Every DP has a story about a shoot that almost went off the rails. This is one of mine. It's a story about how foresight, a deep understanding of light, and a bit of grit turned a potential disaster into a spot that AdForum would name the second-best ad in the world.
The Vision: A Magical, Ambitious Idea
The project was a Christmas spot for Pepsi in Vietnam, directed by the seasoned Keir McFarlane. The concept was magical: a several-hundred-year-old tree, decorated with glass Pepsi bottles, chiming like "Jingle Bells" in the wind. My job was to capture this enchanting scene.
The Challenge: When a Perfect Plan Meets Reality
We were shooting in a rice field near the equator, where the "magic hour" of perfect light is brutally short.
My core strategy was to shoot our wider shots during these two golden windows. Fighting the midday sun in Vietnam is a losing battle; the sheer strength of the sun combined with the high humidity simply creates a white, detail-less sky, no matter how much light you use on your foreground.
Our plan was to use the perfect natural light of sunrise and sunset, and shoot our close-ups with controlled lighting during the day.
However, the reality on set had other ideas. We discovered an enormous hornet nest, which had been impossible to spot during the location scouts as it was extremely high up in the massive tree.
Its presence brought filming to a halt multiple times. Compounding this, we were working with an inexperienced crane crew, making precise camera moves a major challenge.
By the time night fell, our careful plan was in ruins. We only had a few of our wide shots and a couple of medium shots in the can. We were missing all of our crucial close-ups.
The "What-If" Plan: A DP's Promise
This is where pre-production foresight saved us. During our prep, Keir and I had discussed this exact "what-if" scenario. I had told him, "I can light anything except the night sky."
Based on that, we had requested large, pastel-blue painted polys to be on standby, just in case. It was time to use them.
The Execution: Recreating Daylight in the Dark
As darkness fell, we began the complex task of recreating the precise quality of late afternoon sunlight from scratch.
We placed the blue polys deep in the background to create a believable "sky."
We used a combination of low-angle 6K HMI Fresnels for the warm "sunlight" and a soft toplight simulated with 4K HMI PARs bounced into a booklight setup.
We meticulously shaped the light and reflections on each bottle, shooting on the RED Epic with Master Primes.
The Result: A Seamless Success
The final film is a testament to the resilience of a great crew. Roughly 60% of the commercial, including every single close-up, was shot in complete darkness. Yet, it seamlessly matches the footage from the real magic hour.
This project is a powerful reminder that a DP's job is not just to make pretty pictures, but to be a problem-solver who can deliver the director's vision, no matter what the universe (or a hidden nest of hornets) throws at you.
You can watch the final award-winning spot here: