Gray’s WTVY Dothan, Ala., a found creative solutions to produce some Happy Holidays promos while also practicing social distancing to keep employees safe.
Happy Holidays promos on TV stations have been a staple this time of the year for a long time.
Usually, there is a lot of open inventory on the log as we get closer to Dec. 25 and in the week after. So Happy Holidays promos can get air play.
But because people are working from home and practicing social distancing, many stations may be challenged to pull together a spot or campaign this year.
Not so at WTVY, Gray’s CBS-MyNetworkTV affiliates in Dothan, Ala.
Yes, there were production challenges, but Micah Pendleton, WTVY’s creative director, wasn’t going to let that stand in the way.
“Christmas greetings have been a tradition at WTVY for years,” Pendleton said. “Our Christmas greetings have always been a fun opportunity to say, of course, Merry Christmas to our viewers, and second, to let some of the behind-the-scenes team have a moment on air and just have fun! Which I think the fun we have doing these, it is especially important that it shows through to the viewer this year given the heavy and challenging year it has been.”
https://youtu.be/2zOMlGGlCsI
“This is my second year being the one to produce them and, due to COVID, this year was easily more difficult. Of course, the normal social distancing and mask guidelines were taken into account. We kept the number of people in the studio to a minimum, and the hardest part, one person on the green screen at a time! But many people wanted to do their greeting together, so this required some extra creativity and extra work in post-production.”
https://youtu.be/QhuMGhYQARg
“With each person being shot as their own element, this forced us to think outside of the box. So we put some people in a box (Gift box LOL), and some ended up being tiny Christmas elves, and one person even ended up waving while in a snow globe. We also had to combine some people at normal scale, interacting with objects and each other in some cases!”
https://youtu.be/mTMNP1I5eUE
“A stopwatch was pulled out to match performances’ timing and many of these non-actors had to stare into what they had to pretend was someone else’s eyes and I think they did a great job. I’m very proud of everyone who was involved for bringing such great ideas to the table and working with my department as we had our most challenging year for these greetings yet!”
https://youtu.be/mDdrH9s7G5U
https://youtu.be/UPek3Mloc24
If you want to share your station’s Happy Holidays promos, from this year or any other, please send them to me at [email protected]. YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook links preferred or a low res file of the actual promo.
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