The Special One

Press pass in hand I arrived at ‘glamorous' Toa Payoh Lorong 6, Block 32. The rain was coming down light and constant but I was going to the set of DHL's Special Olympics TVC so a heavy downpour wouldn't have stopped me - and evidently the film crew, and world renowned director, David Deennen, didn't think much of the rain either.

Watching the crew create a TVC that didn't solely focus on how great DHL's latest service offering is was a refreshing change and in the words of VP of marketing communications & retail for DHL Express Asia Pacific, Jacqueline Cheong. She said the TVC would instead "communicate our global partnership with and support of the Special Olympics - celebrating people's abilities, rather than disabilities, capturing the ‘all the way' spirit of DHL's brand and the synergies that this has with athletes".

On location, the star of the show wasn't the famous director, nor the recognisable DHL man, Xavier Teo - instead it was 16-year-old Louis Montana who stole the limelight through his conversations about the wonders of fireworks or just plain hamming it up for the camera. He may be disabled by societal definition, having Down's Syndrome, but as one crew member put it, he's "light years" ahead of the rest of us in so many aspects.

"The story's about a struggling family that hope to get their son to the Special Olympics, and the message is the DHL people have sponsored this boy, Louis, who is such a special and wonderful boy. The ad is about him and he's quite difficult to work with but he has a beautiful personality and innocence and if we can capture that we'll have a really good ad," Dennen said.

The process of creating that "really good ad" takes time - from Deneen barking his orders while sitting on a comfy looking leather sofa in the middle of the HDB apartment, saying what works and what isn't, to hearing client suggestions for the shot. The latter is done through walkie talkie as the DHL folks, and for the most part me as well, are sitting on a plastic chair inside a makeshift trailer cum airconditioned tent outside the apartment and we're watching and hearing everything through a rugged portable TV.

Watching them rehearse, shoot the scene, make adjustments, shoot again, and playback was a slow process but as one take followed the next, it's clear Montana was finding it hard to settle down from all the excitement but to his credit he soldiered on and never got cranky.

"In a lot of ways it's easier (working with Louis) because the kids that have got it all together tend to have short attention spans - certain kids are really talented and can do anything and so there is an art to trying to get that out of someone like Louis but you persevere. He's got this magic and his personality is so innocent and he's got no cares, no normal cares," Deennen said.

Deenen told Marketing there was "nothing unusual about the shoot except that we're working in a very confined space, people are falling over each other and it's an eye opener for me to see how a lot of Singaporeans live in such a small flat".

"And this TVC has got a message other than a cosmetic some beautiful girl might try to deliver. Everything we do is so not real life it's always about people too young for the product or that sort of thing - superficial. Whereas this is sort of real so it's great and it's like a little movie. Every job has got something special that makes you enthusiastic, maybe this one a little bit more than usual - you're not worried about products as such, so the agency is not on your back nor the product manager nor the advertising manager - until we shoot the DHL guy of course," he said.

The TVC will air before the World Summer Games Shanghai in early October, attempting to boost public interest for the event. This is not the first time DHL, Ogilvy Singapore and Denneen have collaborated on work before, having worked together on DHL's ‘All the way' branding campaign on ads ‘CEO' and ‘Patience'.