Naga DDB Tribal and Directors Think Thank bring “A Special Little Place” to life for DiGi, taking a look at the little details that makes a Malaysian

This year’s Merdeka Day (or Malaysian Independence Day) was a special moment for many Malaysians, because of the recent change in government through the national elections that had seen a peaceful democratic transfer of power.

Widely seen as a change from a corrupt regime that had held power for almost 61 years, this Independence Day was viewed with hope and optimism, and many brands wanted to pay tribute to this national sentiment.

How then to pay homage to Malaysia, with its diverse cultures, idiosyncracies, and quirks – a nation of food, people and a laid back can-do attitude? A nation where the modernity lives side by side with quaint back alley ‘mamak’ stalls? A nation where people come together to enjoy durian, sitting on the streets to do so? A nation that has sports figures who have dominated globally, but where people still go down to the local store market in shorts and flip-flops to chat to the local grocer?

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Alvin Teoh, ECD of Naga DDB Tribal, was keen to do something remarkably different for his client, telecommunications company, Digi.

An avid collector of Tamiya miniatures in his youth, Teoh came up with the idea that all good things about Malaysia are Malaysian Made – not just in a commercial sense, where just products are made in Malaysia – but how every moment of your childhood is uniquely Malaysian and every Malaysian hero is made in Malaysia.

“We are what we make – defined by the things we create. And Malaysia has made a long list of things that we can all be proud of as Malaysians,” said Teoh.

What if we could gather all of them in one place, in miniature, and just like the ‘Made in china’ or ‘Made in Taiwan’ marques that you see under plastic toys, we were able to label these miniature figurines as “Made in Malaysia”?

Pivotal to all of this was finding someone who could create a miniature Malaysia with enough detail and texture that could build the miniatures required. Enter retired stills photographer with penchant for detail, Eddie Putera.

Putera builds miniatures of scenes of nostalgia and Malaysiana to a scale of 1:34 and sells these incredibly detailed miniatures online via Instagram.

The creative team of Paul Lim, (Deputy Executive Creative Director), Naqib Nadhir Shamsuri (Copywriter) and Zaheer Kaisar, (Art Director) then set about conceiving a story that could be crafted into a film.

With the consent of the clients from Digi, headed by Bernard Lee, who passionately believes in the spirit of being Malaysian-made, the team then turned to Directors Think Tank to produce it.

“When we got the call from Alvin, that he had a special project for Merdeka, that involved something ‘different’ for us – we were super excited,” said director Maurice Noone.

“Shooting miniatures are always a challenge, not just because of the small scale and the extreme shallow focus, but because we were dealing with inanimate objects, how do we create emotion and feeling?”

Noone realized that sound design was instrumental to bringing the scenes to life, and Fuse Asia was brought in early to start crafting the Foley required for the scenes.

The team was particular that the sound palette had to be uniquely Malaysian and not stock library sounds. The sound of a Bread man honking his horn as he greets his customers is again uniquely Malaysian as an experience, and only sound could bring that to life.

The team at Directors Think Tank realized quickly that time was of the essence, and multiple recces were conducted together with the agency to lock down the scenes and the characters required to populate this world.

Scenes were plotted, based on reference shots of Malaysiana – whether it was people sitting in a mamak on the street in the middle of the night, or a fisherman casting a net on a river, or even 2 guys seated on a boat eating durian. These were all scenes referenced from real Malaysian scenes.

With a tight 10-day deadline to shoot, Putera worked tirelessly in building the set, hardly sleeping, and while some of the sets was already partially built, completing the whole set that you see in the film was no mean task. Ever the artist, Putera decided to spontaneously add a beach scene to the set, because “I felt it would be better,” even though it wasn’t part of the original plan, causing Noone enormous stress in having to populate the scene!

“It worked out in the end, because we were able to do a scene with kids flying a ‘Wau’/ Kite on the beach, which turned out great,” said Noone with relief.

Fabricating the characters was an enormous challenge as each character had to be designed and posed in 3D Max, and 3D printed. Due to the tight-deadline, we managed to find a company called Fabbritory that was able to model and 3D print all 79 of the characters.

Additional details on the characters, and painting, was done by Putera.

Naqib went through multiple rounds rewriting the voice-over, to make sure the copy was perfect, and it was ever-evolving even as the scenes were being conceived. Rewrites even happened on set as ideas came to mind as we were shooting.

The shoot was a long-winded process, because of the detail required. Lensed by DOP Simon Chin, using an Arri Alexa Mini and snorkel lenses, great care was taken care by the camera and grip department in making sure no damage was done to the fragile set and miniatures. Jarrod Wai, our Art Director, took special care in making sure each shot looked good, and finessed the details.  

And due to the tight production timing, 3D printed miniatures were still coming through the door and being painted while shooting had commenced!

It was a whirlwind experience, but putting it together was amazing. Edited By Dave Singh, and VFX touch ups and clean ups were done by Asia-Pacific Video Labs, who composited smoke, sun beams, fire and even added a miniature USB thumbdrive to one scene.

“It’s not every day that we get to do something unique and special for Merdeka, and I hope that people appreciate the care and work that has been put into the production. It’s not often that you get to do a production where everyone – from the client, to the agency, and the production side, and also the talented people like Eddie who was building the sets –  are all equally passionate about the film, and I really feel that it shows through in the final film,” said Noone with a smile.

Credits –

ECD: Alvin Teoh

Deputy Executive Creative Director: Paul Lim

Photographer: Eddie Putera

Copywriter: Naqib Nadhir Shamsuri

Art Directors: Zaheer Kaisar, Jarrod Wai

DOP: Simon Chin

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