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Production on two national Walgreens commercials was in the works this fall in Sarasota and Bradenton.
The giant drugstore chain hired Semkhor Productions to produce the commercials in association with Sarasota-based Ringling College of Art and Design.
This isn’t the first time the Semkhor-Ringling collaboration has worked with Walgreens. In February, the entities shot a live-action commercial in Sarasota's downtown.
This time around, the commercials are holiday-oriented and include a mix of animation and live video.
Semkhor founder and CEO David Shapiro tells Coffee Talk one of the new commercials highlights holiday gifts and specials at Walgreens. The other is about targeted moments, Shapiro says, including interactions between family members and getting a house and gifts ready for the holidays.
Production included filming at the Walgreens store at U.S. 41 and Bee Ridge Road and at a home in Bradenton. The commercials are on YouTube.
Shapiro says the commercials help fulfill Semkhor’s mandate to bring more out-of-town production business to Sarasota. The goal? Make Sarasota a digital content creation hub.
Production on the Walgreens commercials involved about 22 people, many Ringling College graduates, says Shapiro. That includes the filming crew and people involved in the post-production process. All of the animation work came out of Sarasota County, too, he says. “There’s an incredible amount of talent here and an incredible work ethic here, and I think those things help us compete nationally,” Shapiro says.
He also points to lower production costs in Sarasota and the newly opened post-production facility on the Ringling College campus as two factors that will help the area compete for content creation work.
“I think that we have a good spot for commercial corporate work, and we definitely want to take advantage of it,” Shapiro says. “And the work is becoming more and more creative.”
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