An old man sits in a nursing home, staring off into space. Soft classical piano music plays in the background. A cat rubs against his leg, and purrs, but he remains statuesque—we’re not sure what’s going on, but something feels off.

Until he starts to mumble something—a word at first not quite discernible. Purring? He repeats himself, still lost in a thousand-yard stare. Suddenly, he snaps to life, beaming as he whips up his smartphone and plugs in the letters on a Words With Friends 2 game. Elsewhere, “Pudding” appears on his granddaughter’s screen as she sighs exasperatedly—it turns out he’s not losing it; he’s a Words With Friends 2 wizard, and was just lost in thought. Clearly, this interaction is something that happens all the time between the two.

“Gramps” is a humorous take on aging, one of life’s great indignities. The video wants to play off an American stereotype of aging—the assumption that as we age, we become less sharp and we should be tucked away to age out-of-sight. Rather, we chose to show how the game actually provides its players with some joy, and bring them together across distances geographical and generational. Something we need more than ever in an increasingly disconnected society.

At the heart of this video is the genuine connection between a grandfather and his granddaughter. In order to embody the essence of their relationship, everything in the video needed to be authentic, from casting a real grandfather, real teenagers, and even a real cat. No post, makeup or prosthetics. Just authentic performances.