Baba Nasi Lemak

This was a project for a Home-Based-Business that was done in February 2021 for Baba Nasi Lemak. It was mainly to create a video to assist them in marketing their home cooked Nasi Lemak.

Our primary obstacle was that the business owners prefer to speak in Mandarin and our mandarin speaking ability is not as good. We can communicate in basic mandarin but specific phrases or catchphrases are hard for us to comprehend. So we discussed in advance with the owners to understand what they would like to communicate across to their customers and try to simplify it in basic Mandarin, so it will be easier for the mass public to understand when viewing the video. Doing so took up a lot more time than originally anticipated, but we managed to make the script work more effectively.

A second obstacle was that the client were inexperienced in front of the camera, the owner/chef being very camera shy and the usual 1-hour interview took us nearly 4 hours to shoot. Most importantly, we needed to be patient and kept encouraging him, even getting his family to give him moral support as well.

Lastly, we were not paid for this project. Given that we have to spend time to plan the storyboard like any other video production, editing and conducting the shoot on the weekend due to the owner’s schedule, all these were costs incurred on our end, but we decided to do it pro-bono as a part of our corporate social responsibility. We may not be able to donate large sums of money as we too are also largely affected by the Covid19 situation, but by helping others who may be more affected and assisting them to tide through these difficult times is something Lumiere can do. At the end of the day, we made more friends, and got to taste some great home based dishes.

Money is not everything,  and doing whatever little we can offer, goes a long way for others. The business owner managed to get much more sales for their nasi lemak as a result of the video and photography, and we are proud that we were part of that journey with them.

Link: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/513677888