In October of 2010 I directed a spot for LG Papy Plus through Team Y & R, Dubai. Created by Wilbur D’Costa and Guilherme Rangel and shot by Shane Daly. The spot was for the Nigerian Market and told the simple story of a contemporary woman shopping for a mobile phone that fits her “highly connected” lifestyle.  The “old skool” store clerk tries to satisfy her every desires but gets increasingly frustrated when he realizes he cant fit all her demands into one sleek device.

As this spot was for the Nigerian market, I had to capture the authentic texture of a typical phone shop somewhere in Lagos. Guided by the Eye Squad art department team, we built a typical Nigerian street scene on the back lot of Studio City complete with shop facades, signage, pedestrians, cars etc. Inside the store we created phone display counters, brightly painted walls with funny posters, an old radio and charging stations typical of a Nigerian phone shop.

The performers were two talented actors from London. They brought a lot of personality and nuance (especially in nailing the Nigerian intonations and accent). We had a lot of laughs on set thanks to the line “Twittaaa?”

]]> http://blog.sirajjhaveri.com/2010/10/lg-papy-plus/feed/ 0 http://blog.sirajjhaveri.com/2010/08/tele-2/ http://blog.sirajjhaveri.com/2010/08/tele-2/#comments Tue, 03 Aug 2010 09:34:22 +0000 siraj http://blog.sirajjhaveri.com/?p=52

I directed 3 films for the mobile operator TELE 2 in Zagreb and Rovinj, Croatia. Each film had its own challenge, however, one of the films called “Trip” required the main character (Tony) to travel from New York to the South pole. I had to show the progression of his journey through a series of jump cuts revealing different locations and ethnicities. We went from a scene with Mexican Miriachi singers on top of a bus to Tony riding a bullock card with an old Ecuadorian man. If this was the States it would be easy to cast but in Zagreb we had to tap into the local gypsy talent!

DISCO DANCER:

FISH MARKET:

TRIP:

In July 2010, I directed an exciting spot for Alfa Insurance. I have done quite a few parodies (Spaghetti western, Kung Fu, retro -Bollywood etc.) however, I had never done King Kong! And certainly not King Kong destroying Moscow City. The film mixed a few different styles such as the epic blockbuster disaster films with the graphic photography of Film Noir. As a director, It was a rewarding film to visually conceptualize and logistically pull off. I had a dedicated team in post (Grad) that did all CG work including creating an incredible “life-like” King Kong. I also collaborated with the talented DOP, Vlad Opeliants (“Burnt by the sun 2–2010”, “12”-2007).

This film had a few challenges but the most notable was the fact that we had to shoot on the two shortest nights of the year (in the center of Moscow). This meant we had roughly 4 1/2 hours of pure darkness to complete over 5 scenes and most of them with hundreds of extras.

The art department had to litter the street with broken furniture, lamps, bathtubs, beds, TVs etc. After, the special effects team had to create fires and smoke to simulate fresh destruction. On the background wall, Vlad (DOP) created shadows of panic stricken pedestrians to add to the frenzy. At the end of the story, the heroine played by the stunning Alexandra Khaimenova, had to walk through the burning debris and confront the dying King Kong.

Above, from left: Vlad Opeliants (DOP), Alexandra Khaimenova (Actress) and Yuri Kulikov (Producer). On the right, I enjoyed “monkeying around” with the motion capture team.

ALFA INSURANCE_Making_of

A true testament to the power of globalization–this job was for a fruit juice called Almarai for the Saudi market, the agency was BBDO based in Dubai and Jeddah, and the shoot was in Shanghai China. Actually, thats quite normal, but the strange part was trying to get Chinese stuntmen to fight like Mexican wrestlers. It was a surreal moment when everything started to come together. It took about a week, but eventually the Chinese stunt team were able to master it–although they had blank stares when I showed them Mexican wrestling on youtube. All the other cast were from Arab countries. It was a challenge to find Saudi looking teenagers in Shanghai!

Above, rigging our fearless Ninja stuntmen to a moving bus. The scene called for two Ninjas fighting it out on top of a moving bus (going about 60 km/h) filled with onlooking teenagers. I used a combination of in-camera techniques and composite shots on a green screen. This was a fairly technical shoot–and it was one of the hottest days in Shanghai history! My highlight was riding along side the action on the quad while capturing and editing on FCP.

Above, setting up for a shot where one of the Mexican wrestlers gets thrown onto a table in a cafeteria. The food goes flying everywhere as the burly wrestlers slides comedically along the table. To give the scene more momentum, I used a skater dolly rigged to follow the action.

To add to the surreality of the project, we had a full solar eclipse in the middle of the day. Obviously we had to stop shooting because we lost most of our light! Above are some photos of the client and agency mesmerized by the darkness. It was one of those “once in 300 years” events! Check out the “making of” made by Spunk Productions, Shanghai.

In 2009 I was approached by TELE 2 to direct two spots. TELE2 boards use the same 3 iconic characters (Sonny, Don and Tony) and employ more cinematic storytelling. I enjoyed bringing to life this project because of the “mafioso film” genre. Both films were shot in Kiev –one story took place in a strip club and the other in an old soviet style foundry. Luis (DOP) did a beautiful job lighting both stories despite the time restraints.

Above, the “babushka” character (Tonny’s grandmother) is put in the Gogo dancer’s cage and improvises her sexy dance moves.

Above, the legendary TELE 2 character Sonny posing for the camera.

In 2009 I directed a Citibank spot for Publicis United out of Moscow. The film was shot on location in the Sintra forest in Portugal. I really enjoyed the execution of this film as it involved linking together different trees (from a sapling to a 200 year old oak) in a forest. My concept was to use the super techno crane and glide seamlessly through each tree as if the audience was traveling effortlessly through the forest. Each movement was carefully choreographed to reinforce the historical context of the graphics. Obviously this had some technical challenges getting the crane into the forest and manipulating the crane to feel as if it was moving elegantly from one tree to the next. With the guidance of Luis Branquinho and his team, we pulled off a film that is both thought provoking and visually stunning.

Above, Luis Branquinho, enthusiastically helps his team push the super techno crane up the sloping forest floor. I have worked a few times with Luis in other countries however this time we were on his home turf. The photo on the right reveals the team placing the crane inside a 400 year old oak.

The Sintra forest has its own Biosphere, therefore judging the climate was tricky. At the begging of the day we were delayed because of the rain then suddenly it cleared up and it was sunny. We had sent the production manager up on top of the mountain  armed with a laptop and wifi and he was able to give us up-to-date forecasts–this way we would know how long the rain would last. This helped us plan around the fickle climate changes.

Above, I work on the edit in FCP to make sure each shot smoothly connects. On the right, setting up the final scene, we actually found a Russian “Dacha” looking home outside Lisbon!

]]> http://blog.sirajjhaveri.com/2009/03/citibank-tree/feed/ 0 http://blog.sirajjhaveri.com/2008/09/making-of-mobily-all-stars/ http://blog.sirajjhaveri.com/2008/09/making-of-mobily-all-stars/#comments Mon, 01 Sep 2008 23:49:54 +0000 siraj http://blog.sirajjhaveri.com/?p=264