JMS were approached by Campaign Works to produce a public information video about water-conservation for their client Affinity Water.
Armed with a storyboard involving slapping someone with a fish and the knowledge that they liked the cinematic style of “Sean Of The Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” director Edgar Wright, we set our production team on the hunt like blood hounds to sniff out suitable actors, locations and most importantly – props.
For the actors we knew we needed someone with a stereotypical Fisherman appearance to deliver the slap, and the iconic white beard and weathered red cheeks were found with Chris. More renowned for playing Father Christmas than Captain Birdseye, we were lucky to be shooting late summer, and the elves at The North Pole agreed that we could have him for the day. We also found Ian, our sleepy water-waster who was happy with the prospect of being slapped around the face for as many takes as required to get the shot. A rare breed indeed.
Finally we came to sourcing the perfect fish. One of our team enquired at a local supermarket “What fish would you recommend to slap someone round the face with?” The friendly but surprised Fishmonger selected a large fish from the icy display and demonstrated how the fish slap would play out on his rather shocked passing colleague. Our now excited researcher asked “Do you think it would lend itself to being covered in Vaseline, or makeup to bring out its natural features?” On receiving blank, confused stares from the Fishmonger and his colleague our intrepid researcher retreated rather quickly to the safety of the biscuit isle.
Anyway after test shots were complete we decided it best to proceed with a rubber fish afterall, and found a suitable one which was actually a dog toy… who knew! So on the day of the shoot, the crew, actors and rubber fish all performed well, Chris rose to the challenge and delivered the slap with stony faced precision, furrowed brow, and perfect comedic timing that matched Ian’s shocked performance. The star of the show though was obviously the fish.
