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About three months ago, I got a video commission for (what I’m told is) the largest food-based social networking website in the world.

What I Thought Would Happen?
The idea I proposed was a pretty simple one. Two eggs fight over a frying pan. One defeats the other and gets scrambled.

What I didn’t know is how I would do it. Stop-motion got ruled out pretty quick (too time intensive), as did animation (too difficult to make it look good). I felt like I should do what I know, and I know puppets.

Shaun knows puppets! This hippo couldn’t get any more dopey looking.

Wrapping my head around how I was actually going to do the idea I proposed really got to me. By the day I scheduled us to shoot, I never made a storyboard, I never drew out what I wanted the miniature set to look like, and I never really had a plan except that I wanted to shoot it on top of Nora’s stove. Without any preparation beyond shopping for props at the supermarket, I figured the shoot would be interesting– most likely a total failure.

what Actually Happened?
It wasn’t a failure. Everyone brought ideas to the table that gelled pretty well. The whole adage about how surrounding yourself with smart people makes you smarter by proxy is pretty accurate.

Ronnie came up with the idea to make the fight a brown egg, versus a white egg, and the idea that we should blow on the trees to simulate wind (which you can only really see in the second to last shot with the brown egg in the pan).

And of course, the brown egg is the evil one. Perpetuating stereotypes!

My two regrets: In my effort to dress the stove set, I massively over-dressed it. You can’t even really tell it’s a stove anymore. Plus, I never got any far-away establishing shots with the surroundings in it (the countertops and the fridge) to establish it’s a stove.

I also made a mistake that I never thought ever actually happened. I taped over the ending footage (the egg being scrambled) by mistake while I was capturing the video.

So now it’s this weird situation where you can tell it’s two eggs fighting, but you can’t tell it’s on a stove above a pan and you also don’t get to see the punchline (the scrambling). One day I might add it in, but for now… whatevs right?

In Conclusion…
The miniature set turned out awesome. Other than the Gear Up, Buckle Up shoot I did earlier this year, this was definitely my favorite shoot. It’s kinda disappointing that Ryan was sick that day and couldn’t be there or take photos– the whole thing was totally bizarre.

The cast

WHO?
Starring: Danny Djeljosevic (good egg), Andrew Tan (bad egg), Nora E. (Mrs. Maryweather Egg), Nick Boisson (Mrs. Helen Egg), 12 brown eggs, 12 white eggs
Written/Directed: Shaun Spalding
Assistant Director: Danny Djelosevic
Crew: Nora E., Rafael Gaitan, Nick Boisson, Ronnie Hink