The Making of the
Montrose Commercial

It’s not every day one gets to experience the making of a television commercial. It’s something the MSPA (Montrose Shopping Park Assn.) board has long wanted to do but the funding and time to pursue it never seemed to happen … until this year. Yes, this year lots of positive changes have taken place in the shopping park and the commercial is just one of them. Board member Jake Menachian set up a meeting with Time Warner Cable and we were off and running.

Within one week of the meeting we pulled together the shoot and within days of that our 30 seconds of cheer was on the air. It amazes me how much you can share and show in such a short time. The members of the Commercial Creative Committee were Jake, me and MVCC executive director Melinda Clarke, who has a media production background.

We met with the producer of the commercial who had never been to Montrose. Our job was to help him capture the spirit of our quaint, little town. Here is the script we gave him to use: Come home to Old Town Montrose for the holidays … enjoy our winding streets with three blocks of “one of a kind” shops, cafes, salons and spas … Celebrate Old Town Christmas amid millions of dazzling lights, horse drawn trolley rides, carolers, live musicians, a strolling Santa and free pony rides … enjoy our weekly Harvest Market … White Friday, Nov. 27 and Christmas parade. And of course we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

The shoot took place the day after Halloween and our job was to make us look like Christmas. One idea led to another and the next thing I know, I was rounding up the Dickens Carolers costumes from our church.  The “carolers” were Steve Pierce (Montrose ambassador), Jake, Danny Goldsworthy, Maureen Palacios (MSPA), Melinda, Molly Shelton and myself. I think we all shocked ourselves as to how good we sounded, how authentic we looked and how much fun we had filming as we sang “Jingle Bells,” smiling, over and over.

The commercial is running on The Food Network, HGTV, Bravo and The Family Channel in Glendale, Burbank, and Pasadena. I’ll post a copy on Facebook (Montrose Shopping Park) so you can tell us how you like it.

Yes, do come home to Montrose for the holidays! We have lots of Christmas cheer planned for you.

  Mary Dawson