On December 7th, TP was asked to help shoot a commercial for HTV, an MTV-esque Latin American TV channel.Our call time was super early! 6:00AM! The commercial was shot at the Korean Bell of Friendship in San Pedro. When we got there it dark and foggy, but people were already running around building the set. As the sun rose, the Korean Bell transformed into some kind of feudal Asian palace. At one point we heard, “Bring anything that looks Asian!!!!!” being yelled across the park. Ceramic urns, tea pots, blankets, pillows, and random Mardi Gras beads were hurried over and strewn around the bell.Taiko players, ninjas, a Japanese/Filipino emperor, and Chinese lion dancers converged at the Korean Bell to create some mutant freak mix of Asian culture. Several hours later the set was complete, everyone was in place, and we were ready to begin shooting!
Now would be a good time for me to tell you the premise of the commercial....which I find hilarious....
A buff, mean-looking Asian Emperor sits in his palace surrounded by scantily glad ninja girls (because we all know being a ninja is so much easier when you are wearing close to nothing). Ferocious taiko playing can be heard in the background. *ominous drumroll... A voluptuous "Latin Bombshell" arrives at said Asian palace in a black luxury sedan with her two ripped Latino man-friends. Asian Emperor sends his ninja girls to do battle with them. Lead ninja girl cuts half of Latin Bombshell's dress off. Tension rises. *CUE SALSA MUSIC *CUE LION DANCERS *CUE SPONTANEOUS DANCE PARTY!!! Ninja girl enjoys a passionate dance with Latino man.... Asian Emperor shares a moment with Latin Bombshell... you get the idea. If only all the world's problems could be solved by spontaneously bursting into dance....Based on the other commercials in this series, I’m assuming at some point in time a gigantic hot air balloon with the HTV logo on it will rip the temple from the ground and take us all on a happy, dance-filled ride into the unknown (I’m serious.)
Playing taiko was fun as usual. The drums were so loud that the production crew had to continuously yell at us to stop playing… Bryan, Brian, and I played a pretty simple arrangement thrown together earlier that morning. Eventually we spiced things up and played along to some salsa music (for the dance party). Bryan and Bryan has some close-up shots taken of them with an extremely expensive crane-mounted camera. Hopefully those make it into the commercial somewhere!
Most of the day was actually spent waiting for the fog to lift. The fog ended up putting the shoot many hours behind schedule. To make matters worse, it was absolutely freezing outside! Fortunately, someone was there to give us our jackets between shots. Some 12 hours after we arrived, the sun was beginning to set, the temperature had dropped even more, and the crew was scrambling to get some last shots in. There was lots of stress and yelling in those last 30 minutes, but after we wrapped we got to enjoy a nice sunset.
A long day, but very fun nonetheless. The three of us met some very interesting people and had some good laughs. Here are some pictures from our day:
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