This was a General Mills job—one of those seemingly straightforward assignments that ends up being strangely delightful. The task? Swap out one cereal for another in an existing spot. Simple, right? Well, not exactly.

I ended up directing a full tabletop shoot, getting intimate with cereal at a macro level. Stop-motion animation, package replacement and animated spoons doing their thing—it was breakfast theater. We nudged, lit, and spooned our way through the scene until what started as a modest template ended up with a whole new energy—and a shiny new cereal in the spotlight. A good reminder that even in the world of breakfast food, a little cinematic elbow grease goes a long way.