Thailand has fast become the place producers turn to when production problems are unsolvable at home. The strengths of the industry read like a wish list – great art direction, set builds, latest gear, fastest crews, rigging, SFX, huge studios, wonderful locations, international talent and plenty of sunshine, all of which is financially viable.
To illustrate this, Indigo Asia Production’s Miles Johnson takes us through some recent productions.
Ford
Agency: GTB
Production Company: Indigo Asia Production
Director: Chris Read
Remote jungles and rivers on the Thai-Burmese border were a bit of a challenge, especially as we had a 50-tonne road crane as part of the team! The Rangers needed to be dropped in-camera, with no CG assistance, and our solution to the highly complex rigging of the drops allowed the car to land within two meters of the talent safely, accurately and with dramatic effect.
Airborne: Mr. Sniffles
Agency: Williams Lee Tag
Production Company: Smoke and Mirrors
Director: Shigeto Sayama
Bangkok offers some great locations that are hard to access in many other parts of the world. Airborne was set inside a plane so we delivered a brand new plane interior, along with a state of the art airport.
Chicken Licken: Inner Peace
Agency: BBDO Johannesburg
Production Company: Plank Films, Cape Town
Director: Peter Pohorsky
The idea was to create a parody of ‘70s martial arts films. Thailand was chosen for its exotic Chinese-looking locations, extensive martial arts skills and SFX rigging to give it the perfect mix with hilarious results.
Quick “Duck Pond”
Production Company: Bacon
Director: Kasper Wedendahl
We had to create a Japanese tea garden, Japanese subway, plane interior and a modern international city all in the centre of Bangkok. The job was quoted in China, Japan and Korea. Bangkok delivered the most on locations, casting and price.
Huawei
Agency: Guangdong Insight Brand Marketing Group – China
Production Company: Indigo Asia
Director: Yasmina Solanes
Superb art direction and choreography combined with good looking talent who can dance, all skills Bangkok has become famous for… and it didn’t cost the earth.