Journey of Light Krathong Sai

The Skinny

Thai Airways assigned Lowe Bangkok to invent a TVC for a new campaign, which would be publicised around the globe. The objective is to persuade international travellers around the world to

fly on Thai Airways’ network, and to project Thai Airways’ unique service, warmth and friendliness.

The story uses Krathong Sai as a device to bring the viewer to every destination with grace and beauty, because the krathong is a traditional Thai cultural symbol, which visually and emotionally represents smoothness and happiness in every journey.

Beginning at a waterfront pavilion (by the Chao Praya River) opposite Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), one of the most important architectural relics in Thailand, two flight attendants light up candles in Krathong Sai and release them into the water, to flow from Bangkok through Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe & America, attracting the attention of locals along the way.

As they are exposed to the symbolic beauty and feeling of travel on Thai Airways, their faces express the satisfaction that represents travelers whose hearts have been captured by the service of Thai Airways. The flowing Krathong Sai come together and form a large world map which represents the network of more than 70 important destinations in five continents.

The Production

The TVC was shot on Arri 435 with Cooke S4 Prime lenses, with a shooting format of full gate 1:33. The location of the shoot was the Moon Star Studio and Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, Thailand. During the shoot, the water was rough at Chao Phraya River, so the camera had to be on a larger boat for added stability. It rained on the second day of the shoot and the park scene had to be set up in the studio.

A lot of lights were used in the studio to light up the pool of krathongs. There was thus a need to suspend a huge white cloth (30m x 30m) to soften the lights. In addition, lighting for several talent shots were quite tricky since there was a need to set lights on platforms in the pool.

The first challenge of working on the project was the need for suitable stock footage prior to shooting and to mix and match them with live footage on set using the Diva machine. The second challenge was the construction of a pool of water in the studio (25m x 25m). Working around such big pool of water slowed things down, especially arranging the krathongs for almost every shot. The third challenge the shoot of the Chinese girl in the boat. It took several hours to setup as the camera on the crane had to move together with the boat.

The Post

Oriental Post assumed key responsibilities for the eight days of post-production process. They did 1 lite transfer of all 35mm materials, which were offline edited. Using the offline EDL, the selected shots were graded. The final grade session took about seven hours. Online took four days by utilizing 2 Flame suites. Spirit Datacine with Da Vinci 2K Plus was used for telecine colour grading. Two systems of Flame 2008 were used for online.

The workflow for this project included using the 35mm Da Vinci 2K Plus/Spirit DataCine to do 1 lite transfer for the 35mm footage, offline editing with Avid, Telecine final grading of selected shots, and final step of using 2 x Flame 2008 suits for online where the conform and composite work were achieved.

Oriental Post tried to make the FX shots ‘seamless’ so nobody could see the ‘trick’ of the effects. The overall image looked real. To achieve various shots, Oriental Post needed second pass transfer elements, which were combined to create the final look. There were additional tracking and stabilisation to smooth out various shots.

Besides tracking elements and compositing material into stock footage, maintaining the correct perspective was also a challenge. However, all FX requirements were achieved and completed with absolute satisfaction, according to Oriental Post. With the production and post production’s team effort plus the FX team on site to assist in the shoot, “the end result speaks for itself,” said a spokesperson from Oriental Post.