HI: Society

The first in the series of Hi commercials was an epic one shot. As the camera moved through five sets on a giant crane, the backdrops of each scene would move, fall, rotate or lift out of the way. This made for an interesting coordination of every aspect of the shot from timing the camera movement with the acting and wall removal.

This was our first look at the sets being built in a massive studio.

This is how the sets looked completely built with lighting in place and everyrhing ready to go.

This video shows all the different parts in motion. You can hear Cary yelling one set of orders and the assistant director yelling to another group. The focus puller is walking in front doing his job by using the force and Jon is watching the monitors to actually make sure everything is happening with in the shot the way it should. GO TEAM!

We edited in a great post-production house in Amsterdam.

The masterminds behind these crazy ideas Elwin Bwes and Emiilio de Haan from BBDO Amsterdam.

HI: No Kisses

From No Kisses this is a side-by-side comparison of the original 3-d storyboard compared with the final shot. There are the obvious differences but the overall message is the same and clear.

We used the Red camera for all 3 Hi commercials. Along with Anamorphic lenses we found the results to be great and very close to 35mm as long as the Director of Photography is aware of certain limitations. The Hi spots were shown in Cinemas necesitating a 2k finished product.

You can see the fake dumbells that look 100% real enabling the actor to hold up the weights with one hand while reading his cell phone with the other hand. This was a fun shot that begins looking down at the weightlifter then moves and rotates to reveal a group standing behind him.

The lead actor was very courageous even with our great stunt team. He was completely wired up and safe but he was up very high and hanging upside down out a window is just not a natural thing to do.

Watch this video to get a real sense of the height.

This cool camera rig allowed us to zoom out and spin the camera in one smooth movement.

This is the sound studio in Amsterdam with the sound and music folks, Gerard and Gorome. You can’t really see but there is about 5 girls squished into the sound booth to create some good screams.

We did break down on the Autobahn at 2 am in the morning driving back from Germany.