Tmall’s 618 cross-centuries crab craze｜天猫618：穿越千年的螃蟹盛宴

As mid year arrives, another shopping festival approaches, and as always this year Tmall has geared up for June 18th with various commercials that are hard to miss. Initially launched by Jingdong for its anniversary in 2010, the 618 shopping festival is now held across all major e-commerce platform in China becoming the largest mid-year shopping promotion by transaction volume. And this year is no exception. One of Tmall’s spots called “The first man to eat a crab” grabbed out attention by havimng it all— a massive story that deals with different time periods and pays homage to old movies. Not to mention the scale of production it required to bring the story to life— this commercial film undoubtedly stands out. SHP+ had a chance to talk to the DoP Ice about the technicalities of the shoot. But first, let’s throw light on the story itself.

年中将至，又一个购物节即将到来，同往年一样，天猫也为今年的618拍摄了各种五花八门的广告，为一年一度的狂欢做足了准备。618购物节最初由京东在2010年的周年庆上推出的，如今中国所有主要的电子商务平台上都会庆祝618购物节，618成为了交易量最大的年中购物促销活动。而今年也是如此，天猫今年的亮眼广告之一《第一个吃螃蟹的人》选择向老电影致敬，并且因其跨越千年的宏大故事而备受关注。这部广告无疑是出类拔萃的，而该片制片所需的规模更是让人叹为观止。SHP+有幸采访到了这部广告的DoP摄影指导Ice，探讨了该片技术方面的细节。不过，在讨论技术之前，让我们先一饱眼福，看看这是一个什么样的故事吧。

Brand 品牌：TMALL 天猫618

According to Ogilvy, the agency behind the spot, Tmall’s key brief was just one word— “new”. So the agency took that idea and ran with it to interpret the brand’s core idea “Be bold to try new things. There are always new surprises in life”. Creating a campaign that translated into a hilarious, albeit odd at times, epic film. But actually, the ad’s plot draws inspiration from the famous author Lu Xun’s quote; “The first person to eat crab is very much to be admired”. The phrase has since been used in China to describe brave individuals. The spot, brought to life by production house Keypoint, envisions that story to encourage people to try new things.

该片的代理奥美向我们透露，天猫对于这个项目的简报只有一个字——“新”。于是他们便在这一基础上，结合天猫品牌的核心广告语“乐于尝新，生活总有新惊喜”，打造了一系列的活动，并将其转化为一部虽然有些古怪，但滑稽有趣的史诗电影。其实，这部广告的灵感来自著名作家鲁迅的名言：“第一个吃螃蟹的人是非常值得钦佩的。”这句名言之后被大家用来形容勇敢的人。而这部由制片公司上海聚点广告制作的电影，则脑洞大开创作了这个吃螃蟹的故事，鼓励人们勇于尝新。

Brand 品牌：TMALL 天猫618

“We have horses, rain scenes, scenes on the boat and shots on the lake— everything was a challenge. But the big one was the tight timeline”, shares Ice. With 2 grip heads and 3 assistant directors on set, the shooting was a day-and-night operation because there was simply too much to do. The team checked all the locations twice, and filmed near Qiandao lake and Hongdian village, which are two hours apart. The schedule was tight to the point that the part of the main character had to be shot in 2 hours only.

“我们有马、有下雨的场景、船上以及湖上的镜头，这一切都是挑战。但最大的问题是时间太紧张，”Ice告诉我们。该片拍摄过程中，有两位机械组长和三位助理导演在片场，拍摄花费了一个日夜，因为实在有太多的事情要做。摄制小组对所有拍摄地点进行了两次检查，并在千岛湖和洪殿村附近拍摄，而两地相距有两小时。因为时间安排得很紧，主角的部分必须在两个小时内拍摄完毕。

In Ice’s words, this commercial film is slightly more unique, because it’s more like a short story, for which they tried to create a very cinematographic atmosphere. Also, despite being a commercial, first and foremost, the product placement is very organic. “It doesn’t feel like an obvious ‘selling to the audience’ approach” says Ice. He also hopes that the humor used in the ad, although distinctly Chinese, can be understood universally. Therefore, catching the attention of a wider audience through a universal message. Whether this film achieves this is yet to be seen. But what is for certain, is that now days to impress and engage with the audience, brands require increasingly grand ideas to express their messages… and this commercial film, definitely exemplifies this trend.

用Ice的话来说，这部广告有点儿不一样，因为它更像是一个短篇故事，他们也因此尽量为这部片子创造出了一种非常电影的氛围。此外，尽管是商业广告，但该片的植入式广告是非常有机的。Ice表示：“这没有那么强的‘向观众推销’的感觉”。他还希望广告中所使用的幽默元素，虽然很有中国特色，但希望更多的人群都能为之一笑。让这部片子能通过这一条人人都能理解的创意，抓住更多观众的眼球。虽然，这部广告能否做到这一点还有待观察。但可以肯定的是，如今，为了给观众留下深刻印象，品牌需要越来越多的好创意来为他们发声，而这部商业电影就是这一趋势的典型代表。