Another challenge given to me earlier this year, Cadillac ATS was launching a new model and of course the teaser had to be out before the actual campaign was shot and delivered, so after a long chat with the agency we discussed to use the previous years footage, the givens were we cant show too much of the car since the model has changed and it says coming soon, it had to showcase from last years campaign the different locations that the car was shot at, also the different weather conditions basically everything from the challenges that were shot in the previous years, also had to include the human element, scale and production scale, and most importantly it will be only 15 sec long. Another problem faced was that all the earlier footage was shot in different formats so had to try and bind that in as well. The result is what you see above. Of course the last image of the car is the final car which is just a still image tracked on with the earlier shot car... let me know what you guys think..
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Question 10: Anything in the role, to be done, that might require a warning.
This is a very simple question, should be known when the script is read already, but if something is left to be written or there is doubt then this question should be asked. The question would be will the individual role involve anything like Kissing / Nudity / Semi Nudity / Stunts / or some physical altercations like going completely bald in some scene etc.
There are also simpler warnings which the casting director also needs to check, like the role may involve playing of an instrument or as simple as driving a car, or riding a bike, swimming, dancing, singing, etc.. you do not know how many actors do not know how to do some of these things or they may just want to learn how to do some of these things so that it looks a lot more genuine when they play the role.
Again this knowledge helps in the actor deciding if they want to be part of this or not or if they need some clarification as to how far will a certain shot go etc. Like in cases where the look of the actor would change would be needed to know by people who are already working on other projects since a change in look would affect the continuity in the other places
One of the best compliments I have received from the client on this..
"What we require is the edit - A version, but after we saw this edit, we will go with this version"
So earlier this year I was given this promo to cut, the brief given was to keep a liner story (a sort of cut down from the TVC) which I did make, on seeing the result I was not very kicked by it and it did not give me a feeling of a video that people would want to watch at a Autoshow.. So I sat with the editor and redid this edit.
The agency was a bit unsure of showing this version at first, since it was not what the client wanted but after a few viewings and a bit of convincing them that there is no harm in showing both versions.. they agreed to present both.
We presented both versions to the client, the first one edit - A, had everything from the brief and then we presented this version, all the clients present in the room had a long silence after they watched it and a little bit of discussion followed as to the positives and negatives of what they saw.. they ended with "What we require is the edit - A version, but after we saw this edit, we will go with this version"
I think that was one of the best compliments that I have received from the client, goes to show sometimes you just have to follow your gut and do it even though its not in the brief..
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*This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, quotes, places and incidents mentioned, either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, from the film industry or outside the film industry is entirely coincidental.
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The story behind GEM Hospital - a series of 4 commercials made in very very low budget.
One directors illness is another directors film.
One evening at 5 pm I get a call from a producer asking me what I was doing the next day,
"Free, but why?" I asked,
"Can you direct some AD films tomorrow?" he went on
Shocked for moment then all the questions flowed "What, Tom? Where? How?"
So the director who was to direct these AD's fell ill and the location, actors, DOP etc were all booked and advances paid in some cases would all be lost, so I got lucky. (In a very low budget film thats like all money spent) I asked for the scripts which was promptly emailed across to me and I read them, there was no treatment note or references, or any homework done by the previous director or if done were not shared and by this time it was 6 pm, with all the chat over the phone and the booking of tickets I was off to the Mumbai airport by 7pm for a 8:15 pm flight, still talking to the producer on route, passing on a few instructions of things that could be done and with questions still flowing I was off to Chennai.
In all the confusion of trying to answer my questions, booking my tickets and making sure that I got to the airport on time the producer missed his flight, he was coming from Bangalore, luckily since the distance is not too much he caught a night bus to reach early in the morning, so much for our plans of meeting late in the night to discuss details. At least I got to meet the DOP and discuss with him the way he was looking at these films, I was still trying to get all the films clearly into my head to see which way I could treat these films the best.
At 6 am I finally met the producer, we had a short discussion where I learnt that the client was a friend of the producer and on his request was ready to invest a tiny sum to make a few commercials. We reached the location which I was having a look at for the first time, followed by the actors, briefed them along with makeup and choose the costumes (which were self owned options carried) Then along with the DOP made a shoot plan and and the rest is there for you to see.
4 commercials all shot in one day with a turnaround for shoot less than 12 hours (at least for me) These are my showreel versions, the client versions ran in theatres and a few cable channels in the south region of India. Do let me know what you think of them.
*For some reason the last video has some glitches post upload in youtube, tried various exports so click on the link above to see in Vimeo.
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