From beats to blizzard: Walmart taps Creative Filter to create a spectacular winter wonderland… in the middle of the Houston heat.
The Creative Filter team orchestrated a massive, snow-filled production uniting a dozen Walmart associates from across the nation, for a one-night shoot that brought to life a festive Holiday wonderland, despite the early-October heat.
The challenge
The challenge: Create a viral music video featuring a dozen talented Walmart employees from across the organization and across the country.
The catch? There was one day when all of these associates could be flown into Houston for the Grand Opening of a new Super Center.
The rest of the catch? Shoot day was assigned for early-October, it was hot, and this video had to scream Holiday Wonderland.
The remarkable final shot was to be the grand reveal…that the entire enchanting scene was crafted in the parking lot of Walmart.
Easy, right?
Our approach
Creative Filter’s logistical prowess and problem solving skills were on full display as the team started to storyboard and concept how to capture the essence of a Winter Wonderland in one footprint…in a parking lot of a Walmart store…in one (very warm) day.
The team pondered a unique set of questions:
- How do you hide an entire Walmart Supercenter?
- Where do you find Christmas pines in the middle of the summer…and how do you get them to Houston, Texas?
- How do you create a 120’ x 50’ snowy landscape in 97-degree weather?
- Isn’t Santa a little too busy to be traveling to Houston two months before the holidays?
After weeks of collaboration with the client and vendor partners who could help bring the vision to life, the final shot-list was set and shoot day was scheduled.
Every day on-set is always a new adventure, but mark this down as one of the most unique shoots to date! In the Walmart parking lot that day, one look around and you could find:
- A giant blackout sheet to hide the store
- 35 foot techno crane
- A dozen tiny sheds transformed into a Holiday Village
- 30 fresh cut trees trucked in from Colorado
- Three semi-trucks of Bagged Ice & a snow blower
- Man-made hill for Sledding
- Santa Claus & a live reindeer
- A dozen talented Walmart Associates flexing their musical muscles
As the shoot wrapped for the day just before sunrise, the team and the client relished in the final shots and celebrated a mission accomplished in just under 24 hours of shoot time.
The results
After the snow had settled and post-production was complete, the final result was a visually captivating music video full of all of the joy of the holiday season showcasing great talent from across the Walmart organization. The client was thrilled, and their complete trust in the Creative Filter team resulted in a video that was truly out of the ordinary.
“Creating a winter wonderland with real snow in a 90-degree Walmart parking lot is challenging. Add to that a race against the sunrise, a coordinated curtain drop, and live reindeer on-set and I’d say pulling this off and delivering a final end product was a massive feat. We were able to orchestrate all of the logistics of everything at a level I rarely see as a director. This project was special to me for so many reasons…we made a winter wonderland in a Walmart parking lot with real snow and a sledding hill…what’s not to love?” –
Roman Johnson, Director of Holiday Rap Battle
