Dog’s Best Friend. A Nissan Commercial.
By Sam Perches, 11/15/22
Never work with children or animals. At least, that is the old adage within the production industry, a famous quote, coined by W.C. Fields almost 100 years ago.
I happen to disagree with that maxim, having worked with both previously in my career. I learned two things in those experiences; the first, they are both very similar; they’re cute, fun and engaging. The second, they get distracted easily, have no concept of time, and can get bored very quickly.
Human professional talent is relatively straightforward. Set your physical criteria, make sure they can act (that’s an important one) confirm they have the “look” that fits the concept, and bingo. Negotiate, sign contracts, repeat.
Not so much with dogs.
Let’s start with casting. In my storyboards during pre-production, I illustrated something that looked like a ridiculous cartoon character… a badly drawn one. The reality of working with dogs and more so, casting them, is one I had never been so hands on with, especially for a commercial that required our team to work fast and efficiently, ensuring we got what we needed before the sun set.
About three days before production, I called a production team meeting. At the end of the meeting my first AC (assistant cameraman), kindly decided to tell me about a production he worked on where the star dog simply ran into the woods during a take and didn’t reappear until two days later. As the blood drained out of my head, I thanked him for the story, and then proceeded to have insomnia for the next 2 days. Contingency plans were going to be the answer. Fortunately my anxiety was all in vain. For that I owe much gratitude to our agency, M.Dogs, and their 3 (on set) trainers for putting our minds at ease and ensuring that our chosen pooches were highly trained and obedient. And they were right.
Back to casting, my producer and I were sweating; the date was getting closer, as she and I poured over photo after photo from the dog talent agency. Our responses to each were almost the same every time. Cute. Cute. Cute. With the occasional “too grumpy looking” “too hyperactive looking” and even “too much drool”. It was a painstaking process having to narrow it down to two, but we got there in the end. For that I want to thank both the producer and the trainers. We we’re in good hands and so were the dogs. And of course I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Hop, Lulu, Bass and Chiko, the stars of the show. Why four you ask? We asked the same question. In short, if a dog decides not to cooperate, we have a similar looking back up, ready to roll. Clever move on the agency’s part. Fortunately our back ups slept throughout the entire shoot. Hop and Lulu nailed it. In fact, we only had one incident during the shoot that was a concern for me. The intended shot was our Beagle “Lulu” jumping from the back seat and running into the arms of our actress. Only, Lulu preferred the idea of running to the trainer instead. Take after take. I was beginning to sweat, and not because of the sun, which incidentally was setting fast. Eventually the trainer realized the problem: a bag of bacon treats in her pocket.
Lightbulb.
We quickly transferred them to the back pocket of our actress and got our shot.
I’ve worked on many types of productions, for diverse groups of clientele and I always walk away reminding myself what that particular lesson I’ve learned on that shoot and how I can apply it on another in the future. I learned a few on this one, and I shall impart them now. Number one, don’t listen to your AC’s horror stories about animals and production. The right agency has you taken care of. Trust them. Number two, film inside a vehicle with e4ORCE technology, this is not a joke, and I believe their faces when filmed inside the car showed that. We didn’t have to fake those happy faces. And last but not least, don’t ever underestimate the importance of a good trainer.
And, when all else fails… just keep a bag of bacon in your back pocket.
It’s so fluffy! The lost art of the internal film.
by Sam Perches, 4/15/23
What do you get when you mix a dinosaur, a plastic shark, and a Minion? No, it’s not a joke unfortunately, it is the somewhat random setting for a recent shoot at Universal Studios, Osaka. But we were back working with the wonderful folks at MobScene in LA who did an amazing job orchestrating an international shoot at all the Universal parks around the world and we were of course very honored to handle the Japanese one.
I learn something new on every shoot I’m involved in and this time I learned that filming in a theme park is really, really loud. I also learned that it’s hard to keep a straight face when you inform the crew that scene number one is located at “it’s so fluffy!”
But bad theme park jokes aside, this was a great experience as we rounded up the usual suspects and headed off to Osaka which is an amazing city, and such a change from Tokyo. So we bulleted our way there and were up bright and early for a quick hotel lobby crew meeting. That’s what we call it when we meet in the lobby at 5am and drink coffee in silence. Truth is we were more than prepared. The shoot went off without a hitch.
This one was a recruitment film. Now that may not sound terribly exciting and maybe it isn’t at all if you don’t want to find employment there, but that’s not the point. IF you’re reading this, and you’re not my wife or my mum, then you’ll know my blogs have always been aimed at future clients or, anyone who wants to read it, or… Google’s SEO. Did I say that out loud? No, I’d never stoop so low. Not me - Sam Perches - a DP/filmmaker in Tokyo, Japan. That would be wrong.
In this business I often have to explain what exactly I do. The usual answer is I work in corporate filmmaking and I’m based in Tokyo. But when asked what exactly corporate filmmaking IS, I give the usual answer: “commercials, sales videos, promos, that kind of thing.” But the recruitment film is one I haven’t mentioned in a while and although I can’t go into specifics about this film because a) I’ve not asked for permission to, and b) I am not involved in the post production side this time, I can say it’s for Universal’s eyes only and therefore 100% for internal use. So unless Universal decides to whack it on YouTube, or you decide to apply for a job there, you won’t know, but trust me, it was clever. I want to do more. But what would you expect from Universal. Fake sharks and upside down rollercoasters aside, these guys have got it right.
This brought me back to a time when I first started in this business when internal videos were big business. Literally! You could only afford one if you were a big business. In my early days I did quite a few internal films; training videos, recruitment videos, etc. They were all very formal and very serious and stuffy and quite frankly, pretty boring and formulaic. But I can’t blame them, if you’re making a film that’s not going to be in front a huge audience, then of course it makes sense to stick to the mold and get your point across. Many of you may remember how John Cleese came up with a brilliant way of breaking that mold by starring in a series of training videos in the 80’s and incorporating his comedic talents and dead pan style, but the point here is that the costs for doing so in general, let alone with having a famous comedian on board would have been astronomical.
As we dove into our Okonomiyaki before heading back to Tokyo following the shoot, I pondered this approach and wondered why more companies aren’t taking advantage of how simple and cost effective it is to create internally-designed videos for their companies. With the internet at our fingertips, more and more remote working set ups and the speed at which these types of videos can be made, it makes me wonder why more companies are not communicating through private videos. It makes so much sense that it would be a huge part of what I do these days. I don’t want to sound like Steve Forbes or something but so much money is being spent these days on creating videos to attract clients, but there is more to these powerful tools than advertising, and showing what you have on the outside is great, but as a business owner myself, I feel that it’s equally as important to build the business from within and with so little time and people working from home, maybe there’s only so many Zoom meetings you can have. A video like this Universal one took a day to shoot and will have a shelf life of many years. Thinking how much time, effort and money that will save in the long run when it comes to training, recruiting, and generally just conveying information in a short, fun and creative way should be something more and more companies start doing, regardless of size, especially in these times of corporate restructuring, building economies and getting through the aftershocks of the pandemic. So focus on what needs doing and let the video do the talking.