Making A TV Commercial

(My dream journal dated 2 July 2005)

Nicholas Tse is a pop singer in Hong Kong. He's got a contract worth $1.8 million to make a TV commercial for a famous brand of business suits.

He is told that the shooting should take no more than two hours. I think that’s easy money for such contracts. I am curious as to how this soon to be TV commercial is made.

I arrive at the studio. There are about ten to twenty crew. A small number of his fans (about fifty) are also present. Among the crew, I only remember the camera man. His gear lies on the ground - a small-sized camera and a couple of tripods.

I look at Nicholas. He is wearing a business jacket with a shirt underneath. He is not wearing a matching pair of pants and shoes. Hence a very casual and smart looking. I can hear him mumble, something like he is used to being surrounded with his fans at his work scene. He doesn’t seem to mind at all and appears very relaxed.

As the shooting goes, he walks along the CBD in Tokyo, as if he is window shopping. At one point, he sees a business suit on display through one of the shop windows and his eyes begin to shine. He says to himself something like “wow, that looks very smart!” and appears that he wants it very much.

He searches his pockets to see if he has enough money to buy this business suit. To his disappointment he can only find some loose changes and a few coins.

At this point, I begin to think what a boring and slow-paced TV commercial this is going to be. However, the next scene changes dramatically:

It is all action now! I see skyscrapers everywhere. A few huge nets have been set up underneath some of the skyscrapers for the ‘chase and escape’ movie shots. At some point Nicholas will have to jump from one of the skyscrapers.

...

Nicholas has now earned some decent money from being a stun man. He is happy now as he can finally go back to the shop where he can buy that favourite business suit of his. His punch line is:

“It’s worth it!”