Perhaps one of the most intense two weeks of work in my life. Location hunting, casting, filming, editing and visual effects work in a matter of two weeks.  

Well because I wanted to aim big with this commercial while full knowing that time wasn't available. I wanted to show what was possible and perhaps create more opportunities in the future to create similar projects but with more time and higher budgets. 

Two weeks to make a commercial, what is the plan?

Time to Panic? No, no time for that :P.

Time is always needed to make something perfect, but with good planning, two weeks was enough for this project. Knowing my own skills and experience, I knew that the filming and post production part wasn't going to be the hard. Finding the perfect location and the right actors was my major fear. perhaps a story for another time.

Production value was key for this project. I wanted to make sure that this commercial felt high end and not cheap. So I set some rules for my self.

Ok, this is starting to sound strange. Almost no equipments, minimal crew and lack of time. How are we making this commercial work? 

I guess experience helps a lot in a situation like this, I knew that I was going to do the bulk of the work in post. So I streamlined the production part of the commercial so that nothing could go wrong.

I picked a lightweight camera (BMPC4K) with an amazing compressed Raw recording format that allowed me to use natural light as my main source of light. I knew that the huge dynamic range at my disposal allowed me to grade most of the scenes to *perfection*.

I picked a light weight gimbal (DJI RoninS) as main source of stabilisation while recording. The combination allowed me to record the videos fast while not worrying too much about problems.

Post production was surprisingly smooth. Grading, 2d/3d tracking, editing and VFX were achieved without delay. I had gone into so much planning before the shoot that the footage was almost very pleasant to work with.

Well I say almost...

Because there were some shots that the tracking data was almost impossible to attain unless I try and track the dust particles in the room :P A combination of 3d, planner and point tracking was used to create those tracking data.

Grading was perhaps my favourite part. I love using Raw footage in my work, but the file sizes that come with the territory always put me off. But this time the black magic's compressed Raw I allowed me to rekindle my love for the format.

We had shot so much more that we needed, this was due to us trying to cover all of our bases. I knew the edit and flow from the storyboards but we also needed to please so many local markets around the world. I needed to have options if they were not happy.

Overall I was very happy with the result, this project has now allowed me to ask for more time and resources.