Behind the scenes with the 'king of Latin Pop'
Earlier this year I travelled to Panama to create a behind the scenes video for the latin pop track 'Duele El Corazon' by Enrique Iglesias.
The main music video production was supported by a team of over two hundred people. By contrast, the production crew for behind the scenes is extremely minimal. In this case, just two people. Myself, and production manager / drone pilot Yasha Malekzad.
We spent seven days in Panama. Five pre-production days and two shoot days. Day 1 was solely based in the Sarigua National Park desert. We had some forewarning about the potentially difficult shooting conditions - intense heat, bugs, dust, risk of dehydration, low flying helicopters, the list goes on. Upon arrival I immediately applied copious amounts of sun screen. Three minutes later a helicopter took off just 50m away. I can only describe it as being tarred and feathered, but instead of lovely soft feathers it was like clay mixed with oily sun screen.
With no showers in sight, we persevered. No chance of changing lenses (the camera was caked too). Luckily I had started out with a lens I can shoot all day on - the Canon 24-105 f4 IS.
Filming in the desert, woefully unprepared for the dust kicked up by the choppers.
Photo credit: Yasha Malekzad
Final setup in the desert.
Photo credit: Yasha Malekzad
Another challenge on this particular project was language. My grasp of Spanish isn't as good as others, but there are two key phrases any behind the scenes filmmaker should learn in every language. They are: "What's going on?" and "What are you doing?"
Nail those two and you are in business. Dealing with the edit, that's something else entirely..
The view from the top of the Panama World Trade Centre
Photo credit: Yasha Malekzad
Ronin-M and Easyrig at the Heliport
Photo credit: Yasha Malekzad
Occasionally it needs a little re-balance, especially when the light is really good..
Photo credit: Yasha Malekzad