A Tale of Two Apps...

The brief was to create 3 different edits, showcasing the HK Disneyland Park app, PhotoPass app, and one edit that would combine both. Pressed by the upcoming holiday season, we had to pull the whole production - storyboarding, location scouting, talent sourcing - in just a couple of weeks. Shooting from sunrise to sunset on one of the hottest days of the year certainly added another level of difficulty, but made it happen.

During post-production, the challenge was to tell a story that demonstrated the two different apps' functionalities without being too long or confusing, and up to Disney's high standards.
 

We had two days to shoot all the footage necessary for three different edits - hotel, food & beverage and spa. Therefore, to avoid disrupting the guests at Banyan Tree Macau, it was essential that we planned production down to the smallest detail. Storyboarding each scene was crucial to maximising our time at each location. Our movements had to be carefully coordinated with access location limited to specific times during the day. 

Admittedly though, it was the first time talents asked for more takes. 

If you thought you could escape from your electronic devices when playing sports, think again! Coachbase's neat app is making its way onto the best basketball courts around the world.

In this 60 second explainer we needed to feature the app's extraordinary ease of use, so we put it to work in real-life.

We based our story around the character of a full-time professional / part-time coach, switching between third and first-person perspectives. To do this we built a custom "iCamera" rig to track the app while our actor was on the move.

Oh, and casting a team of American-looking teenagers in Hong Kong during the summer holidays was not the least of our challenges...

How could we turn a classic case of corporate need into a piece of entertainment?
How could we engage an audience of existing customers with the details of the whole of La Rose Noire's processes?
We turned the story upside down! Instead of highlighting the positive points of production, we lead the audience into a dramatic exploration of LRN operations from the perspective of hired investigators.
For what was a rather dark movie, we had to come up with a positive resolution to ensure the audience came away informed and satisfied.
 

AsiaSat was launching their new corporate branding initiative, and needed a video to broadcast their revamped identity and reaffirm their business positioning.

Shot in 4K/Ultra HD over just a few days, we were particularly challenged by consistently bad weather over Hong Kong, so the time-lapse involved a lot of composition magic to look glorious.

For this Fall/Winter 2013 and third installment of One Central Macau‘s promotional movies, following Gaile Lai and Donnie Yen, it was no less impressive to work with Mainland China’s Megastar Huang Xiao Ming.

A renowned actor, singer and model with over 20 Millions followers on Weibo, brand ambassador for Tissot and ridiculously good looking, Huang Xiao Ming turned out to be very friendly and easy to work with. This was crucial as the whole movie was shot in just half a day since we had to share time with the photographer and keep the excited fans at bay.

But as Huang Xiao Ming played the game, reacting very positively to our direction, we were able to wrap the whole movie just in time for sunset on the One Central Macau promenade.

Chef Alvin Leung chats about his innovative culinary philosophies of “Xtreme Chinese” cuisine, Bo Innovation, and where he finds inspiration in and around his hometown of Hong Kong.

Bo Innovation is Alvin’s restaurant in Hong Kong where one can experienced his “Xtreme Chinese” cuisine. It has been awarded 2 Michelin Stars, and with his tattooed chefs, Zen décor, and impeccable service, the experience there is unlike any other. 

Being nominated in 3 categories at the prestigious the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) 2014 Annual Awards is quite an achievement, but this was only the beginning for Knight Frank because they only had days to piece together their 45-second video submission per category nomination.

We got a call just a week before Chinese New Year. That’s right; THE Chinese New Year that paralyses the entire region for a full week. By experience we knew that submissions would be judged on hard facts contained in the printed submission. However, we knew that we had to create something fresh and bold for the fastidious jury panel. Moreover, win or lose, we wanted the videos to steal the show!

So we proposed to intertwine 3 athletic disciplines with the 3 categories in order to surprise, delight, and leave a long-lasting impression. It was a risky pitch, but we were pleasantly surprised to receive the full trust and creative support from KF.

“Big thanks to you and your team in producing such high quality videos! We got two [out of three] of the awards nailed – Residential and the Professional Services. The videos were the talk of the town last night and we received big compliments in terms of our out-of-the-box presentation of our teams.”
Natalie Tsui, Head of Marketing & Communications - Knight Frank 

Chef Umberto Bombana tells us about culinary inspiration, Marc Chagall’s painting, and stealing cherries…

8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana is an Italian restaurant in Alexandra House, Central. In 2012 it became the only Italian restaurant outside of Italy to receive 3 Michelin Stars.

Classic Fine Foods is the market leading importer and distributor of fine ingredients, serving the vast majority of five-star hotels and high-end restaurants in Asia, with an expanding presence in the Middle East and Europe.

