Commercials – Life Behind The Scenes

Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!

I’m riddled with guilt; because I haven’t posted a single entry this year… and it’s already JULY! The first six months of 2014 just whizzed by; and I’ve either been too busy or too tired to even think about writing. It’s a happy problem, though, so I’m really thankful.

Still, better late than never. Now that I’ve finally pushed myself to write an entry, I’m going to kick off my blog this 2014 with a quick roundup of some projects I’ve been busy with for the first half of the year (different clients and different directors, FYI). This way, you’ll catch a glimpse of the crazy first half of my year (and hopefully understand my long hiatus from posting).

“ARTWORK”
This was an AVP shot on location in Pinto Gallery in Antipolo. We set up and shot features for three different photographers in a single location, which was a real challenge. But we did it!

“GAME”
This was shot in a house in Balete Drive, I kid you not. The house is pretty creepy; but the cheerful and happy nature of this board more than made up for it. The kids were great!

“SELFIE”
The prep time for this board was a bit insane; but I’m glad we pulled it off. This was shot in one day in the Ortigas Center area and the beautiful campus of STI Ortigas-Cainta. Our DOP used a special handheld camera rig (called Brushless Gimbal) that allowed us to execute the smooth movement of from one angle to the other. It looks pretty good!

Client: STI
Director: Chris Martinez | DOP: Gary Gardoce | Assistant Director: Melvin Lee | Production Designer: Nina Torres
Production House: Straight Shooters | Post Production: Engine Room

“SIMPLICITY”
This was my first time working with a Taiwanese director. This spot was shot in 2 days in 2 schools: DLSU-Dasma and PUP. In a nutshell, the shoots were really quick and relatively painless… just the kind of projects I like.

“STAR”
This is the first of many materials for this project. Still waiting for the others to be approved… Anyway, all TVCs were shot in the span of a weekend (Friday to Sunday); and we had a lot of fun doing them.

Client: Unilab | Agency: Publicis JimenezBasic
Director/DOP: Yam Laranas | Assistant Director: Christine Blando/Manman Angsico | Production Designer: Rious Caliso
Production House: Straight Shooters | Post Production: Engine Room/Optima Digital

“SHOP & WIN”
This project was briefed and prepped in the span of exactly four days, two days of which included Saturday and Sunday. Insane, right? How we were able to pull it off is still a bit of a blur; but despite the challenges of prepping and shooting in a mall during mall hours, I think we did a good job.

Client: SM Supermalls/SMDC | Agency: BBDO Guerrero
Director/DOP: Jorg Schifferer | Assistant Director: James Sales | Production Designer: Marlon Baisac
Production House: Straight Shooters | Post Production: Engine Room

“SELFIE”
Yup. Another selfie-related project. This was also a commercial that had less than a week of preparation. The main challenge for us was maximizing one location to look like many different vignettes. How long was the shoot? One day. What location? Somewhere in QC. I think the team really pulled it off, don’t you think?

Client: Unilab | Agency: McCann WorldGroup
Director/DOP: Yam Laranas | Assistant Director: Melvin Lee | Production Designer: Butch Garcia
Production House: Straight Shooters | Post Production: Giantsponge Digital

“EMBRACE” & “SALLY”

It’s been a while since I shared some behind the scenes scoop on a project I was part of. Let me remedy that by covering two projects in one entry. Both were shot last February; and both were directed (and lighted) by Yam Laranas.

“Embrace” is a Biogesic for Kids TVC featuring John Lloyd Cruz. The commercial is pretty straightforward and simple; so setting the whole thing up wasn’t hard. The only challenge was keeping the little boy talent focused and alert until 8pm (which was the time we packed up). We shot this in one day in a studio set-up. Production designer: Butch Garcia. Production House: Unitel/Straight Shooters. Post House: Riot Inc..

