Marching Penguin partnered with Decoded Advertising to create a series of YouTube commercials for the Metro by T-Mobile “Nada Yada Yada” campaign. We produced both English and Spanish versions of the commercials. With all of the sizing and language versions, there were more than 40 deliverables ranging from 30 seconds to just 6.
While my relationship with Jordi Matsumoto and his company, Marching Penguin, dates all the way back to August of 2012, this marked my first collaboration with Director Tom Morris. If you check out his work, shooting on a monochromatic stage is familiar territory for this visionary filmmaker.
When we met in person for the first time at the location scout on April 25th to outline the complex logistics of shooting, I realized that the only way that we’d stay on schedule was if we had multiple cameras.
Our schedule challenge stemmed from the fact that we tailored specific scripts for each of the 30, 15, and 6 second ads respectively. We planned to shoot each version of a script in English and then repeat it with the same lighting cues with our Spanish cast. There’s a world where the shorter versions could’ve simply been created in editing from the longer ones, but making them bespoke for each length created more impactful spots in a limited runtime.
Tom initially hoped to shoot with only one camera in order to keep the eye lines perfect for the direct address. Unfortunately, doing so would likely create a headache in editorial trying to match the three set-ups for performance and timing of the lighting gags.
Even if we had enough time to successfully shoot each of the three camera positions necessary for the spot to work, I knew that I’d lose my mind moving the gear in circles constantly throughout our jam packed schedule. In a three camera scenario, one perfect take would accomplish so much and thereby lessen the pressure on the actors to nail every take perfectly.
No sane producer wants to drastically adjust their budget less than a week from the shoot date to accommodate a request for more cameras, teleprompters, and crew. Thankfully Jordi and his stellar team performed a miracle. John Lovejoy and I frantically called around town for a vendor willing to help us. We already booked my ARRI Alexa 35, so I proposed we settle for two ARRI Alexa Minis instead of finding two more Alexa 35s to save money. After many hours on the case, John told me that his connections at Rare Breeds Camera could make our numbers work for Alexa Mini LFs: I couldn’t contain my excitement.
To preserve the eye lines as best we could, we jammed the three camera bodies as close as humanly possible along with their respective teleprompters. Most jobs involve some amount of compromise and deciding where to draw that line is often our greatest challenge. I’m grateful Tom was open to this solution and we could make the numbers work with production. If we only had one camera, then we might still be shooting the spots today.
Tom and I focused a lot of our prep discussing the set design with our Production Designer, Amanda Fletcher. The creative shifted several directions before we settled on a minimalist design. One of my primary concerns was how to incorporate the lighting cues into the set. Along with Val, we weighed the pros and cons of different fixtures and ultimately decided that the Aputure MT Pros were our best option. They’re only 1′ long, pack a punch, are full RGBWW, and DMX capable. We didn’t want them to exist as bare bulbs, so Amanda’s team had to craft custom housings for them to attach them to set. Considering the short lead time between getting the green light on the job and our shoot date, this wasn’t priority number one. Thankfully, Amanda’s crew came through in the clutch for us.
In addition to those two MT sconces on the right side of the frame, we strategically placed 4′ Astera AX1 tubes behind the console to the left and installed Astera NYX globes in the surrounding practical lamps. In the “normal” look everything existed around 3200K. In the spotlight world, we drastically warmed these practicals for some color contrast. For purple, we wanted to get as close to the signature Metro color everywhere possible.
Working with a visual and technically knowledgeable Director like Tom is always a joy. His background in photography allowed him to clearly communicate what he wanted with the three distinct lighting cues. With an arsenal of primarily Aputure lights (600C’s, Nova P600C’s, 1200D’s, & MT Pros), our Gaffer, Valentine Salembier, and I dialed in settings for the neutral scene, spotlight section, and purple set.
Tom requested the ability to use the transitions in camera, so they needed to be timed perfectly with the corresponding dialogue. Most cues ran through Blackout Lighting Console, while the few fixtures without DMX went through Aputure’s proprietary Sidus Link. As far as DMX technology has come, there were instances where the lighting gag didn’t go as planned for a multitude of reasons. Again, having the three cameras kept us on schedule.
My ARRI Alexa 35 shot the locked-off-wide shot on Marching Penguin’s Zeiss Supreme Prime Radiance lenses (35mm @ T2.0 +7/10). I stopped down a little more than normal since the camera needed to have both actors reliably in focus. The decision against subrenting additional lenses for the Alexa MiniLFs worked to our advantage. To match the field of view of B-Camera’s 75mm, we placed C-Camera on a 100mm (T1.4 + 5/10) slightly behind A-Camera. This extra distance allowed my Operator, Dario Vittolo, a tiny amount of space to operate that another 75mm wouldn’t have granted!
Over the course of three days, Marching Penguin efficiently block shot this campaign at Interwoven Studios in Culver City, CA with a similar crew as the other campaign I wrote about here for Metro. This two day shoot followed the other one, so by keeping the sets segregated, we got some pre-rigging done ahead of time on the large white cyc. That extra time came in handy with our busy schedule. In a perfect world, we needed a full day to light and rehearse the cues, but we only had 7-hours allotted. Val and his proficient team really hustled and we only went an hour beyond that.
As I mentioned in the other post, I’m seeing Metro stores everywhere since we shot these commercials! Do you think it’s a case of Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, aka frequency illusion?
CREW
Director: Tom Morris
Executive Producer: Jordi Matsumoto
Producer: Johanna Saldaña
Producer: John Lovejoy
Coordinators: Ericka Burwell, Rachel Gaudiosi, & Elle LeBlanc
1st Assistant Director: Bryant Familia
Director of Photography: Dustin Pearlman
Camera Operator: Dario Vittolo
A-Camera 1st AC: Samantha Kelly
B-Camera 1st AC: Sofia Gonzalez
2nd AC: Elaine Pusey
DIT: Jacqui Carriere
Gaffer: Valentin Salembier
DMX Operator Noah Frassetto
Key Grip: Richard Brush
Best Boy: Gordon Chan
Sound Mixer: Alex Altman
Production Designer: Amanda Fletcher
Art Director: Carolina Perdoza
Lead Man: Leo Arroyo
Set Dressers: Maximo Huete & Tai Wilson
Wardrobe Stylist: Chaisson Baggett
Make Up: Samantha Klein
Make Up Assist: Cynthia Angelina
Production Assistants: Ryan Rathbun & Jean Rigler
CAST
New Customer (English): Angelique Chapman
New Customer (Spanish): Ruben Matos
Existing Customer (English): Jamin Keene
Existing Customer (Spanish): Samantha Tejada
Non-Metro Customer (English): Annelise Hermsen
Non-Metro Customer (Spanish): Estefamy Gomez
Hand Talent #1: Shelby Andre
Hand Talent #2: Mike Carolina
AGENCY
Decoded Advertising
Executive Producer: Mac Demy
Senior Producer: Justin Ramirez
Leave a reply