Oh shoot...

I'm shooting a commercial again.

When I look back, it's hard to believe i've been in the industry for more than a decade. After stumbling into advertising even before my graduation day, it has never left my system. This is something I love doing and know will do for as long as my mind churns out ideas. Hopefully, that'll be a long, long time. Plus, my former boss told me: "You know, you'll be president of a multinational agency soon..." With a line like that, you can't help but be hooked.

The first commercial shoot I attended was during my 1st working day at Adformatix. The project was for Mamee Noodles (now a dead brand), and it was for a raffle promo. The director was Jun Austria and his AD was Ronnie Bertubin. It wrapped up after midnight, and my parents weren't to thrilled that my first day ended so late.

My first storyboard transformed into an actual TVC was for Coleman. It was a group of kids who you thought were lost in the wild but it turned out they're just camping in their backyard. Ries and Trout says that you'll never forget "first" things, and it's true in this case. Here's what I remember from my first TVC:

Title: Camping
Producer: Raul Blay/Doreen Bernal
Director: Trevor Hone
Talents: Khalil Kaimo (a last minute replacement for CJ Ramos who was doing the celebrity bit.) Charlene Getubrey, Rex Agoncillo (later did the Coke Beat TVC), Cecille Yatco.
Location: Mariposa, New Manila

Being a copywriter trainee then, everything was new and held me in awe. It was a long, arduous process but it was fun, nonetheless. I still remember the script that I wrote for it:

Every Coleman product is designed to withstand the harshness of the great outdoors,
so they can stand up to your normal, everyday use.
Coleman. Unbeliveably tough.

Voice over: Buddy Norton.

After that, I made commercial after commercial after commercial. I've actually lost count of a lot of it, maybe because they were embarassingly bad. But a lot I still remember. Like the Myra series with Eula - that wildly successful campaign. The Splendido Ad that never aired. Palmolive Aromatherapy with Bianca Araneta. KC's Palmolive Ads.

Of course, one of my latest commercials is one of the more spoofed and irritating ones:

Can you say: "Ang soppp... Ang dulas... Gandaaaahhhh"

Go Mama Ricky! You're still a star in my book.

The TVC that we're shooting now is my first board for Y&R HK and it's a really nice concept. We got a french director to shoot it, and he's doing a lovely job handling it. My colleague, George, took pics while we're shooting, and as much as I want to post it, it's confidential.

They're expecting the shoot to end around 7am tomorrow, making it a 26-hour shoot.

This is the part of the shoot that I don't miss...