Behind the scenes of ‘Ideators’ - episode 12 :

Buddy up to communicate

Ruwini JAYAWARDANA

Lara’s team filming the ‘Bust-an-android’ video

Lara and Suraaj work on Lara’s campaign

Alex’s team at work

Luke dresses Udana as an Android Buddy!

Last week’s ‘Ideators’ episode brought a bundle of surprises for the fans as they were once again able to see Suraaj, Nimanthie, Luke, Achala, Indrajith and Adam in action. The six youngsters were picked by the final three: Udana, Lara and Alex, to work on the task of making a commercial to advertise Etisalat’s Android smartphone.

Udana chose to work with his ‘dream team’ Nimanthie and Luke while Alex went for the two ‘A’s Achala and Adam. Lara picked the best of both groups: ex-Lion Heart member Suraaj and ex-Reflex member Indrajith. With three ex-members of each group working on the sets with the finalists there was a lot of ideas and activities unfurling on the screen.

“I think Udana chose me and Nimanthie because we had worked so well together all through the competition. We know exactly how each other work and luckily our skills compliment one another. Plus we are really good friends outside of the competition and always had a laugh during the tasks (whilst, importantly, still managing to get the job done!),” an excited Luke told the ‘Daily News.’

That is not all even Natalie, Upekshi and Daniel too got a chance to work on the projects as Lara and team decided to convert the Android buddy into a video game zone for the advertisement.

What fun the guys and gals had working on this particular episode of British Council’s reality television show. Take it from the horse’s mouth as Suraaj reveals to us.

“It felt great to be back on the show and I loved the task. It was just immense fun! Helping Lara out with the task was a pleasure itself, because she used to be Lion Heart. We've worked together before and once you're eliminated the whole idea of this team vs. that team sort of became invisible. It didn't matter who we were helping out. What mattered was that we were helping a friend who was still in the game and we did our best to accomplish that. I was curious about working with Dre because I always felt that we were the graphic designers of opposing teams. That was interesting but working together was really cool,” he enthused.

Meanwhile Udana was having a tough time in the get up of the Android buddy! For those of you who thought that his main purposes were distributing flowers to damsels and strutting around in the hot sun, think again.

Luke reveals, “We definitely had some difficulties making the video! Our first issue was actually getting permission from SLIIT to allow us to film on their campus. They were understandably cautious about what we were trying to achieve and how it might reflect on the university’s image but once we explained our concept and confirmed that we would do nothing to harm the university, they eventually gave us permission.”

Filming began but they were faced with yet another issue. The SLIIT students initially seemed a little unsure about how they should interact with Udana. Since Udana’s concept was based almost entirely on interaction the team had to work really hard to get people to join in and make sure they pulled it off satisfactorily.

“Nimmie and I directed Udana to actively approach the students with props to start the ball rolling and once a few people interacted with him, others seemed more curious and willing to get involved. Even with all the difficulties we faced I am still really pleased with what we managed to produce. I think our concept matched the brief perfectly. If we were given extra time to put it all together I think we would have a really amazing campaign with plenty of scope for development and potential to be rolled out globally,” the interior designing student of the University of Glamorgan revealed.

Not to be outsmarted by her rivals Alex and team too were up to their necks with work, making a computer generated video rather than shooting the scenes. Questioned as to why she chose to work with Achala and Adam, Alex revealed that Indrajith had been her first choice.

“I knew how skilled he is with computers. However before filming we drew straws to pick fairly and Lara got Dre. Achala is great to work with and Adam is a really good person to have on any team,” she said.

Andorid Buddy distributing a rose

Soon the teams were as busy as bees. It was truly fascinating to watch the young minds at work grading and checking for loopholes in their productions like their life depended on it.

Lara’s ‘Bust-an-android’ video was the centre of attraction especially because it was a mystery to viewers till they saw the final version of the video. One can be sure that a lot of hard work had gone I to the production as we saw Suraaj and Lara carefully weighing the pros and cons of their handiwork together.

Answering to our question on whether Lara can be quite bossy at times Suraaj broke into a smile.

“Lara can be bossy...in the best ways. She's the right kind of bossy, not overbearing and just enough to make sure things get done and done right! I think I’ve said this before, Lara knows what she wants. She has a vision of that goal and she’s open to the suggestions of those she works with, and all that as a dynamic just makes things work beautifully.

I think all that really expresses how I feel about her leadership skills, but suffice to say that, I think she's a great leader,” the Academy of Design student added.

Sure enough Lara’s brainchild won her a place in the finals. Udana’s hard work got him there too. Alex’s creation failed to impress the client.

“I was a bit disappointed that I didn't time plan enough to make a full video. I wanted to get a solid concept but my execution let me down,” Alex summed up the reason for her elimination.

Before we bid her adieu we asked Alex to name her least favourite task of the lot.

“I think my least favourite was the Dickewelle Beeralu lace challenge as that was the one which I felt I could not add the most value to. It was however the best in terms of location,” she said.

Since he had worked closely with Lara and Udana Suraaj seems the perfect candidate for our next question. We asked him whom he would like to see taking home the title. The usually quick-to-respond youth was stuck for words for a few minutes.

“Well, I would like to see both of them take the title home because both of them are brilliant at what they do and are equally deserving of the title.

I think what is really important is that they made it this far, and I believe we all traveled that part with them, whether we were in the game or out of it. I think in that final deciding moment that will be what is most important,” he mused.

“We are so happy to see Udana get to the final and to know that we had helped him get there.

I know we would all love to work together again and hopefully we will get the chance to in the not too distant future!” Luke conveyed his wishes to his ‘buddy’ giving us ‘Ideator’ fans hope of seeing his cheerful visage soon.

But the question burning in everybody’s mind is ‘who will win the competition next week’.

Time is ticking, the games are in full swing and debates are heating up as we eagerly wait for the answer to reveal itself before our eyes next Saturday on Independence Television Network (ITN) at 9 pm.