Film Craft > Production
SPOON., Tokyo / PANASONIC / 2023
Awards:
Overview
Credits
Write a short summary of what happens in the film.
Panasonic’s new slogan “Make New” symbolises the company’s never-changing challenge of supporting society by helping each individual out and creating a future they feel to be ideal. The branded movie “Unveil” illustrates this concept in visual form. The transition from the blue, materialistic world to lush, green world symbolises the start of a more ideal and sustainable future.
Everything, from actors to entire set, was shot upside down to achieve an element of surprise from viewers, as the transitional effects between the two worlds could be believed to be done as digital special effects. The transition between worlds also symbolises the intangible joy and excitement that can be obtained from a positive change.
Background:
Since the company was founded in 1918, Panasonic has continuously strived to changing society for the better through their products. When the world valued convenience, they incorporated their knowledge and technological skills to create products that were easy to use and got rid of daily inconveniences.
But as time goes by values change, people’s lifestyles change, and what we believed to be common sense also changes. Panasonic believed that now is the chance to re-emphasise their philosophy of creating a better society through their knowledge and skills, and to appeal to the next generation that they are here to support them in achieving a future they can define as being ideal and valuable.
Tell the jury about the ambitions & challenges of production process.
As the huge forest-set was hung upside down, so were the dancers: safety was an important point in proceeding with the shoot. The set was constructed by art-department and construction team specialising in building stages for live performances. With safety prioritised, a set of 20m x 20m was created and hung 7m above ground.
Hanging everything upside down created difficulties for every single department involved. Each piece of blue cloth covering the floor was placed individually: due to this painstaking process, releasing the cloths to “fall up” could only be done once.
Dancers went through personal training to endure being hung upside down, only being able to practise as a group on the day of the shoot. With only one chance to have everything synchronise the atmosphere was incredibly tense; however, this lead to all crew coming together as one, all working together in creating the miraculous one-take shot.
Is there any cultural context that would help the jury understand how this work was perceived by people in the country where it ran?
As this film was made in Japan, the country where Panasonic started expanding from, many of the ideas have a deep cultural connection.
The production design for the lush, green and sustainable world full of spiritual wealth was based on the forests of Yakushima Island, where many ancient trees over thousands of years old still continue to grow. The idea of “spiritual wealth” was also an idea that founder Konosuke Matsushita referred to as an important basis to living a fulfilled life.
The music is a collaboration piece by composer Jun Miyake, and Okinawan female rapper Awich, a bold combination of two different genres and generations. Jun Miyake's melody represents society living in harmony with nature, to which Awich added words of hope for the generation to come.
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