FELIPE CARDONA

Introduction to the project

 

Earlier this year I worked on a project for my Acro Yoga group which was displayed in BRESS, a student sports complex in Breda, the Netherlands. I then started talks with BRESS about creating some promotional material. We then came to the idea of making a promotional film for the new school year. Primarily BRESS wanted to show the variety of activities one could do at BRESS. Their new slogan would be: “ BRESS, more than just sports.” When we first sat down at the brainstorming table BRESS already had some ideas as to what they would like to create. These Ideas were primarily based on stories. So for example: There was an idea to tell the story of a boy walking  into BRESS and doing all the sports they had listed. I was provided a list of sports and activities which take place at BRESS or with their partners.

 

After hearing this I explained how any story could be made to be good if told well. But my main concern was not the story but rather how to tell the story. Which formula best suited my clients needs. So I asked the question ‘ What is it that you want to say?’ To which they replied ‘We are BRESS, we are more than just a gym. You can come to BRESS and do your homework here. You can simply hangout with your friends after school and if you like, you can take part  in some of the activities we offer.

 

This was for me a good starting point as the message BRESS wanted to communicate became more obvious to me. They are more than just a gym. They are a hangout place and they are all about friends. The video was to be shared on Facebook, Instagram and on the screens of the NHTV and Avans. This meant the video had a time limit of 1 minute for Instagram and 30 seconds for the NHTV and Avans screens.

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Research

With the message being clear it was time to find out how we could best put this project together.  Simultaneous to this project I was also following the course of Film Analysis at the Fontys Academy for  the Arts. So I decided to analyze sports commercials to get a better feel as to how I was going to put my own together. I analyzed 3 commercials in total. My biggest findings were how important copywriting and typography were nowadays. I already had this feeling as a lot of content is played without sound nowadays. Also the NHTV and Avans screens are both without sound. So I had to find a way to communicate my message by simply using images.

 

Another aspect of filmmaking I analyzed was light. I realized how important light is to a video and how it can create a certain feeling. I looked at color contrasts, soft an hard light, and light movement. I won’t go more in depth into this as it is simply a technical aspect. Which in retrospect I should have just hired a Director of photography for. But hey, some lessons we learn the hard way.

 

My last focus point for this research was how to tell a good story. I have heard many great directors speak about how the story is always at the center of any movie. So by analyzing a Bavaria commercial for the 3.3% beer I realized an important aspect of storytelling which is development. Development is important because it makes something ‘ happen’.  Alex Garland (the director of 28 weeks later) said that “Storytelling is the calculated release of information.” For me this was my focus point and so I started to analyze how the Bavaria commercial used development. There are many ways one can apply development but one which has proven to work is that of contrast. So for example going from dark to light or from yellow to blue. Any contrast will work really if it used correctly.

 

In the Bavaria commercial they make use of the colors yellow (gold) and blue (cyan). Mainly the sunshine and water. I thought this would be a great contrast to use in my video as well. This worked out great as BRESS is partnered with a swimming pool and so I knew that this would be a key aspect in the film.

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I want to thank Dr. Elise Wortel for helping me with this research and guiding me in asking the right questions and specifically on being able to work within the academic model of the university.

 

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Bavaria 3.3 (2017)

 

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Idea

At this point we have all the necessary building blocks to make a great commercial but we are left without an idea or a story.

 

To come up with the story I looked at the main message of BRESS which is friendship. So knowing this I started looking around for related content and came across Clueless (1995). The movie set a precedent as far as teen movies go. It was so unique because it put a subculture in the spotlight. The story follows the life of a teenager in California and her group of friends.

 

So I took some aspects from clueless and started building a story. I also wanted development in all aspects of the story.

 

The story starts with Guy1 who is biking forward and then Guy 2 and 3 approach him on the bikes. Each character is introduced in the beginning. Then these friends meet a group of girls and approach them. The group then becomes friends and start to hangout and take part in multiple BRESS activities. Culminating at the pool where they first jump in the water and then take a group picture. After that the slogan comes up and the video ends with the group biking away from bress with bress in the background.

