TV Commercials & Dumplings

Much to our joy our latest project here at Silverpoint Media once again dealt with great food and great people. On a Friday evening as I was about to leave the studio I received a call from Keith – he asked whether I could join him on Saturday for a production meeting and lunch, at a new and tasty Northern Chinese restaurant located just north of Yonge and Bloor called Lee Chen Asian Diner.

I couldn’t say the reason I agreed to work on Saturday was completely due to the fact that I love what I do for a living, nor was it completely because the head honcho told me to go, and it definitely wasn’t only because Keith and I occasionally enjoy going on dinner dates together without our significant others – however, it may have been in large part due to the fact that frankly I’m a sucker for steamed dumplings. Yummy.  

Getting back on track…Turns out Fred Lee, the owner of Lee Chen, had stumbled upon our work through mutual acquaintances, and just in time I might add. Having only been opened for a week, his marketing campaign was beginning to push forward with a quick release date for both a website and a couple 30 sec television commercials which were to air on Fairchild Television. The task for us within the short production schedule of less then one week, was to do the photography, design the promotional flyers, design the outdoor light panel menus, and of course create the 30 sec commercials, one in Mandarin and one in Cantonese.

However with production full steam ahead and our bellies full of dumplings (steamed + fried), wontons, beef noodle soup, almond fish, crispy tofu, black pepper beef, sesame paste rice balls, bubble tea, and Lee Chen’s famous Nutri 28 shake (stuffed) – the guys at Silverpoint pulled through and helped kicked off what will surely be a successful restaurant in the downtown core. 

If you get a chance make sure to visit Lee Chen Asian Diner at 832 Yonge St., Toronto, Ontario. And try all the dishes I named above and more – you definitely wont leave there hungry. 

Josh Chan

A Youthful Experience at Sunrise

For this next post, we produced a commercial for Sunrise Montessori School. I think I have my daughter, Anna, to thank for getting us this job, because she kept telling the teachers that I film and photograph.

The owner of Sunrise, Grace, called me in initially to do a photo shoot and design the signage for the school. As an after thought, she mentioned that she had purchased airtime on Fairchild Television for a commercial. That instantly set up our partnership and we began to collaborate and develop a concept for the school. Stan put together a great storyboard in order to visualize the schools different age groups. The objective was to convey the educative growth, beginning from toddlers and progressing to higher elementary groups. As a side note, the challenge was to put all the information into a quick thirty second commercial. Yikes!

The filming day was very exciting, both for the team and many of the children; Though they had previously seen me at Sunrise on the day of the photo shoot, the silverpoint team brought much more equipment and lighting for the commercial. The kids really enjoyed the entire shoot and really kept the energy flowing throughout the day for us. They were amazing to work with and we were rewarded with their undivided attention. 

Thus the Sunrise commercial was a big success because of the hard work, dedication, sincerety, and enthusiasm that everyone kept up.

Keith