Honest reviews of Hawaii restaurants and travel experiences from the Santos family in Honolulu, Hawaii. Please join to follow this blog and leave comments about the places you read about.
Click on "Older Posts" at the bottom of each page to continue your adventure. This blog is for fun only. I am not a food critic. Just call them like I eat them. Enjoy!
Email:greateatshawaii@gmail.com
Instagram @greateatshawaii
With a major beverage company making us take my Coolest Man in the World commercial off the air, we had to come up with a sequel that would be even better than the first one. I turned to Greg Davis at KHON Channel 2 in Honolulu and presented him with a storyboard and script that brings back the Coolest Man in a very humorous way. The idea was to bring together some really good looking girls and guys and film the spot on the beach. We began by casting the girls with the help of Larson Talent in Honolulu. Three of the four girls were contracted through Larsen Talent. We actually did a casting call at KHON where about nine girls modeled in their bikinis. It was a tough day choosing the models for this spot but I endured and did it for my company. The fourth girl (Monica) is a friend who I thought we be perfect for the part. It took some time to get her to commit to being in the commercial, but in the end she did. For the men, I turned to Rich Miano who introduced me to Royce Mori. Rich also reached out to Leonard Peters who was in a previous Fujitsu commercial. Leonard is extremely handsome and he has the body I wish I could have. I knew that the ladies watching this commercial would love him. Our final actor also came from Larson Talent. His name is Tommy Hackett. Tommy is a National and International model who just completed a major campaign for Hollister. He is also on his way to sign with a major European brand which will kick start his modeling career into another level. Tommy lives on Maui and flew to Honolulu to do the shoot. On the day of the shoot we set up a tent at Ala Moana Beach Park. This served as a make-up department, lounge and dining room. Started the day with a little champagne along with breakfast. We asked the girls what they wanted for lunch and they picked Pizza and Sushi. My faithful assistant Greg Thomas delivered the Pizza and Sushi right after the shoot was completed. Filming was a breeze with Greg Davis, John Veneri and crew taking control of each shot. We had to stop filming several times due to jack hammering, helicopters, sirens and a guy who took three ten minute showers directly behind where we were filming. The girls and guys were all fun and relaxed. There was absolutely no attitude on this set. What a delightful day! View the video of the making of this commercial below. My sincere thanks to the cast and crew who made this so much fun. Stay tuned for the final commercial coming soon from KHON. UPDATE: See new commercial below.
Wow...what great fun to be part of a new Fujitsu Air Conditioning commercial for Hawaii.
The spot was written and directed by Greg Davis at KHON Channel 2 in Honolulu. Greg teamed up with John Veneri and Brigitte Abbot to create a very funny and professional commercial on a shoestring budget. Most of the scenes were created using a green screen backdrop and the backgrounds were added in the editing room. The final scene that includes the only dialog in the spot was filmed at Chuck's Cellar restaurant in Waikiki. Featured in the spot are Nicole Fong and Rianne Rodriguez from Larson Talent. My sincere thanks to everyone at KHON who created this commercial and to Nicole and Rianne for making this one fun shoot.
Click link below to view behind the scenes photos and learn more about this commercial;
Readers of this blog may have noticed that I have a small roll in creating commercials for Fujitsu Air Conditioning in Hawaii. While my Daughter has starred in all but one of the commercials for over ten years, this time we changed it up and made me the star of this spot. While I am no actor and do not like to see myself on the screen, this spot came to me and I just had to do it for fun. Life is short and I wanted to be part of something that I thought would be entertaining and very funny. The premise for this commercial came from a popular beer commercial where a distinguished man (who is way better looking than me) looks into the camera and says "I don't always drink beer". The rest of that ad is advertising history. While we will not make history with our spot, we do hope to make people laugh while making people remember our brand. I came up with the basic idea for this ad and then handed it over to Greg Davis at KHON. Greg has done many Fujitsu commercials for us and he always knows how to deliver a great final product. Greg and myself had the daunting task of trying to find two gorgeous