Agency & Client

Special Group is a creative company based in Auckland and Sydney and their client is Tourism New Zealand.

 

Requirements

Special came to us with the request if we could do a quick turn around job and create an engaging, whimsical little video to celebrate International Hobbit Day 2020. It had to show a honey nut cake being made in Tasty top-down style (but more refined and Hobbit-like), shot at Hobbiton in Matamata (2 hours from Auckland) and thumb-stopping worthy.

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Solution

The brief came in on a Wednesday. We prepped the entire shoot on Thursday (including a PPM at the end of the day). Travelled down to Matamata on Friday to shoot the video and used the weekend to edit this piece together. Monday was reserved for a simple inhouse grade and sound-mix and dispatch of the files was 5 pm that day. PHEW!

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How did we make it work?

 

At The Hood, we're nifty when it comes to multi-tasking and keeping the team nimble and agile. While James was on a half-day shoot on Thursday, Felicia (a whiz at researching) pulled together references to show the actions we were after, making up a storyboard and sorting out all the art department needs. Caren was all over the production and liaising with the agency, client and Hobbiton contacts about logistics, the locations and use of further props at Hobbiton. James directed and shot the video on the day, along with the help of the team including Te Haunui who came up from Whākatane. Felicia's hands were Hobbit'y enough to feature and we used wardrobe from Hobbiton.

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We shot this piece on 2x Canon 1DX camera's, 1x rigged in top-down position while the other was available on a tripod to do more close-up and side-on shots. While we had a rough storyboard for actions, we came up with a lot of the actions on the day which was signed off by Agency and Client representatives there.