the other half jumped on a bus with our actors to head to our next location: Logan International Airport.

We have had more than a few one-of-a-kind experiences while working in this business... blocking out a terminal at Logan Airport for filming was one of them.

Parked outside terminal A, which we shut down for filming

Day 2 ran longer than day 1, as not only did we have to film inside of the airport - but Brett, Erik, and Katherine had to continue shooting in the city wrapping up at around 10 pm.

Day 3 - But we weren’t parted for long! We started at 6 a.m. on Wednesday for our 3rd and final day of shooting. We spent a day in Laconia at a beautiful Airbnb, hustling so that we could finish up by the time we had to return the keys at 1:30. (Sidenote: An exciting feature of the Airbnb was that there was a cat, who sadly will not be making an appearance in the commercial.)

It was another great day of shooting, and allowed us to get a little creative with some shots such as this one that you might have seen already on our Instagram. We wrapped up by checkout without a hitch, and were out of Laconia by 1:30.

The End - And with that, we’re done with our commercial for Concord Coach Lines, Dartmouth Coach, and Boston Express! All the hard work and some undeniably stressful moments paid off, and we are so proud of the work we have all put in together. We’re super grateful to everyone who was involved with this production, and want to thank you all for your hard work, cooperation, and accommodation! The people we get to meet and work with during shoots are the highlights of everything we do. We’re so glad to have had a productive three days, and we can’t wait to update you all on future projects. If you’re interested in seeing some more behind the scenes posts from past projects or are looking forward to seeing what we do next, check out ourInstagram and Facebook, and continue to keep an eye on the WindBlog!