Finished! Mobile phone commercial for Eastern Europe.

Ahhhh, Kiev. Exciting, beautiful, ancient, progressive, mysterious, amazing Kiev. Pictured above is the glorious Kryschatik, the most famous street in Ukraine. On weekends it is closed to automobile traffic so people can walk right down the center. You can see on the right a soviet era building is has a NOKIA sign on its rooftop. This is typical of Kiev. An elegant European city occupied by hulking Soviet architecture, ironically draped in corporate logos.

Having endured in a single century two world wars, three famines and the rise and fall of communism, the differences between generations are obvious and fascinating. These women look like they walked out of a 1926 Pudovkin film.

And this is Sergei, 30, the creative director form the Ukranian agency. The look on his face is on account that we just heard that Boombox, hugely successful Ukranian hip hop act were refusing to play music in the commercial.  We had to come up with something new, and fast, with the shoot approaching. I’ve found that this is typical of Ukranian commercials. About three days before the shoot, everything changes.

Despite the rush I was able to find some time to spend with locals. Here I am trying to teach the rules of American baseball with toothpicks and napkins. There is a runner on first and second, and Dascha is at bat.

Here we’re doing a tech scout - or “tech reccy” as they say in Kiev - at the Radioaktive Film stage.  We’re there to figure out the placement of the stage, make some choices on lenses, decide where to put the green screen and where to hang the intelligent lighting. Since my Nikon D90 has the similar size sensor as a Red One, I can test focal lengths before we get to the shoot. This is shot with an 18mm lens, and I know they have a 16mm Ultra Prime in the local rental house, so i figure we’ll be ok.

We needed an actor with a humorless prefessional quality, to play the dentist in a mobile phone viral which spoofing a  toothpaste ad.  Luckily George came in and was perfect. We sent a video clip to the client and he got the job in a matter of minutes.

I get to the set and everything looks in place. Giganto greenscreen, check. Intelligent lighting, Check. 30 foot Supertechno, check.

Featured extras, check.

The hair, makeup and styling is always outstanding in Kiev. Great looks, fast crews with zero complaining. I chose a black, white and gray palette (or lack thereof) for this utopian interplanetary piece.The color in the frame would come from skin tones, lighting, and the set. It also allows us to tell the 200 extras to “wear black white or gray” which is far easier than, “were working in muted shades of green and plum” if you say that they show up in tie-dyes.

The props department made this futursitic examining chair. You plug it in and it lights up. The green legs, would be removed in post so the chair appears to be floating.

The brainy hip hop trio, Boombox. Huge in Kiev. They had refused to play in the spot but they hadn’t refused to be in it. Probably a good move for them as artists. The new idea from the agency was that they would have a funny argument on stage, and a microphone would pick up their conversation for an embarrassing moment.

I couldn’t picture them arguing on stage, and recommended they have their quip while walking through the bowels of the venue, approaching the stage, like the classic scene in “This is Spinal Tap,” In a room full of Ukranians this suggestion gets crickets.  ”Anyone? Spinal Tap? Harry Shear? Chris Guest? …Bueller?” After a little explaining, came a cool idea from the agency that they’re in a futuristic elevator, a tube, zipping up towards the stage, with many floors passing. Everyone loved this idea.

I also learned that there is no word in Ukranian for “nuggies.”

When we were finished with the spot we moved to another set and shot the toothpaste viral, a silly spoof that, frankly was some of the best shit we shot all day.

I had used this actor on another spot and knew he’d be great as the confused patient.