Rolling Asia

July 12, 2010

Our shoot: Emily Miller Productions was hired to provide a global payments technology client and an award-winning photographer with full-service production power.

Video and photography: spanning three Asian countries, we produced interviews and stories about real people whose lives have been transformed by digital currency — plus, b-roll captures of Singapore, Mumbai and Hong Kong.

In San Francisco: jumping across numerous time zones, we sourced and managed an international team in order to get interviewees ready, locations set and crews prepared. We booked: resourceful fixers, reliable drivers, expert sound and grip crews with topnotch equipment, talented hair and make-up artists and savvy translators. Meanwhile, we fast tracked our business visas and, for traveling equipment, packed our prized carnet.

In Asia: we cast a range of company talent, business owners and b-roll street stars — clad in pinstriped suits, swimsuits, ceremonial garb and local fashion. We scouted and secured permission to shoot a dream list of locations, from atop mountains and skyscrapers to inside transport hubs and ports. Art and antiquities shops, cinemas and cricket fields, markets and malls required Skype handshakes before our arrival and run-and-gun negotiation on the ground.

Nonstop travel demanded fearless driving, urban hiking, auto-rickshaw riding and shooting inside of an aerial cable car during a windstorm. Our conditions were near equatorial heat and humidity with a dash of air-con, and a spectrum of sunshine, fog, pollution and rain. All were tempered by Hong Kong-style coffees, spicy noodle breakfasts and an oasis of a swimming pool. When 4 weeks of production wrapped, we polished off the hottest dish of peppers and the coldest Tsingtao in Asia, and headed to Bali.

Client: Visa
Project: Currency of Progress
Director/Photographer: Michael Sugrue