Desigual — Luc-Yan Picker

Well, it’s been a strange year and at this point I realize that as projects have stretched on for ages, I won’t quite be able to update this blog in order of production so I’ve decided to skip ahead to whatever job I have that’s actually been released.

Landing this project felt like a reward for cultivating good relationships and putting out work I felt proud of. Originally the job didn’t come to me, but to trusted partner in crime and confidant, Matt DeSousa. He was hired for a Desigual project as they appeared to like the esthetics of, among other things, our previous GQ films. He introduced me to the local producer and l hopped on board to direct the project, feeling pretty good about myself bringing in a job without any help, support or input from anyone at Cutters Studios.

The concept was pretty simple, Spanish fashion brand Desigual was coming to Tokyo to shoot their winter catalogue. They wanted to shoot a variety of models from tokyo and abroad in what they felt was multiple iconic Tokyo locations. I tried suggesting less typical locations but it was too late in the process and permits had already been secured. The main focus of the shoot was meant to be photography but they also wanted to capture video for a variety of social media content, which is what Matt and I were tasked to capture. Now, he and I had no desire to simply be videographers capturing a BTS and shooting over a photographer’s shoulder so we discussed how we would approach shooting in a way that would feel both fresh and deliberate.

In our first meeting, the clients explained what they wanted. Basically, we would be shooting all the looks from their catalogue, interviews with each of the talent and additional images of Tokyo. I would only be editing the first video, which was meant as a teaser for the campaign and would look similar to the previous year and they would take over for additional content. They also insisted on flash cuts as an intro because why not.

I negotiated that instead of just having models posing for us as we simply circled around them, we would make them interact with their environments in playful ways that would hopefully make it feel a little different from the average look book video.

I was pretty excited about the project. The outfits looked amazing, the cast looked fun and I saw the potential to make a film that would look really good for my reel. It was a much bigger production than anything I had experienced until then and I tried my best to avoid looking like I was out of my depth.

I went location scouting with the production team and some people from Desigual’s marketing and things got off on the wrong foot. The video team was definitely an after thought for the client and so the Desigual person in charge of us was very inexperienced and yet somehow, very authoritative. They had a very clear idea of what they wanted and would absolutely not budge from there. The first thing she said to me was: “I saw the shooting plan you made and I decided we would do none of that. They just need to stand and pose with the camera moving around them.”

Sit here, we’ll just move around you or something.

Luckily, we also spent time with her boss, who had a much more collaborative approach to work and so we came out of the location scout feeling optimistic.

The shoot proved difficult. They were long days and lots of outfits. We didn’t really have much freedom and at times, it felt like it would be better had I not been there. I think the client was used to working with a single videographer with a DSLR on a gimbal that would just shoot whatever they would point him towards. I was also told I would not be conducting the interviews as previously agreed and that the video supervisor would be doing it with an interpreter.

After the first day, I felt disappointed. It was like I had to wait for the client to stop looking at us to start being able to shoot something interesting and that made it pretty awkward. It reached a point where the cast would ask me, in Japanese of course, what was wrong with the client and said she was so intense it made them feel weird.

The first AC, who has much more experience than Matt and I seemed to be in disbelief and actually suggested we just walk away. We didn’t walk away but still spend unmistakably long moments bitching about the client instead.

Our second location was Nonbei Yokocho in Shibuya. A notoriously difficult location even with a permit. They will let you shoot, but only with a tiny amount of people. Like 2 or 3 and will kick you out if they feel you are disturbing their business in anyway. Now keep in mind, each shop on the street is owned by different people so you only have to piss off one of them, which we inevitably did. We wrapped the shoot after having captured less than half the looks we had planned.

The second day, was a little better. Not because the behavior improved, but because by then, we knew what to expect. Just get whatever shots she wants as quickly as possible and then step away with the cast and try something else. We wanted to portray the cast, but also the locations in a different way than they were typically shown. We got them dancing, moving around and just generally look for fun ideas together and I think it helped us get great footage.

And this is before Covid made fashionable masks a thing.

It wasn’t all perfect however. Some shots had to be captured at specific times because of the sun’s position and we kept having to fight for those shots. The client kept trying to change what we were shooting. Even if I told her that we can shoot what she wants after but that we had a small window to hit first, she would go to Matt, requesting the same thing and hoping for a different response which inevitably ended with Matt telling her to talk to me. In the end she insisted on changing our angle for an interview, forcing the model to do her interview with the blinding sun in her face, making her squint the whole time.

We had another challenge on that day. One of our location was a rooftop in Shinjuku and one of the cast was a very famous Japanese model that came with many rules about how she was to be portrayed, including how her hair could never be out of place. There were also rules about the director and the photographer were the only ones who could give her direction. The client proceeded to introduce herself as the director, to my predictable dismay. This was also the period when Tokyo started testing new flight paths over Tokyo. Between the wind moving the model’s hair and the planes flying overhead every 2 minutes, the interview too much longer than originally planned and ended up pushing back the schedule by a lot but we eventually got everything we needed.

