Four filming sessions across one Brisbane home and one very famous dog. Here is what a brand story looks like when the brief is to prove a 30-year-old painting business is exactly as good as its accreditation says it is.
4 filming sessions | 1x brand story film | Brisbane QLD | Dulux Accredited Painter
S2F Painting has been repainting Brisbane homes and businesses since the early 1990s, more than 30 years in a trade where most operators do not last a decade. Founder Apostoli Holevas built the business around preparation and long-term durability rather than a quick coat, and the team now includes more than 10 Dulux Accredited Painters across over 1,000 completed projects. S2F carries workmanship warranties on its work and holds itself to Dulux’s accredited standards on every job, residential, commercial, interior, and exterior.
That accreditation is the reason Dulux was the right partner for this shoot. Dulux has been the paint Australians reach for first for close to a century, and its accredited painter network exists specifically so homeowners can find painters who are licensed, insured, and vetted to a standard the brand puts its own name behind. Being part of that network is a credibility signal S2F has earned, and one most competitors cannot claim.
The brief came from Apostoli directly: a single brand story video that shows the actual work and the actual partnership, not a script read in front of a paint can.
The Brief
S2F needed one 2-3 minute brand story video, Brisbane-focused, built to run on the website and social channels as the primary piece proving what the business does and who stands behind it.
Painting is a trade where every quote reads the same. Every painter promises quality, reliability, and a tidy job site. What separates S2F from a competitor with an identical price is whether a homeowner can actually see the standard before booking, and whether there is a brand like Dulux willing to put its accreditation behind the work. The brief was to build the video around both of those things: the job itself, start to finish, and the Dulux relationship that backs it.
The Shoot
Session 1: Job Start, Brisbane Home
The first session opened on a Brisbane home at the start of a full repaint. Surface prep, sanding, masking, the first coat going on. This is the unglamorous half of a paint job that most homeowners never see, and it is also the half that determines whether a finish lasts five years or fifteen. Filming it establishes the standard before the finished result ever appears on screen.
Session 2: Mid-Job Detail
The second session returned to the same property mid-job to capture the detail work: trim, edges, second coats, the parts of a repaint that separate a professional finish from a weekend DIY job. Close, steady shots on cut-lines and finish quality did the proving here, not narration.
Session 3: The Reveal
This session went back to the same house for the final reveal, the completed repaint, walked through room by room. This is the payoff shot after two sessions of process footage, the moment the video answers what all that preparation was actually for.
Session 4: The Dulux Dog, With Apostoli and His Kids
The remaining session was shot away from the job site, with Apostoli, his kids, and the Dulux dog. Dulux’s mascot has been part of the brand’s advertising for decades and is one of the most recognised in Australian advertising, so putting it on screen with S2F’s own founder and family does two things at once: it makes the Dulux partnership visible and tangible rather than a logo on a van, and it puts a face and a family behind a business that is otherwise just a name on a quote.
Why This Approach Works
A homeowner choosing a painter cannot inspect the prep work, the coats, or the warranty terms before they sign off on a job. They are trusting a written quote and a handful of online reviews to predict a result they will not see for weeks. Filming the actual job, prep through to reveal, replaces that blind trust with something a viewer has watched happen.
The Dulux session does a different job. Accreditation on a website is a badge. Accreditation on screen, with the brand’s own mascot standing next to the founder and his kids, is a relationship a viewer can see. Dulux has spent decades building trust that most trade businesses could never build alone, and this shoot borrows that trust honestly, because S2F has actually earned the accreditation behind it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the S2F Painting video production involve?
Unreal Media produced a 2-3 minute brand story video for S2F Painting, a Brisbane painting company founded by Apostoli Holevas and accredited by Dulux. The shoot ran across four sessions covering the start, mid-point, and completed reveal of a full home repaint, plus a separate session featuring the Dulux dog with Apostoli and his family.
Where was the S2F Painting brand story filmed?
Filming was based around a Brisbane residential repaint, covering the job from initial preparation through to the finished result, along with a location shoot featuring Apostoli, his kids, and the Dulux dog.
Why does the Dulux dog feature in the video?
S2F Painting is a Dulux Accredited Painter, and the shoot used Dulux’s long-running mascot to make that partnership visible rather than leaving it as a badge on the website. Filming it alongside Apostoli and his own kids also puts the founder’s family behind the brand, not just his name.
How do you approach a brand story video without hard performance stats or a client testimonial to lean on?
When there is no data or quote to build the story around, the footage has to carry the proof on its own. For S2F, that meant filming the job itself from prep to reveal so the standard of work speaks for itself, and using the Dulux partnership as the credibility signal instead of a review or a number.
What makes a brand story work for a painting or trades business?
A trades brand story works when it shows the part of the job a customer would never otherwise see, the preparation, and the part they are actually paying for, the finish. Add a credible third-party accreditation on screen rather than as a logo, and a viewer has something concrete to trust before they ever request a quote.
Got a trade business backed by real standards that deserves to be shown, not just claimed?
We produce brand films for trade and service businesses across Queensland and Australia. Tell us what you need and we will give you a straight quote after one call.
