Vaseline Life Of Skin

The Skinny

As the ‘Voice Of Authority’ on all things skin, Vaseline created a presenter who could relate to women and what they went through. In the TVC, the presenter would ‘stop the world, and draw attentions to skin issue situations, deliver an insight, and then offer constructive p roduct related advice.

The idea was conceived by the BBH Vaseline Team in partnership with the Vaseline Asia and Global team. The global ‘Keeping Skin Amazing’ concept was tailored to work with the particular sensibilities of the Asia market. Primary markets were across South East Asia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia.

The Production

The location of shoot for this TVC is the Hall of Fame, ABAC University in Bangkok. As it is was a University, it was vital to have a proper plan to ensure everything went smoothly. Each department had to be exceptionally organized as there was no room for mistakes in a location with so many restrictions. There was also a limited time for preparation at the location. Therefore, everyone needed to have a very well mapped out plan and schedule to work with.

As it was an indoor shoot, there were no problems with weather conditions. However, there was a need to work with a very high ceiling in a large space - which caused more difficulty. It was also time consuming to hang so many big lights such as concert lighting on location.

The camera used for the project was the Arri 435 and Mitchell with motion control. The reason why the motion control cameras were used was because there was a need to track the camera to show all 14 days (different outfit, hair style in each two days) of the presenter (Sherry) in freeze position and to show the benefits of the product – proving a difference to skin over 14 days.

The choice of shooting format was 35 mm. The advantage of using 35 mm film is that this is in fact the best format to shoot skin, with results in very high image quality. The obvious disadvantage is the cost - depending on the amount of filmstock used.

According to Big Blue Production, it was a huge challenge to work on this TVC as everything needed to run like clockwork, without a glitch due to location restrictions. There were many challenges during the shoot’s preparation, especially with making every shot look good and memorable.

The particular scene that Big Blue Production find most memorable would be the motion control shots, which tracked the camera to reveal all 14 days of the presenter’s skin improvement.

Big Blue Production noted that the look and feel that the director and DP were going for was essentially a busy fashion show backstage ending with a glamorous fashion show. So lighting, location, fashion, people and the collection had to look slick and glamorous. The director worked/monitored closely with everyone in the production team and made sure every single detail was in place to get the right look and feel for the TVC.

The Post

Blackmagic Design assumed key responsibilities for the 6 weeks post production process.

Autodesk Flint; Autodesk Maya; Softimage|XSI and mental ray were utilized for the project.

The workflow for this project are: offline – colour grading – rotoscoping & retouching – 3D animation – online compositing & finishing. Offline and grading were done in Thailand.

According to Blackmagic Design, one of the most memorable scene is the first moment of the freeze effect. “This scene was shot in many different plates and in post, we took those plates, played around with them and came up with the best combination. So in here, you can see how motion transitions to freeze effect with added motion blur and 3D detailing. It basically encapsulates all the visual effects that the spot is featuring,” said a spokesperson for Blackmagic Design. ASIAIMAGE