Whoooo first TVC!

Tjoooo!
Ok. . . idag hade jag ett jobb för the bank "HSBC"! I heard it was a print ad so i figured it would be a day full of photoshooting and what not. The contract said 6 hours, and any over time will be charged as negotiated. . .. Vincent and Anna who were heading to the Zoo, to later meet up with mom and explore Chinatown asked why a photoshoot would take that long. I explained and i also added, but i reckon it won't take 6 hours, we'll probably end early. . . . . oh how wrong i was :P
The day started at 9.45am, i woke up at 7.45am, got ready left for work.
Came pretty much on time, maybe a minute or two late. . .. but it didn't matter becuase there were three other "Talents" as they called us. (Models = Photos, Talents = other jobs. . . i guess haha)
They were still doing makeup so i just waited for my turn.
Makeup was barely nothing, nor was the hair.
Anyway, it was me, a singaporian on the chubby side, a really short singporian and an actor from Australia.
All three of them were great, we had a lot of fun!
Well the first task was to stand on a pair of stairs and just take a digital photo. . . it wasn't for the job i think it was jsut for reference.
The stylist (Gay guy) wanted a picture with me, so he stood on the stairs behind me. . .and suddenly put is arms around me. . . ujj hahhahaha luckily it was jsut a quick snap on the camera (No systemkamera, dissapointment to farfar) XD
Well after that. . . we did various scenes. . . . and to my surprise. . . it turns out it wasn't a print ad. . . but a full on TV commercial! hahaha and the focus was on me! haha that was a pleasant surprise least said!
Basically we started off, all four of us (The "Talents" hahaha) sitting on a tiny couch all cramped up, watching a tiny tiny TV which we had to squint to see.
The short singaporian man (around 30 years old. . .looked like a college student though haha good genes XD) was told to hold a cup and squint at the TV.
I was to sit next to him and look with a fed up stare at the TV.
The chubby singaporian (around 28 yrs old i think) was supposed to cramp between me and the australian guy while mercilessly stuffing his face with chips. . . poor guy ended up having to eat 6-7 BAGS of chips.. . . . .a lot of retakes and a lot of scenes . . . he had to stuff his face in every one of them XD
The Aussie, was to do the same thing as me .. just look at the tv unsatisfyingly.
We were suppose to portray friends who had known eachother for 30 years (so out of the 19 years i've lived i've known these guys for thirty of them. . . hahahha, i was the youngest. . .as usual :P)
Anyway, my next task was to look over at the aussie guy (Claude) and point at the TV, smile a bit and pretend i was about to leave the sofa.
Well basically what the commercial is about is 4 great friends since childhood, that don't live very luxuriously, but then we take a loan and enhance all our stuff.
So i had to pretend i was stretching the tiny old retro TV, which eventually turns into the biggest flatscreen plasma tv i've ever seen, and i also had to pretend i was stretching our tiny sofa into a much broader one.
So from cramping in the sofa, and squinting in the TV. We end up watching a huge television in a spacious sofa!
Haha other scenes included us watching the football game and then jumping and screaming as our team makes a goal.
It was so much fun! And so interesting!
To simulate the stretching of the television and couch, they will be using CGI computer animation.
So what i was actually pulling and tugging at:
- To compress the fat tv into a flat screen
A Black box with a flourescent light in it, the back of the TV was just three tinier boxes within eachother, and i pressed these together to make the TV slimmer. . . .like a dragspel!
The black box had tiny white crosses on certain spots, which will be used during the computer animation, they took photos of a white ball position on the box to get the right lighting for the computer animation, and they also took a picture of a silver ball giving the reflection of the likes you see in a fishbowl. . . not sure what this was for, but it was for the computer animation anyways :P
- To stretch the tiny TV into a big assed plasma TV:
The TV was represented by another black box, but this one had 4 parts of the box which you could pull out, so i had to pretend i was forcefully ripping two of these parts out, hence expanding the screen, the two remaining parts were pulled by Claude.
The box had the tiny white crosses as well, the lighting and silvery ball was also photographed like in the first example, this was done in every scene hehe.
(Later i also had to stretched the Screen upwards, with the help of Claude. Same principle here)
- To stretch the tiny sofa:
The sofa was actually 2 sofas cut off in the middle. So i just simply had to forcefully rip the two sofas away from eachother. What was interesting was that the chubby guy had to sit on the sofa as it was being stretched.
To simulate this they simply put a white board on the sofa, which the guy had to sit on, so when the sofas were pulled apart, he would remain in the air thanks to the board which was held up by the two parts of the sofa! (In the later scenes, the scenes taking place after the loans, he had to sit on a little black box in between where the sofa had split hehe)
They had lots of other tiny things hahaha the film industry. . NOTHING is like it seems.
to make the bowls of chips look full; they fill it up with paper and sprinkle some chips on top, to make the food steam when it's cut; they take a steamer and spray the thing before action when the food is actually cold, they put lipstick on strawberries, they use mashed potatoes instead of icecream because icecream would melt in this heat, and lots of stuff like that hahahha really interesting.
Now for farfar. . . as for the camera. . . ingen lek här!
It was a huge yet portable film camera with a variation of lenses. One guy carried it around, several guys aided him by settign up boxes for him to sit on and use as elevation.
As for focus and lighting, everything is manual. So a few guys walked around with measuring tapes, measuring the distances, a few guys walked around with the little devices that measure light. . . it was really interesting, wish i could show you guys better!
WEll, the whole thing ended up taking 8 hours, 2 hours overtime. Several scenes out of several different angles and several takes and safety takes and wow. . . this stuff takes time! Can't even imagine how it is to make an entire movie. . .
In between filming, stylists would quickly run up, fix the hair, wipe the sweat off your face, fix your clothes, even iron them sometimes and give makeup and what not haha.
I had looooads of fun and we all got along sooo well.
Btw it was four "talents" and the remaining crew consisted of like 15-20 people! was the biggest crew so far hehe.
Other interesting facts i found out, is that the crew has not only worked with Mariah Carrie, but also Jessica Alba! (Mariah is supposed to be really nice. . . . . while Jessica is supposed to be. . . . well the opposite of nice. . . . well there goes my wonderful image of her . . . haha)
Oh as if it weren't enough that i got a TVC! I noticed during some of the scenes a group of guys were talking in their mobile phones and every now and then they would point the mobile phone camera at me. . . . So well, not hoping for much, but at least hoping that maybe they were proposing me for another job!
Well, turns out it wasn't for another commercial or acting related job. . . BUUUUUT!
After the shoot, i was told to meet one of the people in charge out in the hallway. She told me that they want me to do the print ad as well! AHHAhaha WHOOOOOOO so i got my print ad as well XD How sick is that? :D Oh i also got another bridal show now that i'm at it. . . . not another one Cathy says hahaha XD Why in the world do i keep getting bridal things?! I've been married like 500 times now haha
Anyway, so yeah, today was awesooooooooooome and exciting and FILLED with great news ^^
Later i met up with uncle Alan, mom (Who bought a new wathc. . .dad!), vincent and anna.
We ate japanese food at bugis, then we headed home to alan's new home for tea time :P
Later during the night, me and vincent sat up for a few hours just checking video after video on youtube haha.
Now it's half past 2am, and i'm sitting here in the dark writing on my blogg, while 2 meters behind me, Vincent and Anna are sleeping XD
But i figured i have to write tonight, not only because of today's events, but also because i will be heading to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow! I'll be gone until the 26th, so i doubt there will be any posts until that date!
Well. . .hopefully i've put my experiences into words best i can. . . .i could easily write a 2-3 times longer post than this about today. . . but i fear that i don't have time. . . and hunger is starting to kick in hehe, don't wanna go to bed with an empty stomache so better hit the sack before the hunger gets too bad :P
Anyways! All is well with me as you can see, and i'll be seeing you all in no more than three months! :D

