Rolling Oreos in Milano

Lizzie Mayson crouched with a camera photographing a couple at a marble kitchen counter on the Oreo shoot in Milano.

I was in Milano this March shooting Oreo, capturing the stills alongside the TV commercial, two crafts running at once, in the same rooms, on the same clock.

Overhead behind-the-scenes view of the camera and tripod rig set low beneath the table on the Oreo shoot.
Final Oreo campaign still: a couple sharing Oreos and milk at a marble counter in a bright Milano apartment.
Marble and terrazzo entrance hall of the Milano location apartment used for the Oreo shoot.

The location was a beautiful old apartment, all marble entrances and terrazzo floors, the kind of place that photographs itself. The only way to load the equipment was by cherry picker, hoisting it up and through the street.

Oreo campaign image of a mother and son rolling Oreo cookies across a wooden table toward a glass of milk.

The trickiest frames were the roulette shots, a single Oreo rolling across the surface, held in perfect focus at exactly the right moment. They're deceptively technical, and I had very little time to land the perfect roll while directing three actors through the scene. I was wedged into a corner with the camera and tripod, my head pressed right up against the wall, chasing that one clean take.