See thro this Lens - Making of a TV Commercial

Session @ CBS by Mr. Jayendra Panchapakesan, Director, Real Image Media Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

At first glance, he looked like Mr Mani Ratnam with that typical smile and trademark French beard. I wasn't very far from my guess, he belongs to the same fraternity of creative geniuses. It was wonderful to have an afternoon session with Mr Jayendra ,Director- Real Image Media Technologies Ltd.

Coming with loads and loads of experience from the Advertising background, he gave us a lot to learn when it came to understanding the intricacies involved in making an ad film.

The session started with his explanation on how an Idea gets transformed into a script. Then it takes the form of a storyboard before coming out as an Ad film .

The processes can be split as pre production , production and post production tasks.

There were a lot of interesting details that one has to look into while making an ad. He shared his experiences while making the ad film for TATA Coorg. The idea was simple. It just had to convey the freshness of the beans that went into making the coffee powder. But the ad had to show this through a multitude of other shots which drive home this point. The problems that they faced while canning those shots were really jaw dropping, but as they say, every problem has a solution. The means they adopted to successfully tackle those issues and come out with a beautiful ad was something to write home about.The way his shots were canned at different locations and when all of them were edited to form the final ad that we saw on screen, the effect was out of the world.

It was very pleasing to hear from him the fact that any form of stereotype involved while conceiving and executing a shot , should be trashed. After all Creativity is the food for such film makers, and Mr Jayendra seemed to have enough of it in his diet.:)

There was another instance where he discussed the importance of an Ad in conveying a thought taking a different route. He believed that there had to be a surprise element attached to the story being told on screen and that was very evident from the Pepsodent Ad he had shot . The story had to convey the strong teeth one gets by using Pepsodent toothpaste. The analogy used to explain this was a Ghatam* player, where the Ghatam player ended up breaking the instrument at the end of the jugalbandi he had with the kid who continued winning playing music on his teeth. Fantastic, yet simple. Kudos Sir.

Through the session he also gave us insights into the different types of cameras used for canning different style of ad films. A thorough supporter of technology, he threw light on the fact on how the quality of making ad films has evolved over a period of time. No wonder it comes from some one who revolutionised the film industry with cutting-edge technology like Avid, Qube etc.

Yet another dose of input from real-world experience. As we always say, its learning for the real world at Chennai Business School......

* The ghatam is a percussion instrument, used in the Carnatic music of South India. It is an earthenware pot; the artist uses the fingers, thumbs, palms, and heels of the hands to strike the outer surface of the ghatam

By Pradeep , Marcom Varsity ,CBS