TV Commercial Production Nippon Style

• Posted on 29th March 2016
• in Entertainment, entertainment books, Film Production, film production book, TV Commercial Production
• by Ben

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Here’s a

TV commercial production

story from Circumstances Beyond My Control.

In an earlier post I told you about Perfect Marketing Company – PMC, for short – and its owners George and Junko Braun. They provided production services for Japanese companies shooting in the U S. …

“The commercial was for Suntory Whiskey and the on-camera talent was Japan’s best known Jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist, Terumasa Hino.  …

“Once again the entire troop was on board for the location scout along with the NYC key grip and gaffer. As I recall two (fully loaded) vans were required. The day was a combination of preproduction work and tourist excursion. …

“One of the shots in the spot was in Central Park at dusk. Throughout the park classic streetlights stand on ornamental metal poles holding ovate globes which give off a gentle glow. The DP wanted to start the shot on one of these globes as it came on then pan and tilt down to Hino-san playing his trumpet in the gloaming. We located one situated with Belvedere Castle in the background which, when properly framed, looked almost exactly like their storyboard. I assigned one of our PAs to find out if we would be able to control when the light went on and, if (as I suspected) we couldn’t, to learn when it would automatically be lit.

“This turned out to be a time consuming assignment. Threading one’s way through the New York City bureaucracy is no mean task. But Mark Siegel, though at that point still inexperienced in film production, was a determined young man and after two days of innumerable phone calls he got the answer: 7:12 PM. Why or how I remember that specific time I have no idea. Some things just stick in one’s mind. …

“On the second or third day our last location was Central Park at dusk. The lamp-lighting time had been confirmed and at 5:00 we were beginning to setup the shot. By 6:15 we had rehearsed and were camera ready. In those days there was a phone number one could call to get the exact time and at 6:30 we synchronized all our watches and began to wait. When the hour was reached I mentioned to both the director and DP that we had twelve minutes to go. They seemed unconcerned. I would have begun double checking everything and run a couple more rehearsals but they smoked and chatted. 7:05 came and went then 7:10. Again I spoke to the DP who ignored me. The New York crew guys were looking at me and at each other, somewhat perplexed. They had made such a big deal out of getting the shot with the light coming on and now they just stood around. I looked at George who shrugged. The light came on and the camera stayed off.

“We finally did a version of the shot, two or three takes and wrapped for the day. I never did find out what that was all about. Asian inscrutability? A coda to this story is that there is a tickle in the back of my memory that after they went home they hired a cameraman to get a shot of a Central Park lamp coming on.

“Another location was Schubert Alley. This is a narrow 300-foot long pedestrian alley at the heart of the Broadway theater district. It splits a block, as it runs parallel to and between Eighth Avenue and Broadway, linking West 44th Street to West 45th Street. The alley has been considered the geographical center of Broadway.

“Our setup was at the 44th Street side right in front of the Schubert Theatre where (in ‘79) A Chorus Line was running. This was where we used the Nike crane. …

“The Japanese were fastidious. We New Yorkers who smoked never gave a thought to tossing our butts on the sidewalk. Not these guys. They had three or four coffee cans with sand in them for disposing of their smokes. Actually they set a good example for us.”

Read more TV commercial production stories when you click here to get Circumstances Beyond My Control.

Tags: Central Park, George Braun, Junko Braun, PMC, Schubert Alley, Terumasa Hino