Emma

Solution

An agile talented team who were all able to cross-pollinate into different aspects of the project were called in, to manage the process calmly and systematically - thank goodness for all the years of experience!
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Fancy footwork was necessary in every aspect of this project:
- A highly specialized location that could pose as 3 different locations, to be left set up at the same time for the duration of the shoot
- Varied International Aspirational yet believable Cast  
- Shot-list planning for both day light and night light scenes to take place with the same models back-to-back in different scenes
- Technical aspects of the lighting that needed to work for both video and photo at the same time, without changing the set-up - all during the day HINT: the whole location needed to be blacked out for parts of the day while we were shooting the night light scenes and opened up for the day light scenes, at will.
- Balancing all the schedules involved to align during the chosen 10 day period that the clients were present in South Africa from Germany.
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The very first and make-or-break element that the whole production hinged on, was finding a single location that could be dressed up to work as the 3 briefed locations and feel as though they were 3 different homes.
The location also needed to be double volume to make it possible to do the wide top shots that were part of the brief.
Once this needle in the haystack was found, further planning was possible.
Our casting team did a fantastic job with finding interesting characters who were aspirational, but real and relatable and could fit into the varied markets that the sales collateral was intended for.
The cast were not only the perfect visual fit, but also brought some true gusto to the shoot and were an absolute pleasure to work with (did I mentioned we did all of this with kids AND dogs).
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The production team did a stellar job with the planning and balancing of schedules and kept things on track all the way through to completion. They played (and aced) top level Tetris to make it all possible and Daaang it, did it work out well!
The art department worked under tremendous pressure to create beautiful lived in spaces from what was really a blank canvas to start with.
Camera department were on point with the gajillion lens, angle and camera changes between both stills and video.
The lighting team possibly gets the largest shout-out as the number of moving parts for the size of the team was possibly the most impressive performance I have personally witnessed on any set to date.
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The styling and make up team did more than their bit by getting involved in upholding team morale and helping out with keeping things on track during production's darkest hours.
Our clients were awesome and super hands-on and got their hands dirty to make the impossible possible in the end with utmost commitment and chutzpah.
It was a team effort and like all good things where people pull in the same direction to make wildly impossible ideas reality, fun was had, some tears were shed, not a whole lot of sleep was had, lots of coffee pulled us through and it all ended on a really satisfying note!