To pay tribute to their favourite Chefs, CFF have started a “World’s Top Chefs series”, with a first movie about Alvin Leung from Bo Innovation.

Creating a second installment for this series was a challenge for us as we wanted to take a different approach, maintaining the same level of quality and consistency required to build a series.

Needless to say, we had a lot of fun creating this video! We will let you be the judge: if you watch this video and your taste buds do not respond, either you've just eaten or we failed.

We would like to thanks Opera Gallery Hong Kong for their support.

A jewellery box of handmade heart-shaped chocolates,
2,000 premium Ecuadorian red roses,
a fleet of 14 Rolls Royce Phantoms,
set amongst a breathtaking view of Victoria Harbour...

... all converge to create a timeless moment of gastronomic excellence and romance.

2015 marked the 5th anniversary of Landmark's flagship "Boutique Boulevard" event, brings the music and fashion worlds together for a glamorous celebration.

Flown in especially for the occasion was singer and style icon, Rita Ora, whose performance of chart-topping hits had guests dancing the night away.

Covering such an action-packed evening spread across Landmark's 5 buildings and 80 participating boutiques required careful time and resource management.

Additionally, we provided photographic coverage throughout the evening.

How do you represent a company with a global presence?
You get people from all around the world to talk about it.

So, we created six mini-stories ideally portraying a business club manager in New York City, a golf club manager in Singapore, a catering manager for a fashion event in Paris, a six-star hotel manager in Dubai, an executive chef in Sydney, and a royal banquet official in London.

We love a challenge and Gammon has always made sure to raise the stakes when it comes to testing our shooting and story-telling abilities.

This year we turned our lenses towards the one's who make such iconic infrastructure possible: those unsung heroes, the unamed workers, and their commitment to the Gammon promise.

We used the workers' daily Qigong practice as a storyline, and created a double exposure aesthetic to show them as an essential part of the construction process.

It seems that the sky is the limit for Gerard Dubois and his loyal team...
To celebrate the launch of their (already very successful) second shop in Tsim Sha Tsui, La Rose Noire asked us to produce a video that would reflect their long-term vision.
With shop rental being the major hurdle for any brand expansion in Hong Kong this video is primarily geared to seduce property owners.

A 3-minute compilation of 9 movies that Filmages produced for UK Trade & Investment’s “Business Opportunities in Asia-Pacific” campaign.

Our challenge was that we had only 2 days to shoot in each country over a 4-week period. During this time we endured the rapidly changing Asian summer monsoon season. Surviving no less than 4 typhoons, we directed the interviews in a plethora of places, skillfully managing our shooting schedule throughout these chaotic conditions. 

Additionally, editing each segment to promote the uniqueness of each country, finding 8 music tracks to match, whilst maintaining the overall consistency of the series was a tough nut to crack. Eventually, the entire post-production process for the 9 edits was then completed in 8 weeks.

“Very passionate, creative and dedicated team with lots of ideas and suggestions. We are very pleased and impressed with the video teasers Filmages has done for us. Two thumbs up.” Meeta Dancel, Marketing Manager – UK Trade & Investment, Asia Pacific & South Africa

Platinum Winner - AVA Awards 2010

How many steps does it take to get married?
According to Hongkong Land, only 53.

This shoot was particularly challenging, as we had to adapt and overcome the conditions placed on us by the Photo-shoot and Mother Nature.

In shooting a behind the scenes of a photo shoot, we must discreetly capture every aspect of the photo shoot, without ever delaying or disturbing the primary shoot.

The Challenge: Cosmo Supply Lab is a leading manufacturer of mix-material accessories, mostly for “Who Shall Not Be Named”. So we had to show without showing, explain without being specific, demonstrate without end products, yet convince uncompromisingly.
Yeah.

HK Tramways was bought out in April 2011 by a French JV between RATP (the Parisian MTR) and Véolia Transportation. Most low income people were worried that foreign investment would take advantage and raise fares. The general public was also very worried about the future of their beloved Ding-Ding. So far the new management has been very respectful of the tradition and is doing its best to modernize the fleet whilst remaining the lowest travel fare in Hong Kong.

With a limited budget and enormous logistical constraints due to the nature of the railways lines, Filmages chose to portray the evolution of the city and its architecture by following the same woman through 4 distinct eras:
- Pre-WWII (1904-1945) with elegant Cheongsam or Qipao
- The 50s and 60s, with the emergence of a growing female working force
- The eccentric 70’s
- Modern-day with a natural look with a touch of Chinese silk tradition.

