“Reunion”: Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, KSHMR, and Alok Unite for Garena Free Fire’s 4th Anniversary

An all-star lineup of EDM superstars—Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, KSHMR, and Alok—teams up with director Éli Sokhn for the official music video for Reunion. They are celebrating the 4th anniversary of Garena Free Fire, one of the world’s most downloaded mobile games.

“FILMING during Covid in 3 different countries is a logistical nightmare, but we created a beautiful solution around it.”

Oz Ozmen – Head of Production at BADASS KID

It all began when the agency Y-IMAGE PARIS approached BADASS KID in LA through supervising producer Linda Chiu with an exciting brief. The task was to create a hybrid music video and commercial to announce the 4th anniversary of Free Fireto the public.
However, there was a major challenge—four of the world’s top EDM artists were scattered across different parts of the world. Moreover, strict COVID-19 travel restrictions made filming on location impossible. Coordinating across multiple time zones and languages only added to the complexity of the production.

“My goal was to streamline the director’s vision to all the key players between Los Angeles, Belgium, Brazil, France & China. At the same time I was the lead producer for our Los Angeles show”

Laith Souqi – Producer at BADASS KID

WHERE DID THE IDEA COME FROM?

Director Éli Sokhn had bold and ambitious ideas for bringing the story to life, based on a script by creative director André Almeida. Let’s just say it featured plenty of seamless transitions to connect artists from different countries, stunning VFX, and dynamic specialty shots. These elements were perfectly suited for a music video. With such a complex vision, the producing team at BADASS KID faced the challenge of aligning everyone involved. They had to ensure everyone was on the same page and speaking the same creative language.

HOW DID THEY SELECT THEIR INTERNATIONAL TEAMS?

In a series of interviews, Y-IMAGE PARIS helped source and find top teams in Belgium and in Brazil. The main team was headquartered in Los Angeles under BADASS KID leadership.
Cinematographer Doug E. Porter was relaying all creative and technical information to his teams in Belgium under the leadership of cinematographer Bjorn Charpentier and producer Laurent Dillen from Bozon. In Brazil, the leadership was under cinematographer Alexandre Baxter and producer Leonardo Veras from Quarteto Films.

HOW DID THEY DO IT?

To get everyone on the same page, Éli and cinematographer Doug E. Porter shot-listed and storyboarded the script first. They then timed it shot by shot, going over lenses, shot size, camera movement, equipment needed, diagrams, and other notes they had.

The process was pretty tedious, and because of the possible logistical problems that may arise from shooting over 3 countries, the duo decided on filming the video on their phone based on the storyboards. This was necessary to nail down the timing of each shot. In this video, you can see Doug use a probe lens on a DSLR to figure out and plan one of the shots.

The director then edited an animatic of the full video with accurate timing. It was synced to the music to the picture – You can watch it here

The storyboards played a crucial role, not only in defining the shots and visual language but also as a key communication tool across all film departments. This included camera and production design, art direction, wardrobe, props, and especially VFX.

Reunion – Final Output

POST-PRODUCTION, VFX & COLOR

Towards the end, the VFX team at Yhellow, led by Lorenzo Diego—who also served as the project’s editor—meticulously refined the boards. They delivered the shots, ensuring the team could complete the edit just in time for the campaign launch.

Once finalized, the film was sent to COMPANY 3, where Tyler Roth handled the color grading. The goal was to craft a look that remained grounded in reality while maintaining a cinematic feel. This enhanced the presence of each artist within their unique environment.

“STORYBOARDS WERE ESSENTIAL IN COMMUNICATING THE VISUAL LANGUAGE TO THE CLIENT AND MAKING SURE EVERYONE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT WE’RE DOING”

Éli Sokhn – Director at BADASS KID

The team then created a scout reference. They had stand-ins recreate the shots from the storyboards along with art direction notes from the actual locations.

“I HAD TO BE VERY SPECIFIC WITH MY TEAM BECAUSE THERE WAS A TRANSITION IN ALMOST EVERY OTHER SHOT”

Éli Sokhn – Director at BADASS KID

REMOTE DIRECTING & PRODUCING

The team had to figure out a method that was efficient enough to translate all information with very minimal lag. They needed to connect the main production team in LA with their secondary teams in Belgium and Brazil. Then, they connected the agency in Paris and the client in China who were monitoring the shoot remotely.

Overnight shoots can be exhausting and the timezone differences were posing a serious challenge. Luckily, with plenty of Redbull and coffee, the team stayed awake and delivered. Of course, they had the occasional meetings the director had to take between takes to stay alert. You can watch his important meetings here.

“Directing remotely is not a fun thing, but we made it work! there’s nothing as exciting as being on set AND feeling the ENERGY for better decisions “

Éli Sokhn – Director at BADASS KID

In this production, each shoot had at least 3 countries involved

It wasn’t only Eli connecting with Brazil and Belgium. In LA, we were connecting with other countries during principal shooting as well. During our LA shoot, we connected with our agency in Paris and client representative in China via Zoom.

We wanted our client to see what the camera sees directly. For that we dedicated two computers to remote team members.

First, the computer was connected to the camera. We used a USB Capture card from Magewell that connected the SDI output of the camera to a computer,  and over Zoom, we selected that input as a webcam. This enabled the Zoom attendees to see the camera feed. On the other computer, it was us, hosting our client.

Below is a diagram of how the producers set it all up

“It is always a pleasure to see how other production companies find solutions. We created a collaborative space for all the producers from other countries to get together and tackle things together. We were so lucky to work with our partners – whom went above and beyond to accomplish our visiON”

Oz Ozmen – Head of Production at BADASS KID

And to end this article we’re going to leave you with this video that shows what remote directing is in action
_{Caution – watch at your own risk}

Thanks to director Eli Sokhn for all those great insight! Don’t miss to follow him and to check the BADASSKID website, more will come soon!

Much love!
FilmmakersWorld Team