Using no actors, no script, no studio, no special effects and minimal music, James Davis and David Tennant of Jolly Roger shot and edited 16 different spots for Royal LePage taking us, along with the MacLean family and agent Kelly, through the entire process of selling a house.

The 16 commercials out of agency Garneau Wurstlin Philp consist of a teaser of abstract images and foreshadowing, shown for one week, followed by one spot a day, five days a week for three weeks.

‘We had to throw out everything we normally do,’ says executive producer Davis. ‘It was completely different all the way through from the client’s involvement to the non-traditional casting means.’

They found the ideal house, with national appeal, in Mississauga and shot the spots from there using the owners, a family of four – Jeff, Carolyn, Cailan and Kendall Collett – who have never been in front of a camera, as their actors.

‘Originally we were going to use actors but we were overwhelmed by the family that owned the house,’ explains Davis. ‘It was easier to get that warm family feeling with the real family pictures on the mantel instead of props.’

Using 35mm, 16mm and Super 8 film, the crew of 20 spent four days in the weeks prior to Christmas filming in the house. Two days were spent in the Royal LePage Mississauga branch office, one day was spent shooting the graphics, and four and a half to five hours were spent up in a helicopter.

By shooting on all types of film as well as taking advantage of available light they were able to create the feeling that it was all actually happening, from finding the right agent in the first spot, to that emotional moment when the ‘sold’ sign goes up.

‘We wanted it to be free-form, so even in production we had to do things that we don’t usually do,’ says Davis.

Two of those things were editing it themselves at Jolly Roger on an Avid 8000 and hand-processing the Super 8 film. Director/dop/editor Tennant developed it in the darkness of his bathroom.

‘When you process it yourself you never know what kind of look you are going to get,’ says Tennant. ‘There is no way to know how it is going to turn out.’

According to Davis, what Tennant did with the film really epitomized the entire process. ‘It was incredibly hands-on: him developing the film by hand was a fitting metaphor for the whole shoot: you don’t know what is going to happen, you just let it develop and find out.’

Agency credits go to brand engineers Philippe Garneau, Michael Wurstlin and Bruce Philp, and producer Carmelle Prud’Homme.

d. a. v. e. handled post, with Bill Ferwada the colorist, Ernie Mordak the online editor and Kevin Doyle the sound engineer. Music was by Rosnick MacKinnon.