In Singapore on the 11th of Feb 2010, my HP mini TVC won several awards at the local Phoenix Awards including a Gold for the Copiers/ Printers/ Computers category, and a special award for the Best TVC shot on HD – Both Categories submitted by Shooting Gallery Asia. It also won another Gold for Special Effects award submitted by Black Magic. To all who worked on this project, congratulations & well done. Look forward to seeing you all soon.

On January 22nd, we began the production of the Canon “Grass Ski” Television Commercial, at the foothills of Mt Hutt, New Zealand. While I did blogabout the trip I couldn’t go into any details at the time. Shooting Gallery Asia had flown us all to New Zealand the day before. A quick location survey, a meeting with the property owner, farmer Ben and we were off! Situated at the foothills of Mt Hutt, the landscape surrounding us was unbelievable beautiful. The last traces of snow/ice were still present in the shadowy areas of the mountains. In the foreground, we had selected a green paddock to serve as the site for our “Grass Tobogganing” location. Local Kiwi Cinematographer and part time line producer, Rolland Carati organised the location in conjunction with Freddie Kee. The farmer had also made available an ATV (4×4 bike) and a farmhand named Collin. Collin was absolutely fantastic assistance and pretty much acted as the Grip on the shoot. I think he really enjoyed himself during the course of the shoot, driving the ATV and a 4×4 Ute for us.

Traveling from Singapore was Freddie Kee, Leollyne Teng, Sham – Stills, Raman – props, Eiren the focus puller and the Client/Agency team. I had been in Singapore the day before also for the final preproduction but had flown home to Melbourne for the day before landing in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was a lot of flying! The Cast were all from New Zealand and consisted of Japanese Immigrants to New Zealand. They were great I have to say. The beginning of the shoot day was not good for weather. The sky was completely blanketed in high level cloud. It looked dire and while I tried to remain optimistic about our chances, it didn’t look good. The Cast entertained themselves and we waited! During this time, we tested the Toboggan’s and the ATV Camera rig. Suddenly by midday, the Sun revealed itself.

Shooting began in ernest. Using Shooting Galleries Arri III, we shot all the components needed for post involving the Toboggan race in profile first. This meant that the poor crew, Raman and Freddie had to run up and down the mountainside many times assisting the Toboggan’s with towropes! After several takes, Rolland and Collin took over as Freddie and Raman collapsed in exhaustion. Where possible, we changed to the ATV, using it to pull the toboggan’s down the hill in a controlled manner. The rig that Raman had built on the back was fantastic and allowed me to achieve a very low angle shot from the front of the Tobogganer’s.

After a big day that ended with us all roasting in 32 degrees C in the Sun, we filmed the final shots. These were originally scheduled as Morning silhouette shots but through fate became stunning end of day shots looking out over the valley. The scene really looks magical.   Overnighting in Methven, a ski tourist town about 20 minutes away from the farm, the crew, shattered and exhausted from running up and down the hills all day, enjoyed a quite dinner. The next day the Singaporean crew flew back home for Chinese New Year. I chose to stay on for a couple more days.   A few days later, I flew from Melbourne Australia back to Singapore, where we began the offline. VHQ handled the post in Singapore and my Offline editor, Caryne put together a lovely edit that was fun to watch. Abishek Nair was VHQ’s post supervisor and handled the 3D and Online process beautifully. It’s to his credit for staying on top of all our demands and keeping the show on track because the TVC looks great! The Online editor Ian managed to remove wires and rigs, multiple cows, subtract Cows, while putting in clouds in the background etc. The Audio work was conducted at AMX Singapore and Engineer Mun Wai placed sound effects and music to help amplify the “Fun” aspect of the TVC.   After a final presentation to the Agency and Client, it was time to say goodbye. They love it. The TVC is naive and fun. Hope you enjoy it also. Cheers

During my recent stay in Singapore, I roamed the streets of Little India again and took my 100 – 400mm zoom, mounted on my 5D MKII. It was Sunday and the streets were packed with people milling around, shopping from stalls and playing games etc. I couldn’t help but take lots of close shots of people enjoying there sunday afternoon. These photos are the result of my Portraiture experience. Enjoy!

Today, I took a break from the hectic pace of shopping centers and busy city life and headed for the tiny island of Pulau Ubin. Just within Singapore’s grasp, the Island is easy to get to via a ferry from Changi Village. One note, the ferry captains or “Bumboat” Captains are crazy! I took some amazing video of them cutting each other off, overtaking and jostling for position at the Jetty! My Bumboat Captain stopped the motor half way to collect the fair which, if you remember the song – I paid the ferryman $2.50 Singaporean and he delivered me safely to the other side!

