Fisher Price & McCann London puts Mums and Dads behind the Camera in Brand Campaign Film

Fisher Price and Craft London put mums and dads in the director’s chair, to capture genuine, emotive childhood moments connected with a range of Fisher-Price toys aimed at developing children’s motor skills.

To capture the intimate moments, Craft worked in close partnership with the creative team at McCann London to develop the idea.

Head of Production at Craft, Sergio Lopez comments: “We were part of the creative process from the very beginning. The brief provided a lot of freedom but it was important for us to stay true to Fisher-Price’s brand. The biggest challenge was bridging the gap between the ambitious brief with the logistics. We looked at traditional approaches with established directors and ways to control children in studios. The cost of shooting the children in different locations over a period of three weeks with a traditional approach was astronomical. In the end we realised that the best solution was the simplest.”

Craft passed the camera to those who know the little actors best – Mum and Dad. This paternal approach ensured that the children could interact with the toys whilst at complete ease.

However, as the footage was being captured directly by the parents, some unique challenges did present themselves. To combat this, Craft designed a workflow with the creative team to address the variables in the situation. Parents were provided with specially crafted guidelines which would help maintain consistency in the visuals.

“We didn’t just give the cameras away and hope for the best,” explains Sergio, “We tried a few types of cameras and rigs in order to get the one that fulfilled the technical needs without letting the tech side get in the way. It was key to the project that the kids were spontaneous and the parents could focus on capturing the right moments. That is why we decided to shoot the commercial using iPhones. Kids are used to having stills and videos taken of them, and parents know how to use them. We also did extensive camera tests and told the parents what type of shots and framing we were looking for. We were in constant contact with them during the three weeks and the footage we got was terrific.”

Overall Craft accrued over 150 hours of footage and more than 400 stills from the participating families which were edited in-house to capture the children’s development from first curious moments with the toy, through to fully comfortable and exciting play.

Sergio admits: “It was a leap of faith for the client to work in an environment in which we couldn’t control every aspect of the production. But the parents followed the brief to the letter and, thanks to daily reviews of the provided footage, the team were able to react swiftly and change the guidelines as required.

 “The parents successfully captured the entire spectrum of emotions their child experienced,” says Sergio, “and we were able to see the child really develop from that first moment to when they were completely comfortable playing with the toy. We were all very happy with the results and the children clearly enjoyed the toys.”