Sweetshop Director Campbell Hooper Reveals All on the Making of Tiger 'Crystal'
Sweetshop director Campbell Hooper recently directed Tiger's new spot 'Crystal' via Marcel Sydney.
The director discusses shooting in Asia, how he approached the script and the behind the scenes secrets behind making the piece
Read it below and discover more for yourself.
Q> How did you approach the script?
Campbell Hooper> There's a wonderful, uncomplicated simplicity to this idea all about the concept of live bright, rather than any linear idea. I approached this script really by just making it as epic as possible.
Q> The entire set looks like it's a giant art installation and a pretty epic production design. What did it take to build this?
Campbell> We looked for very specific locations all over Asia - bars, shoe stores, record shops - and built them into a virtual 3D model. From there, Guy Treadgold our Art Director set about building a street, while I blocked every shot inside the 3D software. The storyboards were essentially hand-drawn pre-viz.
Q> What feel did you want to convey with the environment?Campbell> Rendered completely in white, the street really did feel like a miniature model. It was only when we placed our cast inside it that it took on any sense of the real scale.
Q> There's a lot of paint being thrown on people. What did you use?
Campbell> After a lot of testing we ended up using natural pigments with yogurt. This gave us the viscosity to allow the pain to hold its shape without breaking apart.Q> What were the challenges with resetting for every shoot?
Campbell> Cleaning down the surfaces were a major hurdle so our art director ended up 'floating' the street and literally creating a sewage system underneath. The manholes and grills were functional as well as aesthetic elements.
Q> How did you reset the talent for each take?
Campbell> We had to have three units for each piece wardrobe, so we could reuse them for shots over the three days without hitting continuity issues. Everything from jewellery to shoes. What we realised was this totalled to 8,000 units of wardrobe.
Q> With a large production like this that took a lot of materials to build, what processes did you have in place to repurpose the assets after the shoot?
Campbell> This was something that, right from the start, we were very conscience of and put systems in place so we could recycle as much, if not all materials. We set up an auction for the wrap day of the shoot, so we could sell the props and gift away all wood and steal that was used to build the set. Anything left over was gifted to the warehouse to use for future film productions. For wardrobe, we hired people from Bangkok to wash all clothes and then gifted to the local communities around by where we were filming.
Q> The film was shot in Bangkok, what were the advantages from a production point of view of the location?
Campbell Hooper> Tiger is an Asian beer therefore our talent really needed to be Pan-Asian to represent all markets which we could only really cast up in Asia. Bangkok has great production facilities, technical equipment and crew that give 100% top service. This was imperative to be able to work with a crew that could deliver to this scale. As we have an office in Bangkok it made the process that one-step easier too.
Q> The film has a huge cast. Were there challenges in casting this many people?Campbell> No, not really as we worked with a really great casting director and Bangkok has a great Pan-Asian talent pool. The extras were great! They really gave every take 100%, the paint and explosions never phased them. It was so incredibly hot on shoot days and they were long days too. This level of professionalism is very unique to Asia.
Q> And music. What is it? Is it an existing track or composed?
Campbell> Yes we composed it through a musician called Mika.