Once on the island, you kind-of walk back into time! The last remaining old Singapore style buildings can be found clustered in the small township. They are known as “Kampongs”. Many of them are used as restaurants and Bicycle Hire venues. I hired a bike for the princely sum of $2 Singaporean for the entire day! Setting off I literally traveled across the entire island. Despite the hot humid temperature, the ride was fun. I carried my pack with my 5D MKII onboard and a tripod, and used the bikes basket at the front to store all my loose bits. There are many interesting places to visit, including several old Quarries which have been flooded to form very picturesque lakes. The wetland areas known as “Chek Jawa” were very interesting. During low tide, you can walk along a boardwalk and look down onto the mudflats, which are full of sea life. Mudskippers, small crabs, Seahorse etc. Near this same area, I was sitting down, resting when a monkey strolled out of the jungle. Not long after a tribe of wild boar crossed the road. Other wildlife a did see but wasn’t quick enough to capture on camera include a local Rooster that is an ancestor to the modern day Rooster. There were other birds I observed but I have no idea what they were called. Needless to say, there were plenty of opportunities to photograph wildlife and natural settings – Something I didn’t think was possible in Singapore.

Couple of notes for anyone planning to visit wetlands and mangrove swamps anywhere around the world. Take precautions and protect yourself from Mosquitoes. Dengue Fever is prevalent in many of these sorts of places and is known to exist in Singapore. Malaria is another hazard. Drink plenty of water. The Island has many places you can buy chilled water, so you don’t have to bring it from the mainland. Take a hat! It gets hot in the sun and there are many roads which are in the open. Back in the township, you can buy a cheap lunch at one of the many Seafood restaurants. I spent $13 dollars on my meal which included Hong Kong Noodles, mixed veggies and Black Pepper Crab – Awesome!

So if your in Singapore and need to getaway from the shopping experience, I can highly recommend taking a visit to Pulau Ubin.

During the month of November 2008, I directed a new television commercial for HP in Singapore. The production was quite unusual for both myself and HP as the script called for a woman to walk while continually pulling off clothing to reveal new clothing underneath. The concept was put together by Creatives Ginny Lim and ECD Joe from Publicis Singapore. What was so unusual about this TVC was that unlike previous HP TVC’s I have directed for HP in the past, this one was on the move continuously while still framing the image to cut off the head of our actress! The “Hands” treatment had moved from being studio based to the outdoors.

Ginny and Joe wanted to put new life into the basic “hands” concept by being more dynamic while still retaining the magic. I too wanted a new challenge and this version certainly provided me with lots to think about. Firstly, I studied every Commercial I could find that had already explored the “Cloth Changing” effect in the past. There were some blog articles that scared my when they outlined that they had “weeks of preproduction”, with people studying various physical methods of changing the clothing etc. I simply didn’t have such a time frame to work with. At best I had a couple of days in Singapore to prep the production. I quickly shot a test using a mini dv camera in the location we had found. Handheld, I got my DP to walk backwards with the camera while my production assistant Jocelyn acted out the clothing change. We repeated the same camera move three times and with each occasion Jocelyn had a different clothing combination on. Handing the test footage over to Damien at Blackmagic Design Singapore, he set about trying to composite the test for me.

I flew back to Melbourne and spent some time with my family for a week before returning to Singapore. Damien had worked his magic and to my pleasant surprise the technique worked! The test proved that a shaky handheld camera could indeed be used like a motion control unit and with very careful choreography, we could have our actress walking towards camera while changing clothing.

Next, I wanted to have our actress change clothing so that it was more obvious that she wasn’t simply wearing it under thicker and bigger outfits. So I spent some time shopping with my designer Ashley in various shopping malls around Singapore. The brief was street wear so we hung out in all sorts of strange punk, skate and street themed shops. Once we had chosen a range of outfits, mixed and matched them, it was time to sequence them so that they matched “her thoughts”. My criteria of having clothing changes that were obvious was also applied. Once they were approved by the Client, I presented them to Blackmagic for a technical review.

HP had sent over the new mini 1000 to us, so that we could model it in 3D. Blackmagic produced an amazing 3D rendition of it and the 3D team commenced modeling and construction of the other 3D props.

