We were asked by a small tech company called Chargespot to create a few videos for them. Chargespot has little stations setup all over Asia in restaurants, airports, shopping malls, nightclubs, train stations, etc. with portable phone battery chargers that you can rent by the hour or by the day, for a small fee. We made a few videos consisting of dozens of quick shots of Chargespot locations from across Japan, Taiwan, Hongkong and Thailand, as well as some animations of the Chargespot charger bays. One of the videos we were tasked to create was a 15 second image video that could be at point-of-purchase, usable across multiple countries, without relying on language to express the message. It was important to the brand to do something kind of funny, or at least something light and entertaining, as opposed to strictly "informative", and also had to be aimed at their demographic, which was primarily 18-28 year old urban youth. Our little team brainstormed, trying to come up with some simple and entertaining scripts for a 15 second video that could express the key communication points without needing speaking or onscreen text. After some back and forth with the client in Japan, we settled on a written script, and made a basic storyboard. The premise was that the new improved Chargespot battery stations were so fast, that you could scan the QR Code, and get your battery within seconds, which was a big improvement over the earlier model. So if some cheesy guy is annoying you at a club, you can get your charger and be gone before he is able to corner you. The storyboard had about a dozen pictures, but here are a few of them:
As this was a low budget commercial, we needed to take that into consideration during all aspects of the preproduction. Instead of using our limited budget on a casting process, we suggested some actors that we were already familiar with as the two leads, Sophie Liu and Archie Hu, and fortunately the client loved them.
The client wanted us to shoot at a location that actually uses their product, so after some scouting and communicating, we settled on a funky coffee shop that they suggested, located in Taipei. The setting was relatively interesting and didn't need much in terms of art, but they had a very limited time for us to shoot. They wanted us to be in and out with 4 hours, so our shooting schedule had to be very tight. We also decided not to have much camera movement at all, both to save time, and also because our total video was only 15 seconds, including ending logo, so each cut was a maximum of 1-2 seconds, and would not really benefit from excessive camera movement. We got 8 extras from an agency to make the coffee shop feel full. Choosing the extras and their wardrobes helped us curate the overall vibe of the location for virtually no cost. We added a little haze in the air, and some basic lighting... and ACTION!
We found the ugliest shirt in all of Taipei for Archie to wear, to fit with his over-the-top character.
Sophie already looks quite stylish and cool, and is an expert at rolling her eyes, so it was easy for her to get into character.
We made a slightly longer 25 second version for online use. Here is that longer version, edited together with our storyboard pictures:
The client was really happy with how the final video turned out, and the 15 second version is playing on the screens of thousands of Chargespot stations across Taiwan, Japan, Hongkong, and Thailand.
Here is the final short version:
Taiwan Taipei Video production commercial film producer director cinematographer videographer fixer digital marketing agency preproduction production postproduction Video interview photo photographer creative agency studio video production Taiwan Taipei Kaohsiung Taichung Taijung Taibei animation corporate film 巴克影像台北台灣影片製作公司 制作 影片 剪接 後製 宣傳影片 商業攝影、廣告、拍攝、行銷影片、產品簡介影片、企業形象影片、微電影、紀錄片 創意 影像 創意 影像 台灣 導演美術指導訪談廣告影片後製作新北市