Special thanks to Charlot Kryza (Stylist), Jan (Model) & Jojo (Hair & Make-up)
Another version of that movie was created for the Hong Kong Tramways 110th Anniversary
 

Kids are kind of like squirrels. They might be cute, but they’re fast and unpredictable too.

So, to film this Danone - Cow & Gate TVC Behind The Scenes with children we had to be very alert, and engage in their games to be in sync and capture their magic moments.

As of July 10, 2015, on Cow & Gate HK's YouTube Channel this video had reached 146,719 views, making it their second most popular video behind the heavily promoted related TVC itself; 240,675 views.

Datasource International, is a company who specializes in translation services. They contacted Filmages to help them develop a new brand campaign with video as a spearheading component.

Leaving a rainy Scotland, our hero arrives in Hong Kong, and enjoys the cultural shock before adapting to his new life…

Collaborating with the very talented illustrator Harry Harrison (SCMP, Wall Street Journal), we concentrated all our efforts on animating his two-dimensional drawings.

We intially received them in black and white, then applied various composition tricks to bring elements of cinema to the illustrations. Additionally, we supplied the storyboards, sound effects and Scottish voice over.

Two weeks, roughly 160 drawings and several coffee breaks later, we delivered a unique anniversary video for a private event hosted by Eventsman.

Nice footage and good music makes for a pretty easy editing process, but we wanted to go a bit further and really bring the best out of those ingredients.

After some serious colour grading, we created engaging text animated with a mix of motion tracking and crafted transitions to convey the dynamic and excitement of regatta as if the audience was at sea.

Data is flowing faster than many organizations can manage. We produced a teaser video to attract I.T. executives to download a white paper on big data, converged systems, virtualization, cloud computing and so on...

A bit of a dry topic? Well, we managed to develop an original and catchy animation to raise the eyebrows of busy I.T. experts.

Our ITX character is simple, yet tells a rather complex story with basic movements and facial expressions.

One month later; a jazzy tune, casual voice over, an eye-catching color scheme and some delicate transitions bring the Hitachi Data Systems' technical findings to life.

 

We went behind-the-scenes and captured the glamour of a high-end photo shoot, and as usual we had to work discreetly around the photographer.

Back in the edit room we decided to highlight specific elements of fashion by using a magnifying graphic system. This allowed us to showcase details on accessories, wools, and furs and show how breathtaking winter fashion truly looked like. 

We cooked up some anticipation for the Mapic event held in Cannes, France.

To contrast the strict and practical expectations of a corporate evening we came up with an original approach that would surprise and entertain the attendees.
With animation we displayed the award process as a recipe, really attracting the attention of the crowd.  Using simple, yet strong design, with some special sound effects, the metaphor lighted some sparkles in the audience and really set the tone for the rest of the night.

Et voilà!

In the age of attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, 140 max-character IMs, and 15-seconds video clips, watching a 12-minute long documentary might seem like a sizeable task. But there are people who dedicate their lives to saving others, and that doesn't happen in a snap.

Hong Kong University - Pasteur Research Centre needed a corporate documentary to present their latest activities and appeal for research sponsorship. Filmages created a whole set of communication materials, including a brochure, a website, and a 12-minute long video.

This enabled HKU-PRC to secure an endowment fund and further contribute to the fight against infectious diseases.

Ice sculptors, fire-tossing bartenders, and an indoor ski lift...

To properly commemorate Hongkong Land’s Christmas extravaganza we edited the events of the evening into contrast.
While alternating between visuals of elegance and of eccentricity we reverse paired them together with classical and heavy metal music.

Originally built in 1881, the historical site where Hullett House stands today is one of the four oldest surviving government buildings in Hong Kong. For more than 100 years it was occupied by Hong Kong’s Royal Marine Police.

To celebrate its renovation and re-opening to the public, as an ultimate lifestyle destination, we juxtaposed representations of the golden era of the 50s - a cheongsam dressed model with matching hair and make-up - next to modern day Hong Kong.

Additionally, we brought back to life old black and white postcards and, in doing so, encapsulated the rich heritage of this colonial era landmark.

Never forget where you came from. 

Long-time client La Rose Noire may have an incredibly successful global enterprise now, but they never forgot their humble beginning as a single cake shop. Although their high-demand moved them to become a wholesale manufacturer they always kept a deep love for retail.
So, in 2012 they opened the “Passion” patisserie and to promote their opening asked us to produce a social-media oriented teaser movie.

Join Nicolas Chow, international head of Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, as he introduces highlights from the September 2012 sale of Qing Imperial Monochromes from the J.M. Hu Collection.