The Seven Devils of Seven-Figure Jobs
A seven-part exploration of the thrilling challenges distinct to such massive quests.
I. Finding Harmony: Apple Classical
Many pieces had to dance in harmony for Rohan Blair-Mangat to sweep audiences into the grand concert within the Apple Classical App.
“Choosing the piece, the parts, and fitting two Beethovens for a 30-second film alone was a challenge, but, you know, we're working with an amazing conductor and pianist and music supervisors. Classical music is more fluid and organic, but it became very precise and mathematical.”
Director Rohan Blair-Mangat
Perfectly aligning the orchestral performance and the recorded music, while eliciting authentic musical performances, creating a flow between the music, the supers, and the story, immersing audiences in a concert representative of the new Apple Classical app – Rohan’s quest was to conduct an orchestra of moving parts.
“We were taking a piece of music that's recorded live by an orchestra, shooting another orchestra playing to it, and making sure that the movement of the orchestra is authentic. You just have to really plan and know you’re going to have a click track underneath it, so the orchestra can change the tempo in time and find the right cues.”
Director Rohan Blair-Mangat
Two keys unlocked this perfect harmony–Rohan’s gifted musical eye and the talented collaborative magic on set.
Rohan praises the musical team he got to work with.
“Because I have a music background, I can be more invested in it with them. And also I can bridge that gap between the visual and the music, but it's definitely a team effort.”
Director Rohan Blair-Mangat
II. The Devil is In the Details: Rakuten
Shades of pink. Sizing specificity. The perfect technodolly tempo. The devil is in the details, darling. Travel with me to Mexico City, where a quartet of vibrant films await fantastical realization.
In remote pre-production, you’re holding a magnifying glass to minutiae from a great distance. This feat requires careful attention, strong communication, and trust in your service team.
“Lucky for us we had a great, great, great team.”
Director Kelsey Taylor
With a pre-recorded track, mapping out the flow of each film before shooting was critical. It is within this chronological choreography that we meet a devil distinct to “Rakuten:” The Swing. An ever-swaying porch swing was an obstacle to continuity between shots.
“Mapping everything out was critical. With the swing, you wanted to make sure there was continuity from when she’s saying lines and when you cut up close. I got quite obsessive about it and shot everything ahead of time. I usually do that, but for these films it was especially important to map out the choreography of where people were in relation to the dialogue and swinging. We’d start at the top of the trajectory.”
Director Kelsey Taylor
No quest unravels without an unexpected twist, in this case, the plague of a false positive, “Our AD tested positive for COVID the last shoot day, in the middle of the day."
Despite its small army of unique obstacles, this Rakuten extravaganza emerged as a stunning cinematic triumph.
III. Prioritizing Performance within a Vast Cinematic World: It's Your Time
Step on Los Álamos base. Helicopters whir overhead. Soldiers rush the ground. Real Military equipment decorates the action-packed scene exploding before your eyes.
18 sets. 5 Shoot Days. Around 100 actors. This project was an undertaking of gargantuan proportions, an odyssey fit for an ambitious team. Yet, even with a gigantic worldbuilding task at hand, Director Kacper Larski maintained a focus on authenticity and emotive performances.
“I thought of the camera as a documentarian who treated the Reservists more like a friend than a subject."
Director Kacper Larski
Dancing in close lockstep with the US Army and DDB Chicago, the mission was to deliver four sets of films that were true representations of the reserves.
“We had to cast our hero talent to play the reservists and build these worlds where we were able to elicit the raw emotion of the action, capturing the dichotomy and harmony of their civilian careers and heroism in the reserves."
Executive Producer Sophie Gold
IV. Building Bespoke Fantasy Realms: Find Your Wavelength
Discover a labyrinthine journey through musical gardens.
If idle hands are the devil's workshop, satan had a month of holiday during Amazon AMP’s pre-production. It was through astounding dedication and diligent persistence that these ornate wonderlands were brought to beautiful life. Gleaming with a Lewis Caroll whimsy, these sixteen gardens were all practical sets. The pathways connecting them were practical sets as well.
Let’s explore each botanical sanctuary.
From Disco Garden, to Sad Boi willows, it was the elaborate, real builds that made this fantasyland so enchanting to behold.
Oasis Garden
8 feet of real Yuccas, palms, and dessert flowers framed by stretches of sand welcome us into this fantastical wonderland.
Disco Garden
This groovy tropical dancefloor was crafted with 540 real flowers of 12 lovely varieties.
Lil Yaughty’s Rock Cave
Lil Yaughty’s rock cave took 12 full days to sculpt, 2 full days to install, and 2 full days to paint and dress in greenery. The artistic argonauts up to this quest? Two rotating teams of painters, green man and dressers.
Sad Boi Willows
13,176 feet of vine. 282,800 flowers. 40,000 additional petals. The vines and flowers of Sad Boi willows are exquisite to look upon. Those willow tree canopies took 8 days to tie together by hand, weaving the variant lengths that give these vine awnings an impeccable allure.
Skull Garden
The skull garden throne sits within a towering thicket of fourteen-foot forest trees, red moss, and rose bushes.
