The stars agent gave us 5 hours to shoot the 23 setups of this commercial.
In an early PPM it was decided, in order squeeze these 23 setups in 5 hours, to shoot “documentary style, no lights”.
However the outcome after the recci was quite different; we were going to work with two crews and lots of lights.
While the first crew was shooting on the first set, the second crew prepared the next set. Moving to the next set, the second crew wrapped the first set and prepped the third set.
This was done for all the 20 interior setups.

In order for this to work we had everything double: two Arri 535 camera’s, two Arri 435 camera’s, double sets of lenses and an enormous light package.
“Documentary style, no lights”, became the running gag of the commercial.

Once the star came out to the set, the first thing he told me was: “Don’t worry about what my agent said, I stay as long as you need me”.
Shinji Ono proved to be great to work with. On this commercial and all the others that followed!

NPS together with the fantastic French production manager got it done in time and on budget.

Amazingly, we did not get lost in translation.
The Japanese director explained in Japanese what he wanted to the French production manager (who spoke fluent Japanese).
He translated it in English and told the Dutch production manager who in turn directed the 5 year old Dutch girl in Dutch.
The Dutch production manager was also the Dutch language coach for the star Shinji Ono.

This commercial was exclusively for the Japanese market. It was shot in the Netherlands because the star, Shinji Ono, was playing soccer for Feijenoord (Rotterdam).

Shot on 35 mm Fuji. 2x Arri 535 and 2 x Arri 435, 2 x Cooke S4 primes and Angenieux T3.5 25:250mm
2 Days shoot.