Meet "Jorge"

When my friend Jad asked me to attend the shoot in Beirut, first thing I asked them who is the director on the job and requested to send me his reel and his treatment for the TV spots we were about to shoot.

In my 13 years in Advertising, I received many interesting treatments from directors, but it was always couple of notes on papers with few images and sometimes couple of video references.. But what Jorge Colon sent, was a one hour video of himself talking and explaining his ideas edited with references from movies.. I was sold from the first 5 minutes, his energy and enthusiasm to get the job were very clear, and I felt he was the right guy to handle these TV spots.

And when I met Jorge in person in Beirut the chemistry was instant, and we start building on each other's ideas, and got to an agreement on most things, like the cast, the locations, the wardrobe, and I looked forward for the beginning on the shoot.

We shot for 5 long days, it was tough, it wasn't easy to deal with so many cast, speaking in Arabic, which was difficult for Jorge, but he still managed to give them great direction, and acting tricks to ensure we get from them the right emotions and the right reactions.

It was very pleasant to see Jorge on set, taking care of every little detail, keeping his energy level super high all the time motivating the crew, and taking into consideration all the feedback from the agency and trying to deliver great work.

Last day before he left Beirut, Jorge presented to us his first director's cut for the first film (we shot 8 films in 5 days), and we were very happy with the result, and even the client in Dubai was very happy with the outcome.

Jorge is based in Miami, so he left Beirut back home, after a great experience, and I hoped we work with him again in the future, and definitely meet again but maybe this time in Miami.

Check Jorge's reel and some of his great work on Jorgecolon.net.

Meet "Anju, Clevin and Ali"

Today in my post I'm not talking about new friends, but about three friends I was very happy to see in a very unexpected trip..

While in Toronto, I received a call from my friend and ex colleague Jad M. Asking me if I'm willing to fly to Beirut to attend a TV commercial filming as a freelancer as the Creative Director and his associate in Dubai were super busy with a huge presentation that is taking place at the time as the shoot. I answered "yes" on the spot without even thinking of it, as it was an opportunity for me to work on an interesting job, to see my family, to earn some extra money, and to escape the snow for few days..

And what made this trip even more exciting is catching up with great friends, coming from Leo Burnett, to attend the shoot, and here I mean Anju (TV producer), Clevin (Copywriter) and Ali (Account Supervisor)..

The work was hectic, and stressful, shooting in average 15 hours a day, but we were going out every night for dinner and drinks, evaluating the day, and laughing at some bad acting from the cast and getting a bit relaxed before going to bed to wake up very early  the second day..

Ali used to live in Toronto for years, so we had a chat about my experience so far, and where I stand so far with the job hunt..

When I thought that it might take me sometime to be on a shoot set after I left Dubai, this unexpected trip was a great experience and a real pleasure of seeing the guys, spending a week with them, and sending lots of kisses and greetings to the whole team in Dubai wishing to see them again in the very near future.