These aren’t much; but here are some photos from the shoot.

our pretty set

Direk Yam coaches our talent

learn to fly. with AD Rallye Zapanta

“Sally” is an introductory TVC for Jollibee Ultimate Burger Steak. Compared to “Embrace,” this was a bit more challenging to mount because of its Darna nature. Darna projects are coined as such because we have to make like superheroes and finish everything as soon as possible. This project took us a little over a week from briefing to final presentation of material. That covers meetings, shooting and editing. Needless to say, I was very stressed that particular week. Still, the material turned out great and quality wasn’t sacrificed. I love the food shots in particular. Those took a lot of work and a lot of time to capture!

We had exactly 3 days to prep, with another two days to shoot the material. The first day was shot in Jollibee Lakefront (Sucat). This covered all the in-store scenes and food shots. The second day was done in two different locations (one in The Fort and the other at the Regus offices in Zuelling Building), covering the different vignettes of people ogling at the picture of the meal.

Other credits… Production Designer: Edwin Garcia. Production House: Unitel/Straight Shooters. Post House: Underground Logic.

And here are some behind the scenes snapshots from the project.

getting ready for consumption

in between takes

tedious food shots

our location with the wonderful view. with AD Jojo Atienza

“JUMP IN”

And here it is… The BIG project I’ve been talking about for the past few months. It’s finally and officially OUT. Best of all, I can now claim to be PART OF IT!

The song is entitled “Jump In.” This music video was shot over the course of four days — One day for each of the vignettes and one long day for the dancing and singing parts. We shot in picturesque locations and shot with international stars apl.de.ap and Jessica Sanchez. This huge project was a challenge to take on; and hopefully, audiences saw the “bigness” in the finish product. After all, putting it together took a lot of physical and mental energy, endless moments of stress and sleepless nights. Whew!

This MTV is for the new Smart Jump In SIM. It’s directed by Filipino-Canadian Marc Andre Debruyne, with director of photography Take Onishi and production designer Rious Caliso. Production house: Straight Shooters Media, Inc. Post house: Engine Room and Optima Digital.

“LUWAS”

It’s always hard executing a sports-related board. You need to get in good action shots while telling a story; and to tell the story with kids? That’s even more difficult.

“Luwas” posed this challenge, among others. We had to set up the whole thing as if we were in an international event. There were local and foreign kids, cast of hundreds including foreign extras, a remote location, unpredictable weather… and birds! I will not share all the cheating we did to come up with the finish product; but a combination of different locations, post production and tons of patience, here is a commercial we are truly proud of. This board is for Nestlé Philippines brand Milo. “It’s directed by Franco Marinelli, with director of photography Odie Flores and production designer Adelina Leung. Production house: Straight Shooters Media, Inc. Post house: Engine Room and Optima Digital.

Enjoy!

“HITS”

This is an advocacy we shot for Gabriela Philippines’ awareness campaign centered on E-VAW or Electronic Violence Against Women. Through music and imagery, this commercial centers on the woman and her plight following a violation of her privacy, her body and her spirit through the posting of scandal videos. It’s called “Hits.”

The director is Paul Alexei, with director of photography Odie Flores and production designer Butch Garcia. Production house: Straight Shooters Media, Inc. Post production: WeLovePost.

Join the fight against scandal videos. Visit www.ivowtofightvaw.com for more information.

“Lucky” in Hong Kong

Early this month, I went on an unplanned trip to Hong Kong for project “Lucky.” It was one of the rare times that we get to do post production abroad. In this case, we did it in PixelBox HK. I was part of the team who spent a couple of days there to finish the material from grading (color correction) to final online (final release material).

This is officially my first time to handle a project with foreign post component; and it was a good learning experience for me. I met new people and got to know what goes on when we are the ones who fly out to do post production in another country.

I’ve been to Hong Kong a number of years ago; but Disneyland wasn’t built yet. I still wasn’t able to go there this time because I’m in Hong Kong to work. We had to focus on the job at hand, which was to finish the commercial. Still, we had free time to do some roaming; and I mostly spent it either shopping or eating!

We spent most of our time in the Causeway Bay side of Hong Kong; because our hotel and the post production house is there. We stayed at Lanson Place Hotel, which was in Leighton Road.

