Hideyuki Tanaka Gets All Shook Up for Toshiba

Geek Pictures director Hideyuki Tanaka’s recent spot for Toshiba, called All Star, sees a group - a wiggle, if you will - of Elvis impersonators come to the fore to perform Hound Dog.

Below the director talks us through the idea for the spot, the process of putting it together and where he managed to find so many Elvis impersonators.

Can you explain a little bit about the campaign and the thought process behind it?

Traditional Toshiba campaigns mainly focused on expressing the products’ technical excellence. However, for this campaign, the aim was to express that Toshiba is a company that considers the value of the relationship between people and technology.

We began our planning based on a concept to visualise the essential aspects of TV culture. After receiving the brief from the agency, I proposed a few creative approaches, and they selected this Elvis theme.

Can you tell us how you found all the different Elvis impersonators?

Mainly through cooperation with the Elvis Presley Trust, which holds the music and visual copyrights related to Elvis. They even hold an annual gathering, so through this network we could see dozens of performers for casting.

Others were also introduced by the various line production companies, and we also researched online. All are professional or semi-professional Elvis tribute artists.

How many did you see in total?

We saw over 100 videos of tribute artists.

What were you looking for in the casting session?

The casting was done solely by viewing the reels and videos of the tribute performers. Rather than arrange a mass of casting sessions and auditions, we checked their stage performance videos and judged how they usually act, as well as the impression given from their online profile information.

What was the most difficult part of the process?

It was most difficult to organise the cast, the bookings for multiple locations and overall scheduling. It was like making the parts of a puzzle fit together.

The original track and footage of Elvis used in the commercial was from an archive TV program. It was a comeback special programme of Elvis, which had huge viewing figures. We thought it was a really good fit for this production, so we included within the final edit.

What are you working on next?

More ads, though not exclusively so, as I’d like to work more on art, fashion and music projects, and potentially to make a few more experimental films.

What’s your favourite Elvis song?

Love Me Tender.