Zen Garden Brand Campaign

Role: I served as the Director of Photography (DOP), Co-Director, Art Director, and Video Editor.

Project Goal: During the third lockdown in Malaysia, amidst the Covid Delta variant outbreak, my team and I were tasked with creating a brand video for the upcoming National Day.

My team consisted of just three individuals: our producer, who also managed accounts; our director/writer; and myself, serving as a co-director, overseeing production, post-production, and art. Due to lockdown restrictions, budget limitations, and other constraints, we couldn't expand our team or conduct in-person shoots.

We also aimed to minimize the use of stock images and footage. From past experience, we noticed that frequently used stock media could create awkward situations when clients pointed out that other brands had employed the same visuals.

Therefore, we decided from the outset that at least 70% of the video had to feature original footage, which meant it needed to be shot. This decision introduced other challenges, such as locations and talent.

Our solution? It was all in the storyboard. We crafted a story that allowed me to shoot the video at my house (since I had the camera at the time) and use my own children as "hand talents."

Given the lockdown and the video's theme of celebrating Malaysia's Independence Day during the pandemic, we proposed to the client that the brand should celebrate frontliners who were fighting a different kind of "war" to achieve a new form of independence.

With limited resources, my house as the shooting location, and my kids as hand models, the storyboard focused on a child discussing Independence Day in the current context (lockdown and the battle against the pandemic). The child in the video conveyed the story through hand-drawn illustrations, with my kids flipping the pages of the drawings as the narrative unfolded.

We enlisted a child voice-over talent to narrate the video for a complete storytelling experience. As for the drawings, I took on the task of creating them myself. Although the drawings needed to resemble a child's style, they still had to be clear and comprehensible, which is why I handled the task personally.

As my team was unable to be physically present, the production had to be managed remotely. The director and producer joined me through video calls to oversee the shoot. This also meant that I had to co-direct the video. After completing the production, I managed all aspects of post-production, including offline and online editing, color correction, voice-over, and music editing/mixing. 

The project was a resounding success, and the client expressed their utmost satisfaction. Even the hypermarket (Mydin), where the product is being showcased, was thrilled with the result.