I spent 2 hours trying to upload this video onto YouTube with my 1.5MB Qualitynet connection and I couldn’t. Finally was able to upload it by connecting my Mac to my iPhone’s 3G connection. Took around an hour but at least its finally up. Anyway this is the final cut of the new Wataniya Airways commercial which we shot 10 days ago in Beirut. I uploaded the 720p version so make sure you click the HD button or click the following link for the best resolution. [YouTube - HD]
Last week when I was in Beirut I was there for work shooting a commercial for Wataniya Airways. One of the cool things about the shoot was that we were using the Phantom HD camera. The Phantom HD is a digital camera that can shoot up to 1500 frames per second (fps) at 720p resolution or 1000fps at 1080p.
I think we were one of the first people in the region to use this camera if not the first. Anyway just to explain what shooting at high speed means or does. Generally video runs at around 24fps. So that means if you shoot 1 second of footage at the speed of 1000fps, when you play it back at regular speed of 24fps, that 1 second of footage will last around 40 seconds. What this does is allow you to capture a lot of detail in that 1 second. It’s similar to the camera used on the Discovery Show, Time Warp. If you shoot a bullet in front of a high speed camera you will be able to see it flying through the air when played back. The camera slows down time.
Since the commercial is going to get released soon I was able to get permission to post one of my favorite takes. It’s a scene of a guy dressed in a dishdasha falling back onto the bed. What I liked about this shot is the way the dishdasha moves while in the air and also how the bed ripples when the guy lands. This scene is going to be in the final commercial except we will only be using around 2 seconds of this 47 second clip. [YouTube]
Note: I am trying to get my hands on a higher resolution footage, once I get that will update this post with it.
Update: I’ve updated the video with the higher quality version. Also added the picture below of the camera on set.
I am leaving to the airport in a bit. Going to fly out to Madrid for some work and should be back Saturday. I am taking both my Nikon FE and my Sony W300 cameras. My posting habits should be normal although they will now be either late in the evening Madrid time or early in the morning. I don’t know what to expect in Spain, everything I thought was Spanish I realized was Mexican which means no Jarabe Tapatío for me!
I’ve been put in charge of our office’s redesign and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations on a company or studio I could call up for this job. If you do please post a name preferably with a website or phone number as a comment below. Thanks!
Note: My dad is an interior designer but hiring my dad for the job would look pretty suspicious to the auditors lol
My advertising agency (JWT) is currently looking to hire a Senior Art Director and a Kuwaiti Copywriter. If you’re interested send me an email and I will get back to you. [Email Me]
I am starting to sound like an old beat up record. Tomorrow I am leaving to Beirut for work and I will be there for 10 days. I am staying at a different hotel this time around, one with better Internet access and one thats also in a better location. I think I have two more trips before the summer and then things should get back to normal.
I’m leaving to London early morning tomorrow and coming back Saturday. Most of my posts the next couple of days will probably be from my phone since I am not sure yet if I am going to be taking my laptop.
I am leaving to Fujairah tonight and coming back Wednesday morning for work. When I first heard I was going to Fujairah I thought they were sending me to Fallujah in Iraq!
I really want the Herman Miller Aeron chair for my office. One of my clients has them in their conference room and the chair is super comfy. I checked on Amazon and they sell the chair for KD205 ($749). The price at the local dealer? KD420.
My advertising agency (JWT) is currently looking to hire a Senior Art Director and an Arabic Copywriter. If you’re interested send me an email and I will get back to you. [Email Me]
I was hoping to rest this weekend but it looks like thats not going to happen since I have a work related trip I need to take. Thursday I leave Kuwait around 1PM and get to Beirut at around 3. I spend the night there and next morning at 9AM I leave to London. I get to London at 1PM then the following day at 10PM I catch a flight to Bahrain where I catch another flight back to Kuwait. Its going to be really hectic but spending a day and a half in London is going to be worth it. Like last weekend I will be blogging directly from my phone which means I will be posting a lot of pictures. It should be a lot of fun.
My Gulf Air flight arrived at 7AM to Paris. Kuwait to Bahrain was a pretty lame flight, the plane was really old and the seats extremely uncomfortable. Bahrain to Paris was a completely different story. This was my first experience with sleeper seats and I love them. Now they aren’t as comfortable as real beds but they are more than enough for long night flights where you need to get some sleep. The entertainment system is crap though, its nothing like Emirates on demand system, its just the regular old system still used on Kuwait Airways flights.
After landing and checking in to the hotel we decided to do a bit of sight seeing since our first meeting was at 5PM. The weather here is great, yes its raining but I miss rain. It feels like winter and its hard comprehend how its 52 degrees in Kuwait and just 15 degrees in Paris! I should pick up my work schedule tonight and hopefully I will have some free time to do some shopping and take in the sights. [YouTube]
I have tickets to the NIN concert that is taking place on the 22nd in Ireland but I will be missing it and instead going to Paris for work. I am disappointed I will be missing out on NIN but it’s not like I am getting sent to Dubai or Beirut. I’ve actually never been to Paris before so I am really looking forward to it. I will be leaving on the 21st and coming back on the 26th. While there I will try photo blogging since with my new phone (the E61i) I can actually do that. By photo blogging I mean taking a picture from my phone and then instantly sending it to my blog. I already have a software that will do that for me and I will try it out before I leave to France to make sure its working right.
update: Here is a link to my old photo blog, before I started 248AM and Miskan. [Link]
