Making of a print adIdeas experts and talents come beautifully together in the creation ofadvertising campaigns FRANCIS DASS observes a photo shoot up close

IT was a gloriously beautiful and sunnymorning and the team was already hardat work when I walked in on them mid

morning in a house in Dasa Sri HartamasKuala Lumpur

The buzz of the busy atmosphere wasthe result of a photography session forthe print advertisement involving a globalbeverage giant It was still the very earlystages of the campaign

The man of the moment talant was

Owen Yap a TV8 newscaster whilethe photographer was the multi awardwinning Mak Kah Heng 41 of the famousphotography collective Untold ImagesSdn Bhd

Mak has won awards at the advertisingindustry s Kancil Awards in Malaysia aswell as internationally

Yap is one of the fastest rising freshfaces in the world of television today

June will see many programmesfeaturing Yap aired over 8TV and NTV7and also high profile columns in Chinesedaily Sfn Chew JIt Poh

What was most interesting aboutthe photo shoot was that the team 10people including talent and photographerseemed to have the routine down pat

They have all joined forces beforeThey include Rebecca Ooi the

producer of the print advertisement whois a line producer at Untold Images

The assembled team comprisedcrew members of photography outfitUntold Images the advertising agency srepresentatives in this case McCannErickson Malaysia and fashion stylists

What was most illuminating about thephoto shoot was the respect shown by allfor ideas that were driving the occasionEveryone was accommodating and highlyprofessional

Mak was respectful of and deferentialto the talent Yap as he was of theagency folks like Sonny Low associatecreative director at McCann and also tohis own colleagues from Untold Images

Everyone was at the appointed houseat 7am and they went about setting upthe lighting equipment

Yap who arrived soon afterwas readied for the shoot bythe hair and fashion stylists andphotography started after that Thescenario Yap enjoying his mug ofdrink

Yap was positioned accordingto the story boardedideas standingnear the gardenseated near the

door etc withprecision andthe young manexpertly didas he was

directed byMak and Low

Lean forward Your

eyes are looking upyour eyes are lookingdown now Mak gentlyinstructed his model

Express yourself Mak then saidas he peered into his Mamiya digitalcamera

Low too had his input Breathe in thearoma give us a slight smirk verysubtly

At times Mak would defer to Low andask Do you want the eyes to look upto which Low confidently would reply

No that s fineWhile Mak was in action Low and

his team were intently monitoring theinstantaneous digital images on a laptopcomputer placed on a table nearby

Occasionally Mak and Low could beheard conversing

Mak How is it

Low Good There s one nice shothere

Armed with meticulous eyes Lowwould spot things in the photo shoot thatothers would have easily missed

We don t want the building to bevisible in the background Low pointedout and Mak dutifully tilted the cameraangle slightly to accommodate

Everyone had a specific role WhileOoi kept time and issued instructionsas to when a particular shot was to be

wrapped up there were four shots theteam was trying to capture on cameratagged appreciation consumptionlifestyle and candid others like

Mak s assistant Andrew Wong 23 wassteadfastly monitoring the computer

His task was to keep Mak on the ballas to how the shots were turning out

FYI Each shot comprised tens ofphotographs which were meticulouslychoreographed both technically andartistically

The stylists too responded swiftly toany needs a scar on Yap s right browwas expertly touched up within secondsby make up artiste Joey Lau while stylistDarren Siew whipped out a steam ironto make sure that the wardrobe was in

perfect condition before Yap wore themWhen everyone wrapped up the photo

shoot session before 4pm the team tookoff to Untold Images office to do someclose up shots of the product and talent

They only called it a day late at nightAnd the companion television

commercial is in the works and will beshot soon

fdass@yahoo com