Leollyne Teng (the Shooting Gallery Asia) and I scouted for many locations that had a more international feel to them. The Agency wanted us to make the TVC for the Asia Pacific Region, so we had to make sure that it didn’t look like Singapore. There were not many locations that had the street feel I was after. Graffiti, tipped over rubbish bins and back alley kids are not that easy to find in Singapore so we set about transforming a lane way near Arab St into a culturally rich cesspool of pop culture! It’s kind of a blend of street party meets “hang out” zone for skateboarders, Bikers and Buskers. My colour tone references were influenced by Cuban images of old cars and buildings. Again, Singapore doesn’t allow older vehicles to be on the road without considerable cost to the owner, so we struggled to find many vintage vehicles. A yellow mini with the Union Jack on it was found which was great. A blue BMW was also found. To inject warm colours into the scene, we placed a hot dog stand with an umbrella into the lane way. Other props included benches that the skateboarders could use as a rail, dented and spray painted rubbish bins and Graffiti on the pillars and walls.

Casting was also a major issue. We needed quite a few people (nearly thirty in the end) to populate the lane way alone. They had to be a mix of Anglo saxon, African, and Asian cast. Shooting Gallery conducted a huge hunt across Singapore to  “Street Cast” the whole show. They eventually hired some really talented hip hop dancers, a bunch of BMX bikers, Skateboarders and others.

Next – The shoot! This time around, I felt there was enough to think about so I decided to enlist the help of a very talented DOP. The Shooting Gallery has on staff, a really great DP named Sham. He shot my Asus TVC also. He’s a veteran of many commercials shot on 35mm. However this time I was keen to employ the RED camera system. Because we were going to zoom up our image to a very large extent at times, I was aware of the risk of seeing artifacts such as Grain, Blocking etc so I was keen to film using RED’s 4K capabilities. Every image that we would film would involve compositing. With Asia having a predominantly smoggy or overcast sky, RED is actually a very good choice for TVC’s and since so much post work would be involved, RED seemed to me to be the right choice. Additionally, we had an extremely tight post schedule also. Everyday counted, so to save a day on Processing and Telecine was huge! Blackmagic embraced the RED concept also. It was their first foray using images shot with the RED One camera. They elected to send an onset editor, Tammy Quay to cut as we shot to save time during our offline. This was truly a massive benefit I have to say. Another benefit using the RED system was the fact that each clothing change involved three different shots. A shot with the first Clothing then a shot with the first clothing over the top of the new clothing. Then the last shot with the new clothing only! So that meant a massive saving in film stock costs plus no fear of running out halfway through the shoot! I just had to convince Sham. Luckily for me, he embraced it also.

To assist post, I really wanted to shoot the whole TVC using a steadycam. By choosing RED, the savings allowed Shooting Gallery to fly in from Indonesia a very talented Steadicam operator. He had flown the RED a few times before so I knew his rig could handle it. As it turned out, he was an excellent operator, with really good sense of timing and precision. Damien, my lead compositor from Blackmagic was I think very thankful. His team would have to take every shot and rotoscope the lead actress out of the scene to enable him to blend the clothing changes. The steadicam eliminated minor tremors and shaky camera movement from each shot. In fact, Blackmagic sent the 3D team to take pictures for texturing and environment maps, Damien the compositor, Tammy the Editor and a partridge and a pear tree! It was wonderful to see so many of them out on set.

Our lead actress, Fabi was cast in Singapore. She is Brazilian and I think initially she was dreadfully scared of the task before her. So it was my job to make her feel comfortable and support her through all the technically difficult shots. In the end I think she enjoyed herself and the crew treated her very well. There were so many difficult moments to explain to her. One scene involved her to walk through a wall into a cafe while quickly changing her clothing. She was then to pick up a milkshake, take a sip while still walking! Then she was to jettison the Milkshake as we transits to the next scene! And everything was synched to a click track to maintain her rhythm. And as before, she had to perform this three times with three different clothing combinations! This sort of thing was common to every scene. Very, very complex.

Post production was a massive undertaking also. We had only two weeks to deliver the finished TVC. That’s not a great deal of time when you consider the amount of rotoscoping, 3D modeling, 3D tracking and compositing of other 3D props. The offline was viewed by the Client on set. The final scene shot at the university allowed Tammy to edit, using Finalcut pro on a laptop, and present the first cut to myself and the Agency/Client team. So the next day after shooting, we were able to present the Offline for final review before the online commenced. Using simple dissolves, the offline effectively conveyed our intentions and we were allowed to continue to the next stage.

A local Singaporean Audio house, the Gunnery, was approached to compose the music. The music was extremely important to me, to sound cool and funky and drive the pace of the commercial. The track the Gunnery composed literally blew me away. They delivered a track that was totally on brief and so much cooler then I had hoped for. Using the same beat that we had set for Fabi to walk to, the Gunnery were able to musically synchronise to the visuals.