woman for the two most important scenes of the commercial. I turned to Dawn Larson of Larson Talent in Honolulu and she arranged to have around nine girls come down to KHON to audition for the spot. It was pure hell sitting in a room at the television station and interviewing all the girls who all showed up looking spectacular. After the interviews it was my job to choose the two girls for the spot. I gave Greg my three finalists and between the two of us we came up with Nicole and Rianne. While both are beautiful, it was their personalities that really made an impact and got them the gigs over the other candidates. With Nicole and Rianne booked, I had to make a decision on whether I should cast myself as The Coolest Man in the World. I know that I cannot act, look fat on camera and hate seeing myself on t.v. I really thought of bringing in a real actor or local personality to complete the cast. Something inside me said just do it and have as much fun as you can while not taking yourself seriously. I dropped 15 pounds in two months and let my beard grow for seven days before the shoot. We gathered up the costumes at the Diamond Head Theatre Costume Department where they rent costumes for any occasion. The staff at Diamond Head Theatre were great. We told them that we needed Indiana Jones, Aviator and Mountain Climber costumes and they had just about everything with the exception of a cold weather parka for the mountain climbing scene. Brigette Abott from KHON put out an email to all KHON employees looking for a cold weather jacket. Fellow KHON employee Cathy Muneno who is married to Native Hawaiian Navigator Nainoa Thompson helped out by bringing Nainoa's jackets. I am a big fan of Nainoa and was excited and honored to be able to wear a jacket of his that probably sailed on the Hokule'a. We shot three scenes in the studio with a green screen. The green screen will allow the Director and Editor to add digital images behind the live scene in post production. We have volcano erupting, mountain climbing and aviator scenes plus the final scene where the only dialog in the spot is spoken. After a few hours of filming with the green screen at the studios we made our way to Waikiki to film the final shot at Chuck's Cellar. Chuck's was kind enough to allow us to shoot in a booth while the restaurant was closed. All of the drinks on the table are non alcoholic as the restaurant cannot pour any alcohol before they open at 5:30 pm. They were props only so that was fine. It took dozens of takes to get the two lines down. I flubbed them up so many times. My terrible acting skills made it difficult to deliver the lines as intended. John Veneri coached me and at one time I had wished he was doing the scene instead of me. We forged on and finished the spot with me delivering the final line "Stay cool my friends". Don't want to give away too much. You will have to wait a few weeks to see the final commercial. My sincere thanks to the crew at KHON who were talented, professional and fun! Thanks to Nicole and Rianne who made my day very enjoyable. I am very blessed to have had the opportunity to do this.
Stay tuned for the spot. Hope it brings everyone a good laugh.
View all of our Fujitsu television commercials at www.ilovemyfujitsu.com
NICOLE AND RIANNE GET READY FOR THE FIRST SCENE AT KHON STUDIO IN HONOLULU
RIANNE (LEFT) AND NICOLE (RIGHT) ARE READY FOR THE GREEN SCREEN
KHON T.V. DIRECTOR GREG DAVIS SETS UP THE FIRST SCENE USING A GREEN SCREEN THAT WILL ALLOW IMAGES TO BE PROJECTED BEHIND THE ACTORS
JOHN VENERI FROM KHON DIRECTS THE ACTORS WHILE GREG DAVIS BEGINS FILMING
THEIR COULD BE AN EXPLOSION BEHIND THEM
LOTS OF FUN AND LAUGHS ON THE SET OF THIS COMMERCIAL
AND ACTION! THE FIRST SCENE IS FILMED
GREG DAVIS AND JOHN VENERI TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET THE GUY IN MIDDLE (ME) TO ACT SO THEY CAN FINISH THE SCENE
ANNIE THE MAKEUP AND WARDROBE PERSON FOR KHON ADJUSTS THE WHIP
THE FIRST SCENE IS A WRAP!
THE CREW FROM KHON AND ACTORS WRAP SCENE ONE
BRIGETTE ABBOT FROM KHON HAS BEEN DOING FUJITSU COMMERCIALS FOR 15 YEARS
SCENE TWO INCLUDED A WARDROBE CHANGE AND SOME MOUNTAIN CLIMBING
CLIMBING UP A MOUNTAIN
MADE IT TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN
NICOLE GETTING A SOPHISTICATED NEW LOOK COURTESY OF ANNIE
THE FINAL SCENE IS ONLY ONE THAT HAD DIALOG FOR THE ACTORS
I HAD SHORTS ON FOR THIS SHOT AND RIANNE WORE SLIPPERS
GREG DAVIS FILMS THE FINAL SCENE AT CHUCK'S CELLAR IN WAIKIKI
HE IS - THE MOST COMFORTABLE MAN IN THE WORLD
NOT A BAD TIME SPENDING THE DAY WITH THESE TWO BEAUTIES
ITS A WRAP! CAST AND CREW FINISH THE COMMERCIAL
RIANNE AND NICOLE LOOKING BEAUTIFUL FOR THE FINAL SCENE
STAY COOL MY FRIENDS
COMING TO T.V. STATIONS IN HAWAII IN JULY
HE IS THE COOLEST MAN IN THE WORLD COMMERCIAL FOR FUJITSU AIR CONDITIONING
