Drink maker Pocari Sweat has made a number of terrific commercials over the years. This latest one, which uses a bunch of practical effects, is one of its most impressive to date.
In it, Sena Nakajima is walking down the hall at school, but then stops, turns around, and starts pushing her way through the crowd of students.
She breaks into a run, and the hallway gets surreal.
After stopping at the door to the outside, she throws them open and runs out into hanging wisteria and a flurry of cherry blossoms.
This is all rather amazing, I think!
You can see the full commercial below.
And the main set pieces were all practical effects. Here you can see what the hallway looked like.
Nakajima had to practice her run. Note the safety gear as she got the hang of it.
Then, when it was time to shoot, there was stuff flying all over the place.
Which made things harder!
For this spot, an 85-meter (278-foot) long, moving set was built.
As you can see, there was some wirework when the two students met up—and I’m guessing the wires were removed in post-production.
CG can create some truly memorable sequences, but there’s something to be said for practical effects—namely, I love them and they’re great.
DISCUSSION
Really nice, though as is often the case, I’m not sure what the connection of the spot is to an energy drink.
Also, I guess ESL allows for a drink to be called “sweat” in Japan, but man, that is such a gross thing to name a drink...