To celebrate the 2010 Winter Holiday Season the Starbucks Corporation of Seattle, Washington created a visually impressive holiday commercial message using specially crafted, unique snowflake kites.
The commercial has received a good amount of air time on television and through viral messaging from social media sources. Although many will have seen this commercial, it deserves to be documented one more time along with the very interesting story behind the making of the one minute long video.
As any kiter knows, the placement of numerous kites in the sky for a special event is not just a random happening. There was a lot of work, planning, and skill that went into the creation of this visual promotion.
Conceived by the advertising firm of BBDO North America, a Madison Avenue agency, the project took on life through the cameras of the EPOCH Films of New York.
The critical element of flying the snowflake kites required the crack, expert kite team of dean jordan, Blake Pelton, Craig Wilson, Tim Elverston and Ruth Whiting to make all the exciting kite shots possible. The kites were created by dean, Blake, Mike Dennis, and Pam Kirk, along with some custom work from New Tech Kites.
dean was in New York for two weeks preparing for the shoot and carrying out the filming of the project. He spent a week location scouting, and then Blake arrived to do all of the technical scouting before doing the three days of shooting on the 18th, 19th, and 20th of October.
Again, kite fliers know that flying kites in downtown Manhattan or even in Liberty State Park, New Jersey, where some additional scenes were shot, is not an easy task. So, some movie magic was required to pull it all off.
Thanks to Blake Pelton and dean jordan, the making of the commercial was recorded and shared on YouTube. It is well worth while watching this video to see the work and the magic that went into the creation of the Starbucks commercial.
Once you watch the video on the making of the commercial, it is fun to return to the commercial to see how it all comes together for maximum visual effect and feeling.
Special appreciation goes to dean jordan, one of the true Jedi Knights of Kiting for providing me with details about the project.
For those of you interested in the terrific background music, it is entitled "Snow Day" by Matt Pond. The full version can be enjoyed, along with some of his unique song stylings on YouTube as well.
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