It is a fairly new hotel, which has a very modern design and nice, plush amenities. It’s in a very good location; because we rarely needed to take a taxi or MTR to get to where we want to go. Most shopping malls and restaurants are within walking distance, which is really… really great.

the library near the reception desk & waiting area near concierge

the room which served as my home for almost a week

The room is not massive; but it is big enough. The beds are comfortable. The bathroom is nice. They have great housekeeping services, good service. There’s really fast Internet; but you have to pay extra.

As mentioned, our place of work was PixelBox HK. It’s a post production house located in One Hysan Avenue. Similar to local production houses, it has a lobby/receiving area and several suites for editing.

PixelBox Headquarters (do you see the awesome Nespresso machine?)

Like I mentioned, our free time was spent either eating or shopping. Since we spent a couple of days there, I couldn’t possibly post every single shop and restaurant that we went to. For the purpose of sharing, here are some glimpses of the stuff I ate and the places I went to… at least the ones I got to take pictures of.

West Villa. first night in HK. first xiao long bao.

El Cid. late night meal -- a pint of Hoegaarden. shrimp and paella. yummy!

Peking Garden. peking duck and... other food. 🙂

Din Tai Fung. pork chop rice and drunken chicken.

IKEA. i loved going around this place... though I didn't exactly buy anything.

Times Square. here, i ended up buying two pairs of shows from Onitsuka Tiger. #shoeaddict

Lan Kwai Fong. we went around this place after a full meal at Peking Garden.

I really enjoyed my trip. It was mostly for work; but I had a bit of fun on the side… shopping, dining and roaming the streets. To top it off, the weather was chilly… a big contrast from our current hot weather in Manila.

I hope to have more opportunities to do post work abroad in the future. This was certainly a great experience.

“LUCKY”

It’s rare that I get to be part of putting together a thematic ad or a corporate ad. These are usually the bigger projects that involve a number of scenes and a whole bunch of people. But when these types of projects come around, you may get extremely stressed and harassed during production; but by the time the final material gets aired, you feel really good about what you’ve accomplished. When people actually talk about it online and your colleagues are buzzing about the ad, it just feels awesome.

“LUCKY” is that type of project. This material was released yesterday as “Live More with Smart.” It’s directed by Franco Marinelli, with director of photography Geoffrey Hall and production designer Adelina Leung. Production house: Straight Shooters Media, Inc. Post house: PixelBox.

There’s a lot to say about this particular production; but now, I just want to share it with you. By the way, if you’re loving the music, it’s an original composition made especially for Smart. I’m positive it will be released as a song in the near future.

Stop waiting. Start living.

Shooting in 3D: Part Two

It’s been a long time since I shared a behind the scenes look at one of my previous projects; so I decided to add another entry to my series on the Ariel 3D Deep Clean shoot we did last year.

This project was both a challenge and a lot of fun. All the concepts and the discipline were new to me; but we were so excited to do it that we didn’t mind starting from scratch. At the end of the day, it allowed me to experience what shooting in 3D is like… something not a lot of production people in the Philippines have encountered.

The basic thing you have to know about 3D filming is its utilization of two cameras at the same time. These two cameras are rigged or positioned in such a way that there’s only slight gap between what they’re shooting. These two images are superimposed over each other, thus the double image we see onscreen without the 3D glasses.

a sample 3D anaglyph picture: see the doubling image?

another sample of a 3D camera (this one is for still images): see the two lenses?

It’s not just a matter of shooting the images side by side, it’s also important to get the distance between the two images right. This gets a bit scientific and mathematical; so I won’t discuss it here. I don’t get it that much, either, to be honest. We leave that to the stereographers who know the ins and outs of 3D filming.

In order to finish the entire board, we had to shoot for 3 days. This was mainly because of the time it takes to go from one set-up to another. Every shot has to be carefully measured: the distance of the elements from the camera, the distance between the two cameras, the merging point, etc. This gets a bit tedious especially for first-timers like us. Still, everything came together; and we got to finish the job.