Action Coordinator for Durex Commercial for World Health Day

So it seems that the folks over at Reckitt Benckiser (Dettol, Durex, Air Wick, Clearasil, Lysol) enjoyed our Kung Fu FAQ video to the point that they wanted us to shoot a Durex commercial for them.

The original concept was a little more risque, but since it was for the China audience and for the World Health Day, the concept blended with a few other ideas and became more light-hearted and informative. We decided to shoot it all on in one shot so all the timing had to be perfect. The commercial uses some comedy and exaggeration to show facts about the health benefits of sex. In the commercial there is one stunt where Doctor Hsing (played by myself) smacks a patient in the rib to test the bone density of a patient. According to research those who have regular sex develop stronger bones.

As the action coordinator for our studio, I was in charge of getting the wood and testing out the gag before the day of the shoot. We had to find the right kind of boards, prep them, and then decide on the best way to shoot it. The day of the shoot we protected the actor who was taking the hit, but for some reason I decided to test out how it would feel without any protection. See the results of my test below:

Yeah, it was like a huge slap on my bare back except more painful.

The day of the shoot I was the one swinging the board.

Since all the lines, all the timing, and all the boards had to break perfectly as the camera glided across the track, it was not a one take feat. We actually got some really good takes by the 5th take, but we ended up using the last take. For some reason on the last take that wooden plank wouldn’t break so I had to keep smacking it! The director and durex producer liked that so we went with that one. Check out the commercial below:

Above we have the director imitating how the dinosaur should just freak out and try to shock the patient. This gag illustrates that after sex you are much more relaxed and stress levels decrease. You may or may not have noticed, but the dinosaur is internet sensation Mike Sui – Beijing locals will recognize him for his viral video where he does a bunch of Chinese dialect accents that spread across the internet. See the clip that made it all happen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HENoGStC6As

Here is a final shot of our main doctors wrapping up the health benefits of sex and thanking everyone for taking a look at the Durex research lab. =)