Banana Ponch Takes Us behind the Scenes on the Sci-Fi Cyberpunk Music Video ‘Vapor'

Brandon Gallego (animation director) and Nicolas Fuenmayor (post production director) tell us about the behind the scenes in post production of this successful music video Vapor by Wisin and Yandel. 

Q> What was your first reaction when you heard that this project had arrived?

BRANDON> Knowing that I was going to work on the visual effects for a music video was good news, but knowing that it was for Wisin & Yandel with Rauw Alejandro was GREAT news. I value these first two artists very much for their musical career. Since I was very young I knew about their existence and working on a project for them today is crazy.

NICOLAS> I was thrilled and excited to have done a project for these world-renowned artists who have had such a great impact on Latin music.

Q> What does it mean to you to have worked on a project for these artists?

BRANDON> It was a very interesting project, the creative proposal is something I've wanted to work on for a long time, it was also the first music video I've worked on and I hope there will be many more.

NICOLAS> Working on a music project for artists such as Rauw Alejandro, Wisin and Yandel can be a great opportunity for anyone involved in the audiovisual industry. They are highly respected artists in the reggaeton genre and Latin music in general, so working on a project with these artists can mean great recognition and valuable experience in anyone's career.

Q> From your area, how did you experience the process of carrying out the project?

BRANDON> The process was the same as in other projects we have worked on. First we had to be clear about which scenes we were going to intervene, then we made the visual proposal according to the creative idea on the selected scenes. The main idea was a lot of holograms that interact with the actors and the spaces, after that we broke down with the team the best way to work since the time we had was very limited, and with all the plan done we got down to work.

I usually like to start doing rotoscopes on the scenes, this gives me a bigger picture to know what I might need in terms of graphic or animated resources and how to integrate them into the scene. Then I start with all the compositions, animations and adding effects so that they look like the key visual that was presented before, full of holograms with a lot of brightness.

The important thing in this kind of projects is to have in mind the vision of the director to give the magic touch to every detail, to have polished the effects and animations even if the shot lasts only a second, that makes the work neat and quality.

NICOLAS> It took two weeks of production where the team was giving 100% to deliver on time and taking care of every detail of the video. We had several creative sessions and together we analysed each scene.

Q> Did you have any challenges in STEAM

BRANDON> The biggest challenge of the project was time. We started the same day we were given the great news that we were going to work with these artists, it was from minute zero that we started brainstorming ideas for the scenes and how we were going to work it, we all like to have a prudent time to be able to work on the projects but this challenge was something impressive, we managed to optimize the time to deliver everything with the client's time.

NICOLAS> The big challenge was the time factor, to be able to deliver it without delay. Also to realise and bring to life scenarios from scratch.

Q> What did you like most about this project?

BRANDON> What I loved most about being on this project was the animated holograms, I had always wanted to work on something like this and with this opportunity I was able to let loose creatively on the animation and visual effects, as well as being able to integrate it with the live action shots.

NICOLAS> To see the finished product as it is the result of the effort of the whole team and to see the contrast between the material that was delivered at the beginning and the final one, you could see the work done in such a short time.

Q> Would you work again on a musical project like Vapor?

BRANDON> Of course, with the experience gained throughout the project and with other similar projects, I would like to be able to work on another similar project. Not exactly only in the urban genre, the visual effects can be in any musical genre.

NICOLAS> Of course I would! The project represented a professional challenge from which I learned a lot. I also hope that there will be many more projects like this with artists of the same stature as Rauw Alejandro, Wisin y Yandel.