 

This is just a short summary of the story as explaining every aspect and choice would not add much to this reflection.

 

An important point which I do want to highlight is the use of development in the story. The development happens on multiple levels. For example we start with 1 person and end  with a group of 6 people. Another level of development is that of starting in the gym and ending in the swimming pool. This also makes the contrast between yellow (BRESS) and blue (The swimming pool.)

 

Every shot was carefully written as to add one or more elements to the story. For example in the spinning shot we see the boys peeking on the girls and then the girls looking at each other as if being confused. I used this shot to introduce the conflict of the story. (The boys are interested in the girls, but the girls are weirded out by the boys.) And so on and so on.

 

Also most shots are done in one take. Because the shots are happening so quickly I wanted to minimize the amount of attention needed to understand the story. So instead of cutting between two shots of the same scene I tried to compress all the actions of a scene into a choreography which the camera can simply follow. For example in the spinning shots there’s 1. The boys peeking and 2. The girls being weirded out. Instead of taking two shots of this interaction I simply moved the camera in a quick pan from the boys to the girls.

 

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Production

Producing the thing in itself was a complete different story in on of itself. Since I had decided to produce most of it myself I had realised how much I really couldn't do this on my own. So I enlisted the help of two of my great friends. First Mario Bulos, who helped me put together the cast. We had found 3 girls, but the third one called us on the morning of the shoot saying she wouldn't be able to make it. Thankfully Zara and Diede were joined by a good friend of theirs Laura, who pretty much saved our day.

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As for putting the whole thing together I asked Tim Straathof if he could help me produce this video. He was very helpful in getting things done. He knew exactly what needed to happen and I just had to say the word and he had the whole team moving things up and down just so we could finish the shoot. On the second day we had a very tight schedule seeing as our talent couldn't be on location untill 1pm. So at some point we worked so fast we managed to shoot 3 scenes in less than 10 minutes. Ofcourse now looking back I think we could have planned things differently so that we would have had more time. But hey, that's filmmaking. Things always go sour one way or another.

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I am glad I asked my good friend Vincent van der Pluijm to come over and make a nice behind the scenes video for me. So here it is:

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Feedback

 

Short paragraph written by the client:

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"Felipe is vanaf het begin tot het eind nauw betrokken geweest bij de productie van onze commercial. Tijdens de brainstormsessies hielp hij ons om duidelijk in kaart te brengen welke speerpunten we wilden uitdragen en wat het doel van de commercial moest zijn. Door de tijd en moeite die hij alleen al in de voorbereidingen stopte werd duidelijk dat Felipe professioneel handelt en voor het maximale resultaat gaat. Ook de productiedagen verliepen soepel; Felipe had een goede crew die allen ontzettend gemotiveerd waren om er voor te gaan. We zijn ontzettend blij met onze commercial en krijgen er ontzettend veel positieve reacties op. Mensen stoppen om de film te bekijken en krijgen er een positief gevoel over BRESS van. Dit is precies wat wij wilden overbrengen. Felipe is een enthousiaste, vrolijke en hardwerkend persoon op wie je kunt vertrouwen!"

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Reflection

In the end I am proud of this video. I hope the response is a favorable one and that people see what I was trying to do. It was a lot of hard work and looking back I am impressed that I was even able to pull it off. I do want to say that there is no way I could have pulled this off without the help of my friends and colleagues. I really underestimated how much work a production even of such a small scale as this one really is.  So I want to thank everybody who worked on this project. This couldn’t have been possible without you.

 

If there is one thing would like to do differently on my next production, it’s to hire a cinematographer. I consider myself an alright cinematographer. But I see myself more in the role of director and writer. Things are so hectic on set and that makes it very hard to be the cinematographer as well as the director.