V. Cinematic Sorcery – Defying Geographical and Chronological Bounds: Payments Everywhere
Tasked with the chance to celebrate this global, stalwart bank, the Eleanor team ventured to accomplish the impossible, bending the rules of space and time with a touch of movie magic. These champions of creativity would travel the world within the bounds of Cape Town and time travel into the future. Let’s explore the many realms of this project’s filmic wizardry…
Scene 1 and 2: Cape Town, South Africa - Present Day
To tell this thrilling narrative of innovation, why not craft a fictional e-scooter company? BOP had promising beginnings, a simple office on Riebeek Street. The first trial then was more simple, crafting innovative headquarters founded from an empty building actually in Cape Town’s downtown.
Scene 3: London, England - Present Day
Parking the only black taxi in South Africa in front of St. George’s Mall, Eleanor transported viewers to a London delivery.
Scene 4: Tokyo, Japan - Present Day
To craft the illusion of Tokyo cityscape, the team dressed an alley slipway in a bespoke array of sleek neon signage.
Scene 5: Copenhagen, Denmark - Present Day
Adrian took audiences on a Danish stroll decorating the Milan Street Artscape in cafe umbrellas, bistro tables, and bicyclists.
Scene 6: Córdoba, Argentina - Present Day
We then travel through the rumble of an Argentinian construction site.
Scene 7: São Paulo Brazil - Present Day
Docking a massive cargo ship and container on a Cape Town Harbor, we next voyage to a Brazilian seaport.
Scene 8: Singapore – Present Day
A detailed layering of lights, decor, and the details that pepper in a lived-in feel create a gamer’s paradise from the canvas of blank walls.
With a passport more ornamented than a Christmas tree, surely that must be our journey in its totality. No, my love. Next. we travel through time.
Welcome to the future.
Scene 9: The Metropolis of a Forthcoming Era – The Future
Johannesburg Central houses our glimpse through time.
Scene 10: Berlin, Germany – The Future
Creating a sleek EV charging station before the awe-striking silhouettes of Silo District Area One, we step into a Germany of the horizon.
Scenes 11: Tokyo, Japan – The Future
A VFX facial recognition scan and a practical robotic arm aids the sushi delivery of Tokyo's future.
Scene 12: London, England – The Future
A holographic wristwatch guides a London delivery in this new era.
Scene 13 and 14: Capetown, South Africa – The Future
In a grand finale, we see the explosion of our BOP Cape Town headquarters. E-scooters zoom through the Riebeek Street of the future.
VI. Slicing into Cinematic Worlds: When Inspiration Hits
Step into the Sunset Superba Food + Bread. A vividly red shuttered entryway is the threshold we cross into Issa Rae’s writing journey.
Rohan Blair-Mangat’s visual storytelling needed to flit with the fluidity of an imaginative creative process. As Issa changes her mind regarding her story’s setting, the trendy booths of an Italian restaurant sweep into the white tablecloth circles of a French bistro. As Issa sets the romantic scene, the restaurant lights dim. One moment her character is dressed in black, the next her dress is red.
Rohan created a clear, compelling contrast between the low light of the couple’s romantic dinner and Issa’s sun-soaked rush of inspiration by the crackling cafe fire. Rohan's intertwined narratives diverge from the standard three-act structure to immerse audiences in Issa Rae’s screenwriting process and a couple’s climatic date night.
Each of these worlds required meticulous attention to detail to evoke the premium feel of feature film worlds.
In this visualized exploration of the relationship between creativity and space, American Express holder and Insecure screenwriter Issa Rae is an agent of imaginative transformation.
This whimsical masterpiece for American Express garnered well-deserved online praise for championing Black talent on and behind the screen. “When Inspiration Hits” furthered Issa Rae’s continued work with American Express on the Backing Change initiative, a movement to support minority-owned small businesses.
VII. A Zany Flavor Quartet: Anything Flows
To craft a makeover for a slushie symbol embedded in American pop cultural mythology, Adrian De Sa Garces crafted four bespoke flavor worlds, each with its own color palette and personality.
i. Cherry Red
Adrian transformed the Hilton Glendale into the Cherry Ladies’ casino runway. Coordinated tracksuits and trainers unite this senior squad’s ruby-colored look, accessorized with spunky jewelry and shades. Classic shot machines strike triple cherries. The glamorous grannies ride off with the sparkle of a gleaming cherry keychain and the red wink of a 1982 Buick Rivera.
ii. Colada Vibes
A pineapple and coconut tranquility floats out of the Mayfair Hotel elevator barefoot in this lemon-colored scene. Butternut trousers define the effortless cool of the sanguine protagonist. A pocketed yellow umbra marks the contagious calm of this serene lobby stroll.
iii. Cool Blue
Adrian creates the Americana poolside of contemporary lore from the Sonesta Redondo Beach and Marina pool and a mismatched collage of azures. Our cool blue hero wears a cobalt bathrobe life a fur coat. His suede loafers saunter into the iridescent water without a care. Sunscreen-painted extras crowd this busy poolside.
iv. Mixed Up
A metropolitan bustle unfolds across the street outside the Mayfair Hotel. Our hero is wrapped in a prismatic array of hues. Her vibrant makeup, hair, and bold streetwear were selected to evoke a youthful verve.
From the Cherry ladies’ synchronized swagger to the poolgoers’ awestruck stares–distinct gate and quirky performance were key to capturing the vivid, unique essence of each vignette. Color grading further elevated each monochromatic Slurpee wonderland.