I could definitely write a bigger article on the experience of directing this commercial. It was amazing that we were able to put such a complex thing together so quickly and I think to a very high standard. There were so many variables that could have gone wrong and thankfully didn’t! New camera systems, new crew members, highly ambitious post production techniques, large outdoor shoot in blisteringly hot Singaporean weather, etc etc. All in all, I am thankful to the entire crew, the extended crew and the post production team that helped put this commercial together. Thank you. You can now see the TVC Online, here on this blog. Just navigate to the Reel Page above

I have to blog about this! Recently, while I was in Singapore, I visited an audio post house to brief them on a job. We were directed to their Cafe to sit and wait for someone to meet with us. I noticed in the entrance, a specially modified fridge. The perfect DYI project for any growing man!

A few crazy hours later and I’m packed and ready to fly to Melbourne. Today was another day of meetings in Singapore. A quick catchup with a few familiar faces and now I’m making my way to Christchurch, New Zealand. Kind of feels like some sort of world tour!? However, before I hit Christchurch with some pretty heavy eyelids, I will be making a quick stop in Melbourne. Hoping to catchup with my Wife and Son briefly for lunch tomorrow before boarding yet another flight. I managed to loose a folder containing all my flight details here in Singapore and had one of those awkward moments when the local police force paid me a visit in the lounge to get my details, but other then that, a very good trip so far.

While I will be concentrating on shooting my current job, I will also take plenty of shots on my trusty new 5D MKII! More later!

Like everyone I guess, I’m concerned about the recession that has rocked the financial world recently. With a young family to feed, being a filmmaker these days doesn’t seem to be the best business decision one could make, however miracles do happen and January 2009 has proven to be an exceptional anomaly!
After a fantastic break up at Daylesford in country Victoria, I rushed back to work on the 4th of January. For the next two weeks, Artisan Films produced a special project for the Australian Navy. On Friday the 16th of Jan, I witnessed the master for that project go to HDCam. By Saturday afternoon, I was on a flight to Singapore. The 8 hour trip meant I arrived after midnight Singapore time. 6AM Sunday the 18th, I was up and ready to travel to Hong Kong for a quick business meeting. The meeting took place in a hotel in downtown Hong Kong and lasted for about an hour! Then it was time to board a return trip back to Singapore. That flight took 4 hours! I’m now writing this back in my Singaporean friends house, knowing I need to be up at 6am this morning to have yet another business meeting here in Singapore. Later today, I will board a flight back to Melbourne, where I will see the family for a few hours before boarding yet another flight to Christchurch New Zealand! Yep it has to be the most crazy schedule I have ever witnessed! I will update this blog along the way, however for now, I need some sleep!

Rundown!

Through the month of November, I went back to Singapore to work on yet another project. I spent about three weeks there and even attended a special conference held by Apple which was great. Due to various Non Disclosure Agreements, I haven’t been able to update the blog as often as I perhaps could in recent times – Sorry about that! However, I can inform you on a few things. Firstly, Mark Hartley’s Documentary “Not Quite Hollywood” has been very well received over the last couple of months. Critically it has performed exceptionally well. It has played in many Film Festivals all over the world. Last night, at the Australian Film Institute Awards (AFI’s), “Not Quite Hollywood” took out the best Documentary category which is fantastic news.

The official website can be found at: http://notquitehollywood.com.au/

The AFI’s site can be found here: http://blog.afi.com/afifest/index.php/2008/10/29/10-burning-questions-not-quite-hollywood/

While I am back in Melbourne, I have been busy location surveying in Country Victoria as well as trying to spend some time with my family. With the current economic climate, there is always the tendency not to relax and take time out but lets hope next year will improve so we all can enjoy some time with our families.

I’m still waiting on my new camera, the Canon 5D mark 2, which I am very excited about. A big purchase in uncertain times but I know I will not only enjoy it immensely, but also use as a tool for work!

Artisan Films has also been very busy preparing a budget for the doco “Broken Wings”. There may be some good news on that front in the near future also. For now, I can’t say more on so many things which sounds very pretentious of me however I would if I could! Hopefully, I will soon be able to blog retrospectively on quite a few issues. Cheers Karl.

My stay in Singapore is coming to a close for now. I’m wait listed on a flight today or tomorrow, to fly back to Melbourne. Yesterday I bought an IR filter for my 24-105 Zoom lens. So today I walked across the road from my hotel to take some photos with the IR filter attached at Fort Canning. Its a beautiful tropical jungle walk with plenty of history and makes for a good place to experiment with the IR filter. Here are a few shots I took while climbing all over the hill at Fort Canning. Some other photos are of Leollyne Teng, Jocelyn Lee and Marian from Shooting Gallery Asia posing for photos at an abandoned theatre. I also took a few texture shots of a Stone Relief along my journey through Fort Canning.