Several dozen people worked feverishly on the grounds of Emmett Walsh’s home on Beach Boulevard South on a chilly and blustery afternoon in Gulfport. On Wednesday, January 17 Home Depot was shooting commercials using some of the homes in the area and decided to use the home of Walsh, who is an architect, in their upcoming television ad.
“They stopped to talk to me awhile back while I was on my lawn using a leaf blower doing yardwork and said they were interested in using my home as a potential place to shoot a commercial,” said Walsh.
Actors, camera people, technical specialists, landscape designers, caterers, equipment operators and truck drivers swarmed the already well-kept grounds adding extra flowers, burgers and grill food to go with the theme, and lighting to get the perfect look for the commercial.
“They just showed up and started setting up quickly. They added some extra flowers and even added temporary sod over a paver patio so the yard would work for the shoot,” Walsh said. “They were very professional.”
Despite the Memorial Day theme of the commercial, the weather was not so late-May-feeling, especially for Florida, so actors were bundled up in warm clothes in between shooting.
“The director would say ‘Jackets!’ and an assistant would come in and take the actors’ jackets and then they would do the shot,” said Walsh.
After the shoot they left the house pretty much as it was, except they left all the flowers behind.
“I was surprised they left all of the flowers here for me to keep,” Walsh said pointing to an entire row of azaleas. The shooting at Walsh’s home took a few hours to complete and they also did some shots of the interior. The Gulfport Police Department was also nearby to prevent any traffic problems with the many vehicles involved with the shoot on the one-way street.