Lotsa Love

/Alex

PS.
Farfar
Mycket visa ord, och mycket sant, dad says a similar thing, "Waiting is half the fun. . or usually the most fun"
And you seem very well educated in the field of camera's i must say. . . . when did this interest first appear if you mind me asking?
I'm impressed!
Lots of love!

Farmor
I must say your post is the cutest one i've read so far! hahaha i'm so happy you have found your own area of peace, and that little fredrik along with farfar and fluffy are keeping you company!
I wish you all the best
Lots of love

Dad
Whoooaaaa someone's living the schteeeekiga livet hahaha XD
Well if you haven't yet noticed. . . . i'm stealing your lifestyle at the moment! Who was it that left sweden and travelled around asia modelling a few years ago?
Haha i'm excited to see the pimped out house when i get back ;)
Lotsa love, hälsa kimmy!

ZUPERFASTEEEER!
haha närmaste vi har till schlager här borta. . . är idol. . .vilket såklart är hur roligt som helst haha. . . iaf de första episoderna :P
Under tävlingen i Bali frågade de alla deltagare "Vad föredrar du för slags tjejer? Western or Asian?"
Klart man svarar att man älskar alla brudar i hela världen. . . . i luuuv girls, yellow, white, red, black, blue and green!
I guess i'm the X-variable in your statistics then ;)
Lotsa love, hälsa familjen!




Btw, ringde agenturen och bad dem fråga efter en kopia av TV reklamen, de sa att när de är klar med all editting och sådant, så skulle de skicka en skiva till mig ;) Ska bli spännande haha. . . waiting is half the fun. . . . but it's a biatch most of the times ;)

Pic1: this is how the set looked for one of the scenes.. . . but the set changed after every scene, like the TV would be moved, the couch would be moved. . . everything would be moved and the lighting and cameras would all be placed differently and redone etc hehe OMOSHIROI!

Pic2: Some of the crew

Pic3: Us sitting on the couch, i'm in blue. . . lotsa shit going on :P

Pic4: The "Talents" haha

Pic5: Random picture i drew on microsoft paint. . . . just to fill up some of the space hehe. Well mroe specifically, Rasmus had a dream about a white Predator fixing his computer. . . .. i love his messed up dreams. . . and i like drawing stupid stuff on paint hahaha XD