It Really Does Take a Team – National Car Launching Campaign

Final image extracted from Proton's website.

It's been a while since I get to share such a huge good news back to back but who doesn't love double prosperity? This round, I am glad to be able to share a sneak peek into part of my contribution of the latest eMas 7 PHEV launch campaign working with a prestigious photography team from KL, Team Wizard—A dream team to work with for large campaigns in my opinion, because they always deliver and always go above and beyond.

While the team carries the entire campaign, I was brought in to contribute locally for the Penang leg of the shoot—frankly, quite last minute but thankfully timely enough to handle all the hiccups. The team and the agency has originally decided on having a colonial / palladian facade design building as the backplate while not being aware that building is actually Penang high court. Once I told them that, they have decided to proceed with their Plan B. But again, that too was not possible because it was under construction—only god knows how many hiccups can there be in a shoot. There were also no good enough stock content for the campaign to work. Funny enough, being someone who actively photography Penang for more than a decade, I too did not have the asset of that specific building in my library. What I had was all the other surrounding buildings.

Building for Plan B, under construction as well.

Long story short, I began digging into my library, using my knowledge and familiarity gathered from my experience, I began proposing a few locations and one of them stand out clearly which I specifically mentioned this might be your alternative. Because of how the the location could still deliver the architectural cues and spatial depth needed for the shot. Thankfully after rounds of meeting, it got approved. But again, reality decided to slap us in the face. There were ongoing construction works on site too. I am just glad that there were still enough facades from the building that I could cover so that the retoucher from Team Wizard could rebuilt and potentially make the final shot work through extensive retouching.

An image from my personal asset library shot 5 years ago.

Sunlight direction

As much as I embrace my skillsets for getting 90% of the things right in most of my frames for hospitality and industrial shoot, this is something many people outside the industry may not realise: commercial car photography or any commercial photography at this level is rarely about “one perfect frame.” It is about problem solving and making things work by collecting many pieces of perfectly shot image as building blocks.

Actual site on shoot day. Notice the construction barricades.

While the shoot for the backplate itself did not go as smoothly as we hoped. I am glad the team did such a good job (photographing the car hero image, model and retouching) that the final image came out so well! Realising the vision something I could only imagine. Not to mention credits to the creative agency for their creative direction.

Image by Allen Dang, Principal Photographer & Owner of Wizard Photography Studio. Also notice how they setup the flagging to create realistic reflections right in the studio itself. Every detail matters.

Quote the principal photographer Allen,

“It always takes a team — from location capture, retouching, lighting, to final output. Not just pressing the shutter.Building everything piece by piece. 🤝”

That statement perfectly describes this campaign. Although my contribution may seem small but being part of a production like this reminds me that every piece matters. I am genuinely grateful to Wizard Photography Studio for the opportunity and trust. It's a pleasure to be part of this national car launching campaign. At the end of the day, this campaign reinforced something simple but powerful: It really does take a team. And sometimes, the work that looks effortless is built from the most chaotic foundations.