Preparing Christmas
October 28
Last year we went on a long journey up to the Finnish Lapland to film a Christmas commercial campaign for ABLOY locks. I helped with running and transportation of the equipment, and lighting. The video turned out great and looked very good.
The same customer contacted us again this year, but with a very different idea for their yearly campaign, and a very tight schedule to get everything recorded. I was contacted by the same production team as last time and was again honoured as gaffer and setup the lights. The downside, however, was that there was hardly any time to plan, discuss the lighting, look through the script or reference pictures. The guy behind the camera, Joel, had a clear idea of the warm Christmas vibes, and I fully trusted his judgement.
My first task was equipment and transportation. I’ve never rented a car before but found a service app called GoMore that offers private cars for renting all around the country. You rent the car of your choice and open the doors with your phone. Amazing innovation.
I picked up the car and left to Kinos Rentals to pick up the filming equipment. The heaviest items on the list was probably the steel combos and sandbags. Overall the production was very lightweight. But I was still assisted by an intern that helped me out with the lighting, rigging and setup which made the job even easier.
We used a grid diffused Nanlux Evoke 1200 as key light, and a smaller nanlux as fill light. I love a nice hair light and think it can really give the picture a nice creative touch. For that we used 150W Dedolight. We also used diffused Astera Titan tubes for the final adjustments.
The whole video was going to be recorded in just 1 day, and the tempo was very high to be able to get all the needed shots. The video is supposed to be cozy and vibes of Christmas, and we didn’t have to record any dialogues. The actors quickly repeated the choreography a few times on the spot right before the final moment of recording.
Of course, the day felt very long and was exhausting, but not in a physical way. Being focused and stay sharp takes the toll after a few hours, and I tried to remind myself to have a pause every now and then. The catering was amazing though.
At the end of the day, we returned to Kinos Rentals to return the equipment, dropped off the intern assistant, and parked the car and ended the rental timer. Everything went very smoothly, and we didn’t run into any critical errors. I slept very well that night.
