Head. Hurts.
Last week was very busy at work – so busy that I even had a nineteen-hour day! ”What could you have possibly been doing for nineteen hours” you might ask…
I was on set shooting a TV commercial (cool glance with sunglasses on)
"All is well?"
OK – I was neither part of the crew or staff, nor was I the lead Academy-Award-winning cast (sigh)
But I was part of the agency team chaperoning the client on set and making sure that the shoot was going on track. Alternatively, and since the agency represents the client, the production house responsible for all of the on-the-ground activities made sure that everything was to our liking – and the extra attention feels good :)
One only realizes the amount of drive and work needed to shoot a thirty-second commercial when one goes through a nineteen-hour day rich in technical material, artistic ingenuity, and tasty catering (that midnight chocolate-banana sandwich was DA BOMB!)
"Move that light a bit!"
The two most important people on set are the Assistant Director and the Director of Photography (DOP). The former is the loud boss that keeps the set in order; the latter is the magician behind the camera. Not to belittle the job of the Director or anything – the guy comes up with a cinematographic interpretation of the creative concept, picks the location, chooses wardrobe and cast… But lighting literally makes or breaks a shot – and I’m pretty sure you won’t notice the fact that some day shots have been filmed at 1AM :)
The commercial was a real original ad celebrating authentic Lebanese coffee and its eternal ritual! For more on the coffee-making ritual, check out @mich1mich‘s post “Coffee Break“
Dar El Akhdar
What an awesome post!
It’s so cool to be “behind the scenes” and actually realize the amount of work that goes into producing sometimes very short commercials! This is pretty cool!
I like how you mention the “Lebanese coffee ritual” – I go to this Ethiopian cafe here in Canada, with an extremely amazing “Arab style” coffee (and unreal shisha). In Ethiopian culture, the ritual for coffee preparation is beautiful: the coffee beans are roasted in front of you, ground in front of you, and the coffee is boiled and prepared in front of your eyes. You take a sip, and MUST tell the host it is good… or she will dump it and start over! Once you tell her it is good, she brings a metal dish, lights a coal, and places incense on it (bakhour)… coffee cannot be drunk without the incense. It’s so awesome!
Great post – and ya3teek alf 3afyeh! :)
Posted by BeirutiAdventures | September 21, 2010, 10:14 AMWowwwww… So THAT was your day!!! And thank you for mentioning #MichCafe… how appropriate!!! Good luck :-))
Posted by Mich | September 21, 2010, 1:45 PMSounds exciting!! No job is ever easy, and the outcome is always a measure of the effort… Can’t wait to see the ad!!!
Posted by May | September 21, 2010, 6:32 PMBeautiful! Thanks for sharing this experience with us! How long shooting takes, and how short in time the outcome is has always perplexed me. I guess I should attend one of those sessions to get a better idea of how the 19 hours are actually spent! :D
Posted by Maya | September 22, 2010, 11:14 AMThanks for sharing this experience with us! I don’t think any of us appreciate how much work goes into some of the things we take for granted – and commercials is one of them.
Newspapers are another for me. Sometimes it takes me a couple of days to come up with, write, and edit a blog post… Much less fill an entire paper with timely news! Great post!
Posted by Danielle | October 5, 2010, 10:34 AM