Patrons at Maplesville Florist and Bake Shoppe rarely enjoy their meat-and-three meals surrounded by beaming camera lights.

Friday afternoon offered a change of pace for Chilton County residents as well as a California film crew, some of whom spent their first days absorbing rich Southern culture and cooking.

Donning their state-of-the-art Red One digital film camera, members of Showreel Productions began production of a South Coast Paper advertisement emphasizing workforce diversity. Several South Coast employees as well as other Maplesville town officials and personalities will be featured in the spot, financed by Southern California Edison, an Edison International Company.

South Coast Paper is an independently-owned paper converting and packaging company offering a large variety of paper products.

The crew spent part of an hour lighting and shooting South Coast employees, Mayor Kurt Wallace and other restaurant customers, as they enjoyed freshly cooked lunches.

Upon seeing steam rising from gravy-soaked vegetables, director Eric Jackson hurried his photographer, New Zealand-born Iain Mclean, in the plates’ general direction to add some down-home naturalism to the piece.

Producer and SCE manager of corporate and human resources communications Doug Oliviero said the people of Maplesville met the crew with immense warmth and accommodation.

Having traveled as far south as North Carolina, Oliviero expressed how generous the people of Chilton County had been since their arrival and shoot.

“Maplesville really laid the red carpet out for us,” Oliviero said. “It was really unexpected.”

The Showreel crew spent most of Friday morning shooting at the South Coast plant before they made their way to the restaurant.

They spent the rest of the day moving from one Maplesville landmark to the other, including the train depot along with prominent houses and churches.

SCE rewarded South Coast with the video thanks to the companies’ longstanding positive partnership.

The video will be used for community outreach projects as well as in-house presentations to emphasize diversity to South Coast employees. Oliviero said it would run between 8-9 minutes.

South Coast account executive LaJoia Broughton and receptionist Janice Adams, along with several others, expressed their excitement about the project and appreciation to SCE and Showreel for spending their money and efforts to help highlight the positive aspects of the paper company through a video promotion with such high production value.

Shortly after recording several key shots for the promotion, members of the film crew finally sat down with the Maplesville residents and enjoyed their very own hot Southern meal.