The third day was a mess but for new reasons this time. One of the cast member showed up 2 hours late and said he had to leave 30 minutes later. He had obviously not slept and was clearly on a come down. Luckily, one of the PAs happened to be a model and he hopped in to take his place.

There was some miscommunication with the cast as apparently they were told they would only be needed for 20 minutes, when in fact they were expected to be there all day. This caused a bit of a fuss with some of the cast and they were generally unhappy. Two of them, who were a couple, actually walked off the set after the client kept trying to make them kiss in the middle of a crowded street in Akihabara. I had never seen that before.

The relationship with the client also hit a new low. We were shooting a scene with a lovely chubby drag queen and the client kept insisting that we shoot her from below because she liked how the ceiling looked. I told her that was a bad idea as we are trying to make the talent look their best and that would be unflattering. She then placed her hands on the camera (a very heavy, handheld fully kitted out Red Monstro) and started pushing down on it to change the angle, because that’s apparently a thing one does on set. With that failing, she went away and I thought we would be OK, for at least a while. I got approached by the local producer a few minutes later, telling me that the client had complained about me and said I wasn’t listening to her. I responded that although I enjoy collaborating, my main responsibility is to the product and not babysitting an overzealous client. To which he said: “Come on dude, I know she’s a lot to take, but make it easy for everyone.” He had a good point but looking back, I’m confident that pushing back against nonsensical requests allowed us to make a better film in the end.

The edit process was a little tricky. I had given myself about a week to edit but I was unable to get access to an editing bay at Cutters and thus couldn’t work directly with my assistant. I ended up working on an assist machine in a room being used by a team working on a pitch with the studio’s managing director. Someday, I will take the time to express what I think about him but for now, I will only say that no one could ever accuse that guy of being considerate. They blasted music, had loud shouting meetings and discussions, while I was desperately trying to edit. In the end I was only able to make progress late at night after they had left. We ended up working all night before finally sending the edit. There wasn’t too many comments and we were able to finish the post on schedule. The client tried to get additional rounds of revision, but the budget was so low that we were able to push back and deliver on time.

Although the edit wasn’t terrible, I felt that it didn’t really make the best use of the footage we had fought so hard for. I worked on a director’s cut and asked Karol from Cutters to color it. It took a long time for him to get around to it but I really like the color he did on it. A few months later, our online assistant finally got around to it and almost a year after the shoot, I finally had it completed, and ready for my reel.

What went wrong:

I did not manage to clarify my role with the client right away. I think we could have avoided a lot of pain had we simply managed to set a good work flow with the client. I should have grasped what kind of person I was working for earlier and set their expectations better. She thought she was working with a videographer with a DSLR, not a director / DOP duo. We wanted to elevate the project above what they were used to and we should have communicated that better. That one person from the client side didn’t feel listened to and respected and no one should feel like that on set.

That being said, I really didn’t feel good during and after the shoot. I felt like a complete doormat and I was really embarrassed to have been treated this way in front of a crew composed of people I have a lot of respect for.

What went right:

Ultimately, we did manage to elevate the project and make what I believe to be something far better than anything they had been putting out until then, or since quite frankly. I spent time getting to know the cast, going out of my way to introduce myself before the shoot, cracking jokes and aiming to make them comfortable. This proved really helpful as they quickly picked up on the weird dynamic and were keen to help Matt and I get better, more interesting footage, even if it meant they would get shorter breaks. I may have spent a lot of energy pushing back against client requests, but ultimately, I feel confident that part of my job as a director is to protect the talent.

What I learned:

There is a very thin line between collaborative and turning into a doormat. You can’t collaborate if there is no baseline of respect being established. I feel that I made the right choice to stand my ground as ultimately, most of the footage that made it into the final product was all shot when we managed to get the client off our back.

This project also made my position at Cutters Studios painfully clear. Even though I was working on a paying job that I had managed to bring in myself, I wasn’t given the basic resources I was always led to believe I could expect as a Cutters creator. I had to fight to have an assistant, and even then, we couldn’t work in the same room. I could only use an assistant machine, in a space with 10 other people with no desire to be quiet. I watched my boss giving loud speeches as I tried to listen to interview footage and realized that I would never get any respect. The talk about artists needing good environments to be creative and Cutters being all about providing that comes with fine prints stating it may not apply to people not named Ryan. In the end, it’s his company so I get it, but it was an eye-opening moment for me.

Looking back, I’m actually quite proud of the end product and I am told it is directly linked to the next inquiry I got a few months later. Now that the director’s cut is finally finished, I am proud to have it on my reel.