Michael Uys (pronounced “ace”) is an award winning filmmaker and television commercial director. He was tasked with a project by Tag Heuer to create a branding film for their new Smartwatch. Here he tells the TM how he filmed 12 locations in 2 days whilst keeping to the brief - see his finished product below.
The assignment: A fast-paced 3 minute film about a fictional day in the life of a nonfictional NYC creative director.
The partners: TAG Heuer, InsideHook Magazine and Piro Productions.
The budget: Under $100K. [The locations were stakeholders so didn't charge fees]
The approach: Docu-style inspired by Victor’s trip sequence in Rules of Attraction but with more luxurious photography.
TAG Watches - Connected Man from Michael Uys on Vimeo.
Ever wondered where commercials get inspiration?
The brief did not originally include a “Rules of Attraction” style shoot. It called for a "highly stylized, action-packed, breakneck paced, barrage” which led us to fast-paced scenes with “Rules of Attraction” and “Snatch” references. (Credit goes to creative director Danny Agnew for introducing those references.) We took them as inspiration, but blended with a higher end visual style, which we achieved with a RED camera shooting in 2:35 aspect ratio with 16mm and 25mm prime lenses for most of the action and a 100mm macro for the watch shots, which we also shot in our days (except 2 pick-ups shot during post.) The lighting consisted of 2 Kinoflo banks and an onboard matchstick light attached to the camera. Colour correction was done by Damien Van Der Cruyssen at Company 3.
To really make the concept work, we knew we'd need a lot of locations. We settled on 12 locations spread out in Brooklyn and Manhattan, but we only had two days to shoot. Like London, getting around NYC with a film crew can eat up half your day. The smaller our unit the better. It was clear we had to go guerrilla style so we pared down the crew to Director, Producer, DP, focus puller, and gaffer. One camera van and one passenger van, each had a PA/Driver. With only two vehicles and all privately owned locations, we could dispense with film permits, which are not required in NYC for private locations where you are not taking over streets or parking. We’d have our PA/drivers stay with the vehicles if they had to. We also decided to keep the camera on a Ronin, a gimballed stabilizer for all shots as there would not be time to switch rigs.
All locations were leveraged by InsideHook Magazine in exchange for inclusion in the video which is clickable, leading viewers to details about each place. A few locations changed their mind last minute of course. We mapped out a route based on location access, planned whether we needed daylight or night-time for storytelling, and checked traffic patterns. If all went well we’d have 30 minutes of shooting time at each location.
The Shoot
Still from TAG Watches - Connected Man from Michael Uys
On Day One we started in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, shooting three locations: a coffee shop, a cowboy-themed bed and breakfast and a hipster barber shop. Then we headed to a helipad in Manhattan for two quick flights along the East river. For our next stop we had to negotiate a parade on Fifth Avenue, which ground our caravan to a glacial crawl. We’d planned on daylight for our next location - a bespoke tailor - but lost our light and had to frame out or cover windows to fake it. Finally, it was downtown to a dinner/cabaret show scene which was planned as a night shoot.
Day Two began in Manhattan (at an “ancient” spa) but scheduling issues required a round trip over the Brooklyn Bridge to Gleason’s Gym (of Mike Tyson and Jake LaMotta fame). Quick sparring scene and then back to Manhattan for four more locations!
We made our days, but it felt like we had pushed the limit of what is logistically possible in NYC. It was all about deep local knowledge and a sense of humor. The real challenge was getting framing and performances right while racing the clock. We slowed down just enough at each location to convince ourselves that we had time to block, light and shoot.
So what next?
Since TAG, we’ve shot two similar films. One in Dubai, where we worked out adding a third day to the schedule to make things a bit more sane, and another in New York, where we pulled off six locations in one day. Perhaps we have to stop getting a reputation for being good at this…
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Michael Uys
Michael Uys (pronounced “ace”) is an award winning filmmaker and television commercial director. You can see his TM profile here.