way back a year ago, when my friend lars asked if i wanted to help his creative team shoot test spots for an ikea pitch meeting, i had no idea what to expect. he pulled out a couple fresh-from-the-hopper scripts and asked me to come in for a conversation.  our last collaboration having been so fun, i thought: "why not?"  plus, my grandmother loves ikea so i thought it'd earn me a double share of cookies come christmas time.

(grandy's cookies modeled by my super-cool neighbor and jewelry designer, lindsey).

the next morning, the conversation turned out to be not-exactly-but-very-much-like a pre-pro meeting so, needless to say, i brushed off my hangover and we hit the ground running.

while the production was one of those "you want what, when?!" type of deals, the creative written by mara evans and art directed by raul mandru was solid and charming.  the two storybook yarns (which would've felt very much at home on prairie home companion) valued narrative and tone over egregious product porn (sadly uncommon these days).

with my trusted cinematographer, aaron phillips, and an amazing new find, the energetic and innovative production designer, rachel macintosh, the production team moved mountains to get these films done (in the midst of a blizzard no less).

but it wasn't until tim wilson at go robot and emery wells of katabatic (another incredible find) edited and timed the final pieces that the potential inherent in the original scripts finally emerged.

though we shot these a year ago, the final grading and finishing was only just completed last week.  i'm proud of the results…

oh, and ogilvy won the account.