In our Tools Of The Trade series, industry artists and filmmakers speak about their preferred tool on a recent project — be it a digital or physical tool, new or old, deluxe or dirt-cheap. This week, Rafatoon (a.k.a. Rafael Pérez) joins us from Colombia to talk about Zoom. Rafatoon is a director and motion graphic artist with an impressive résumé in music videos. The artists he has directed videos for include Katy Perry, Santana, Kina, Deftones, and most recently Sia: his video for her song “Hey Boy” dropped last month. Like many filmmakers, Rafatoon has become a Zoom devotee in the pandemic. Below, he tells us about his experience of directing via video calls:
Rafatoon: I really didn’t use Zoom much before the pandemic. I think I had never used it, if I’m honest. More than anything, we had meetings on Skype and groups on Whatsapp, since meetings didn’t involve too many people: I’d say three or four maximum. The production of the Sia video involved about six countries, almost all Latin American: Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Mexico, and the U.S. There were two animation teams — at Apus Studio in Peru and Tunjayork in Colombia.
The pandemic had a great impact on us, but more at a local level with my team at Tunjayork — we usually meet in the studio to organize all the internal and creative issues, but due to the pandemic we had to do everything online. For the international team at Apus Studio, there weren’t many changes, since with pandemic or without pandemic it would have just been remote.
