Lost In Translation

Shortly before I joined the Director's Guild, I was given an opportunity by my good friend Mark. He was producing two commercials for S-Oil, and asked me to 1st AD both spots. S-Oil is the Korean version of Exxon, and so the commercials had very big budgets.

I have always enjoyed being the 1st AD on a commercial, and this job involved beautiful Irish dancers and two teams of cheerleaders.

At first, I wondered why he didn't want to assistant direct it himself. On the scout day, I found out why.

The entire creative team (Director, Agency Creatives, Director of Photography) were all from South Korea and they spoke little to no English. The director was only able to say "No" and "Cuto". The whole shoot went something like THIS.

It took quite a while for someone to post these on youtube.com, but a friend sent me the links the other day. I think they both turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. I definitely like the cheerleader one better than the dancer spot.






I am fairly sure that I have a gray hair or two from this job. I cannot begin to tell you how hard it is to coordinate cheerleaders and dancers into moving car formations. However, it truly was an enjoyable challenge and I know I will remember it for the rest of my life.