Producer Brian Mancini Chimes in on making of national commercial campaign

Becoming a producer felt natural for Brian Mancini. With a passion for film and television that began as a child, this Toronto native knew he wanted to be a producer from an early age. 

“I didn’t want to wait for someone else to offer me a project. I always knew I would need to be the one to start working on my own projects,” he said.

Mancini is a natural born leader and creative, and loves bringing passionate artists together to create something incredible that relates and provokes emotion and thought in audiences. This is exemplified by his work on the award-winning docuseries In The Know, celebrated films such as A Meditation, which went on to over a dozen film festivals around the world, and commercial campaigns such as Verizon’s “Real Life Love” which won a Gold Telly Award, to name a few.

Audiences across the United States have seen some of Mancini’s latest commercials, as his campaign for Chime is being aired repeatedly on CNN, ABC, Hulu, YouTube, Instagram, plus many others. This is a paid advertisement that has reached millions of views across many platforms. 

“It’s always very cool to see something you produced unexpectedly popping up on TV or YouTube. To know while I’m watching it that it’s being viewed by so many other people is heartwarming as you can always go and think of the great team you worked with and all the choices that needed to be made along the way,” said Mancini.

Chime is an American financial technology company. The goal of these advertisements were to promote everyday people with credit trouble to use the Chime services to help get out of debt. Mancini and his team shot two scripted commercials edited in many formats for TV, social media, and online. They also shot one unscripted testimonial-style commercial that introduced a real-life couple who have been using Chime and building a life out of debt. 

“This commercial touches on a big issue of getting out of debt. I feel that getting good credit and becoming debt free can seem like an impossible task. Even though this project was specific to Chime, this conversation of ‘How do I improve my credit?’ is something on a lot of people’s minds. It was also fun to create a commercial talking about a serious topic but presenting it in a positive way and making it ok to talk about,” said Mancini.

Mancini was working as a Line Producer for Blink LA and worked with the team there to create these commercials. He helped make the pitch for the campaign, assessing what they had in budget and delivered them options to which they felt matched the product they needed. He then worked closely with Chime to ensure he and his team provided them the time required to approve shots, and capitalized on limited time within the production days. His work was also essential while shooting, as he was on set to ensure production moved smoothly. Even when he had to overcome the obstacle of many crew members testing positive for COVID-19 the day before the shoot was scheduled to commence, he managed to replace any impacted crew and keep everything on schedule and safe.

“Working with a great team who were able to act fast and solve problems quickly was essential. Having a positive environment where everyone was respectful to others’ craft helped make this a very successful production,” said Mancini.

Another unique obstacle Mancini had to overcome was working with so many cats. The humor of the commercial features a woman who loves her cats, so getting the right performance from the feline members of the cast took some time. The end result is both informative and witty. Check out one of Mancini’s Chime spots here.