Dandelion had done this before, and they knew exactly what they wanted to change. Their 2025 film leaned on the production process. For 2026 they wanted the customer's side of it: the box opening, the collateral coming out, an ornament lifted off the tree, two chocolates shared. Thirty seconds shorter than last year, more energy in the music, and the most visually delicious moments moved to the end.
The bigger risk was the schedule. The original plan packed the head chocolatier's on-camera monologues, his kitchen b-roll, and a full stylized product shoot into a day and a half across multiple rooms. Setting up in several places would have eaten the day and left the product work rushed. We pushed back, moved the monologues to their own shoot, added a second crew member, and held a pickup day as insurance.
The spine is simple: a small light, each day. Three moves run together across the spot. Dark to light. Cold to warm. Vast to intimate. It opens in the cold, dark cosmos and descends to a warm table lit by a single candle.
Nearly everything plays at hand and macro scale. Background light stays silver and cool early, then turns warm and close as the film goes. The product's own logic gave us the structure. The twenty-five days climb Yggdrasil, the Norse world tree, from root to crown, ending on Christmas Day at Polaris. So the film climbs too.
Shot across a single day in Dandelion's Mission basement. Diopters, gimbal, a rotating base for the box, a star-field backdrop, a reflective tabletop, real evergreen, and candlelight for the last act.
The project includes:
The hero film is live on Dandelion's Advent Calendar page and YouTube channel. The daily videos use the same titles and structure while changing the chocolatier, confection, and story each day.
Production Company: Graphite Productions
Director, Director of Photography, Producer: Colt Bradley
Gaffer: Andy Haney
Illustration: Lisa Grue
Confections: The Dandelion Chocolate confections team
