Lights, Camera, Action: Portion of Ad Filmed on Albion Campus
September 21, 2018
Crew members coordinate a shot in Towsley Lecture Hall during filming of a TV commercial for Consumers Energy. Albion College was used as one of the sites for the shoot on September 20.
A crew of some 45 to 50 converged on the Albion College campus Thursday, September 20, to film portions of a television advertisement for Jackson-based Consumers Energy.
Crew members filming an ad for Consumers Energy recruited several Albion students to be extras on the project. They gathered in front of Kresge Gym and played an impromptu football game.
Preparations began before dawn and included a number of vehicles that brought everything from cameras, lighting, electrical equipment, monitors, miles of cable, food and, yes, even a fog machine.
Filming took place primarily in the Science Complex with Towsley Lecture Hall and one of the lab/classrooms in Kresge Hall as the primary locations. There was also exterior filming done outside Robinson Hall and on the Quad in front of Kresge Gymnasium, where the ad’s director recruited a number of students for an impromptu football game.
The spot was developed by Daniel Brian Advertising of Rochester, Mich.
Saudia Santure, director of brand management for Consumers Energy, said this ad is one of four the company has commissioned as it rebrands itself as an alternative energy source. The ad on campus focuses on Consumers President and Chief Executive Officer Patti Poppe and the early portion of her career as a college student.
Filming at Albion was recommended to Santure by another Consumers employee, Becky Domingo, who knows the campus well since her father-in-law, Joe Domingo, was Albion’s mayor from 2008-16.
When completed, the ad will begin running on all TV platforms starting the week of Nov. 11, Santure said.