MORE FILMS TO MAKE YOU CRY
The following campaigns aren’t perfect, for the different reasons explained below, but they were all valuable experiences and sources of growth. I feel they are worth sharing here.
Directed by Sid Maderazo and Sidekick
FILMING UNDER LOCKDOWN
VICKS // PHILIPPINES CARE
I know we’ve all seen many sad but optimistic films shot under lockdown during COVID, with a piano soundtrack and saying something like “even apart, we stay together”.
Well, I can safely say we started the trend, with this film being released on 9th April, before all the others.
(We even had a reason for the piano: one of the directors filming for us was locked down with his mother who was a professional pianist and we thought it would be nice to use this, to open and end our story.)
As with everything never done before, you have to figure things out as you go along. And, of course, it was a logistical nightmare. We had 10 days to come up with an idea and figure out a way to execute it.
We didn’t want it to be shot with phones, we wanted it to look beautiful and professional. The point we were trying to make to clients was to prove we could still shoot content under total lockdown. So we contacted a collective of Directors and DPs, all locked down at home with their families, but also with their cameras.
We shot over a weekend in 13 different locations. The supervision was over WhatsApp since Zoom and Qtake weren’t widely established yet. We would come up with scene ideas according to what people had in hand and were capable of doing with their families. They would then shoot and send video sequences back to us so we could give our directions and feedback.
It raked in something like 23 millions views and proved our clients that we could keep working and delivering during Covid, which proved very helpful for us and for all the directors that worked with us.
Directed by Chu Yan Xia
DEALING WITH A POLITICAL AGENDA
SAFEGUARD // YAO YAO’S HOMEWORK
This film is the result of one of the weirdest experience I’ve ever had with clients, and the worst shooting conditions I've ever gone through (so far).
It originally started as an empowering script denouncing how, in China, having a girl was still considered less desirable than having a boy, It was set in the context of the 2nd child policy (that was passed only in 2017) coming into place.
It suddenly transformed into a strictly "2nd child" film with no mention of gender. The little girl was turned into a boy and most of what made the original script interesting was gone, for reasons I am not at liberty to discuss here, and which - I've been asked to say - are in no way related to the Chinese government.
Despite this, the film has been seen more than 160 million times on Weibo
Directed by Alan Harca
HANDLING MULTIPLE PARTIES
VICKS // LONG WAY HOME
This “Touch of Care” project was different from all the others we worked on.
The topic was imposed on us, this time: Youth homelessness. It was absolutely relevant for Australia but not so much for Vicks.
We did, however, eventually manage to find a beautiful story of care, between people who formed a family bond that helped take them out of the street. After many (emotional) discussions with the protagonists and a few production meeting, we were ready to shoot.
Until we learned that one of the charity Vicks was partnering with wouldn’t allow any story that wasn’t about them or their employees.
They shared some of their stories, one of them interesting, but it got stripped of most of its truth, family story (and edge) for fear that the topic might invite social media backlash.
We fought back but eventually had to settle and figure out how to still make something that works.
And it worked pretty fine with about 7 million views in Australia alone and decent media coverage.
