Will The Real @JohnLewis Please Stand Up?

There are certain names that can’t help but conjure the festive spirit - Santa Claus, Frosty The Snowman, Kevin McCallister. However, in recent years the UK has had another moniker to signal the festivities - John Lewis. With the department store’s annual Christmas commercial now recognised as the time for halls to be decked with holly, it’s hard to imagine anyone who’d be unhappy with the jolly tradition. Enter the ‘real’ John Lewis…

Blacksburg, Virginia lecturer John Lewis (the human), owner of the completely understandable Twitter handle @johnlewis, readies himself every year for an onslaught of responses to the latest ad from John Lewis (the store). Replying with charm and wit, Mr Lewis’s annual plight has transformed a silly case of mistaken identity into a delightful tradition which has now, cleverly, been transformed into a campaign for the very platform on which it takes place.

Created by agency The Romans, and directed with pleasing appeal by Agile Films’ Louis Bhose, Twitter’s ‘#NotARetailStore’ gently ribs the JL(shop)’s staple of a folksy rendition of a seasonal favourite, this time backing JL(man)’s evening tweetathon.

We loved the conceit and execution of the spot, plus the cheeky easter eggs that pepper the set dressing, so sat down with Bhose to chat about shooting the REAL John Lewis Christmas commercial.

How did you get involved with the Twitter project?

Think the script came in to Agile from The Romans and then was sent my way. As a (relatively prolific) lurky retweeter, I’ve been a big fan of Twitter for some years now, and John’s story is so pure that it got me level 9 excited pretty quick.

Did you know of the plight of poor @johnlewis beforehand? What was the hook that got you interested in creating the spot?

I’d heard of him, but only in passing. As soon as I read the basic concept - a parody of a John Lewis ad, featuring the real John Lewis - I was sold. I also liked this very xmassy idea of John as the good shepherd, herding lost and confused tweeters towards the real @jlandpartners account.

Did you immediately know how you’d approach the script when you saw it? What twists did you want to add?

Initially the script was a oner - a slow pull out from his eyes to his whole office... I guess I wanted to add a bit of jazz to it, thought we could have some more fun chopping around. And we could come back to that gloriously expressive face too. I added a few bits in like his little board of information but a fair bit was in the initial script.

What was the prep? Did you get to chat to John Lewis (the man) about what you envisioned? How did he feel about having his own ad?!

Throughout, John was bemused by the whole thing. Very happy to send videos or measurements of his office from Virginia to London, with me trying to work out the dimensions of his office with a tape measure in the Agile meeting room.

We had a week in Blacksburg, and on our first night we went for dinner with John. He’s the kindest, most gentle dude I can remember meeting. Absolutely up for anything. Pure, unadulterated positivity. We spent a few days casting and prepping art dept but the whole thing was pretty smooth. Apart from #trampolinegate, where we got our DoP and producer to help build a second-hand trampoline. With no instructions. And several parts missing.

How was the shoot? Was it difficult directing a non-actor like John or did he know how to play himself pretty well?

Shoot was fun! I feel like John ‘got’ the idea, so it was pretty easy to direct him. The same goes for Leah, our musician in the spot. It helped that they were both extremely patient, and happy to go for multiple takes. I would say, though, that it must have been a tough shoot for some - in order to replicate the tweet notifications, I was screaming ‘PING’ from behind the monitor for the best part of the day.

Who made the choice for ‘Leah’ to be a part of the action?

The role of the musician that was eventually revealed to be in John’s office was in The Romans’ initial script, which I thought was a lovely touch. We initially wanted a kid (for the cute factor) but had real difficulty casting anyone locally that was suitable...

We were eating in Blacksburg’s finest veggie restaurant (shout out Gillie’s, where we ate all our meals most days) when our producer Hayley gave me a little nod. Our waitress, who we’d seen a fair few times, had the perfect vibe: a little awkward, a little cool, very much her own style. It clicked pretty quickly for all of us - we had to wrap her at 5.30pm though so she could make her evening shift!

We clocked a few cheeky references to former JL Christmas spots in the background. Are there any we might have missed? Was it fun creating the real JL’s workspace for an Easter Egg hunt?

It was a fun little brainstorm between all of us as to what we could put in, or how we could hide some refs in plain sight. I wish I could expand on these, but I’m beholden to an insanely binding #NDA, which forbids me to say that there’s actually tons of penguins in the film. TONS.

How much post work needed to be done? Were there any issues that needed fixing?

Pretty minimal really. I’ve worked with Kit Wells at Final Cut before and he works very quickly - we had a cut we were happy with early on so a lot of it was just tinkering. We did the text and titles at Agile, and the lovely people at Wave & MPC helped us out with the mix and the grade, and that was that. Jeremy Warmsley, the composer, probably had the hardest job of all, rejigging the song to match perfectly once we’d picture locked (Leah was miming to a rough track on the shoot).

How was it sitting on this, waiting for the ‘other’ spot to appear?

Errr... There really wasn’t very much sitting at all. Barely a pause.

Have you seen the ‘other’ John Lewis ad? What do you reckon?

I like it! But after Dougal Wilson’s ‘The Long Wait’, every year is like trying to go back to drinking non-chocolate milk after having tasted chocolate milk. And I fucking love chocolate milk.

What’s on your Christmas list this year?

The 4K UHD transfer of ‘Jingle All The Way’.

What’s up next for you?

Writing on more scripts I hope! I’m still very much in music vids - which I love - but my first few little forays into the commercial world have been really fun. So, yeah... Holler at me for any niche, light-hearted, transatlantic mistaken-identity films. I’m keen not to be pigeonholed though, so would be happy working across any films relating to confusion between human beings and much-loved British brands.