 Imagine you had just one night to create an entire Halloween commercial from scratch. In this video, you'll be getting a behind-the-scenes look of how we did just that, from our process on set, all the way to using Artlist to replace every single sound from the ground up throughout the entire video. Now, if you haven't seen the commercial that we're talking about, don't worry. I'm about to show you the actual commercial, but first, I want to give you a little context on the concept behind it and then show you how we actually shot it. So by the time that you watch it, you've got a bit more of an appreciation for how we created it. So let's start with the concept. Since this was a skit around Halloween, I knew I had to get spooky with things, but let's be honest, not all of us love horror movies, including myself, so I wanted to create a bit of a light-hearted nature to the entire commercial. To do this, I used the first half of the commercial to make it really feel spooky, but near the end, we threw in a twist ending that kind of brought everything full circle in a much more light-hearted and fun way. So when it came to planning this all out, I divided the entire commercial into five distinct sections. We have the arrival, the approach, the buildup, the reveal, and the end date. So starting with the arrival, something really cool that happened with this house, we rented a house and it came with the 1980s Firebird Transam, which is a gorgeous vintage car. You might recognize it from the classic movie Smoky in the Bandit or you might recognize it from our commercial, but if I had to roll the dice on which one you probably recognize it from, I'm going to go with Smoky in the Bandit, to each of their own. So we fired up the car and we put some red lights inside, because we had the blue moon light coming in from the side. The contrast between those looked incredible. And then we got our fog machine and fogged up the entire front yard to create that extra spooky ambience that we were looking for. So now for scene two, the approach. Our pizza delivery driver just arrived on the scene, but we needed to start building tension and suspense with a spooky walk up to the house. So my idea was to get a bunch of different angles to make it feel like our pizza delivery driver was being watched by someone or something. So I was shooting from behind bushes, from behind the mailbox. For one of the shots, I literally went back inside the house and shot through a window to really sell the idea that he was possibly being watched. Alright, so now for scene three, the pizza delivery driver has arrived on the scene, he's approached the house, and now he has to make the ballsy decision to finally knock on the door. Now I really wanted to sell the anxiety and the panic that our delivery driver was feeling. So it was at this point when I knew I was going to have to start cutting a little bit quicker in the edit and flashing back and forth between different shots at a much faster pace than we had in the beginning. So now on to scene four, the big reveal. At this point, the tension is at an all-time high, our pizza delivery driver is literally hiding behind a box, the door has opened, and he's about to see whatever is on the other side. But as I mentioned earlier, I knew I wanted to incorporate a lighthearted element to this entire commercial. So it's at this moment where us as the viewer realize that it's not a big scary monster on the other side of the door. In fact, it's just a kid. But to make that moment have a little extra impact, I started looking eye-line with what our pizza delivery driver would be seeing. And at first we see an empty doorway, but then as we tilt down, we see the kid standing below him. So a lot of horror movies actually do this to try to make you drop your guard as a viewer. They'll build up to a big moment and have you almost anticipating to be scared, so you're bracing, you're waiting for that moment, and then they'll draw you in, they'll make you feel like you're a bit safe. And then right when you've let your guard down, boom, it makes that scare just an extra bit scarier because you trusted them for a second. You thought you were safe, and then you weren't. So we incorporated something very similar to that in this commercial. And now for scene five, the ending where our kid gets to enjoy his free pizza that he just got from scaring the pizza delivery driver. Now as much as I'm sure our actor Thatcher hated having to eat a bunch of free pizza, we got a bunch of different angles, including this overhead shot that was pretty taxing on the old shoulders, but it was worth it. So now that we've painted the picture of how we created this entire thing, here is the final commercial for you to enjoy. Right? While the video edits were definitely important, I want to focus on the sound design because that's what really brought this entire thing together. As I mentioned earlier, every single bit of audio except for that one line of dialogue was replaced using Artlist's library of sounds. And if you don't believe me, watch it again. I'm going to take out the music and everything you're hearing has been replaced, not using the camera's microphone at all, all added in the edit. So enjoy. I think my favorite part was the car pulling up at the beginning because all of that music was added in after the fact. I started with a fun kind of rock alternative song that contrasted a bunch of the spooky music that we'd be hearing later. Then I thought back to the times I've been walking down the street and a car rolls by me just blasting music. You typically only hear the low end, that bass, right? So I removed a ton of the high end and those high frequencies to mimic the same exact sound and then just animated it. So as the car got closer to the camera, it also got louder as well. And voila, you have one of my favorite parts of the entire video. Now, as I've mentioned a bunch of times, Artlist made this entire sound design process super, super easy. It really has become my go-to platform for all of my music, sound effects, and even video asset needs. I'll get a little bit more into those video assets later, but something I had a ton of fun doing was layering a bunch of nighttime sounds to really set the scene and immerse the viewer in our world. To create this nighttime vibe, I went to the sound effects section on Artlist and used the ambience category. I scrolled down to the section labeled night and actually ended up using the very first one. Having ambient noises across your entire timeline really help your shots flow from one another because visually, things are changing every couple seconds. But if you have consistency in the audio, it really brings everything together. So try that out in your next project. And the exact same thing for the footsteps. I literally went into the Foley tab and then there was a section for footsteps. So for the indoor ones, I clicked on the wooden floor section. And for the ones back outside, I used the natural surfaces. And for the more nuanced and specific sounds where I needed a little extra spice, I used the search bar. I'm not sure what type of magic they've got going on behind the scenes here, but I was genuinely able to save so much time when it came to finding sounds, which meant more time I could focus on the edit, which is always a big thumbs up from me. As a matter of fact, the main theme song for this entire commercial was literally the first choice it gave me. If that doesn't show you how good the search bar is, I don't know what does. I've also got to mention how the video assets side of our list actually saved one of the shots for this commercial. There's this one scene where we forgot to haze up the porch and the shot before had a ton of haze all over the scene. So when it cut back and forth, it didn't really look quite right. So I did a quick search for a smoke asset. I dragged it into my timeline, matched the color of the fog from the clip before, and voila. Now the scenes match beautifully, and it's not as much of an eyesore. So that's it. From beginning to end, how we pulled off this entire commercial in just one night. And if you take one thing from this commercial, stop overthinking your next project, and just go out and create. You don't need the fanciest equipment, months of planning, or the most complex lighting setups to create something awesome. We shot this with literally two lights, whatever lamps were in the house, and one camera. You've got the power to create literally anything. So call up your friends and go make something fun. If you guys want to check out more of my content, it's over on my Instagram, so go check that out. Thank you for watching, and happy spooky season.