Nintendo

Introduction

The more I think about this concept, the more I love it—and the product. Games and gaming have become such a huge part of our lives. But what this campaign points out so well is that they do more than just allow us to pass the time. They’ve become a source of entertainment that helps bring us together. They relieve stress, provide us with a common language that can create a sense of community with people from different cultures, backgrounds, and walks of life. During the holidays, the games we love to play also provide a wonderful excuse to take a pause from our hectic lives, sit down, and engage in the joy of play with friends, family, and visitors you might otherwise not spend time with.

During those times of the year, games, and gaming consoles can act as the center piece of our Holiday gatherings, and from what I see, no one does that better than Nintendo. Switch is great for playing a game by yourself. But it’s also built and designed to be easily shared. It invites others to join in, and it offers a level of flexibility that appeals to gaming devotees and newbies alike. 

So, as the holidays approach, it’s hard to imagine a better gift to give, or a better device to have on hand than this one. Even the name of the controllers themselves — Joy-con — feels perfectly suited for the season. This is our chance to help spread that joy by telling stories that invite our audience into the lives and homes of people like us who want to come together. It’s a story about a game and a device, but at the same time, it’s much bigger than that. It’s about family, friends, and sharing. It’s about the joy of play—and that’s something we can all use more of.

Casting & Performances

Gaming is obviously skewed to a younger demographic, but it still has a universal appeal. In fact, the more people who are exposed to a great system like the Switch, the more come to find it fun and fascinating. 

So, let’s use the casting to reflect this same sense of inclusiveness by assembling a diverse ensemble of interesting people. We want to see a real and relatable mix of big kids, college kids, little kids, parents, grandparents, siblings, and cousins. We want to see that favorite uncle who is the first to join any game the kids are playing, and the member of the family who you know you can beat, but who always take things in stride. Maybe we can even create a running story line involving that uncle, aunt, or cousin who just never gives up. The best two-out-of-three turns in to the best three-out-of-five, and on, and on, and on, until late in the day the tally has run up to best 60-out-of-100. 

The holidays aren’t limited to members of the immediately family either, so it would also be interesting to bring in some extended members of the family—friends or coworkers who aren’t able to make it home. This would enable us to bring people of different ethnicities into the scenes while also using their presence as a way of giving us some insight into the type of family this is. There’s an openness to them, and a sense of love and sharing that is part of their everyday lives.

In addition to searching for people who look real, we’ll also want to find talented actors who have the ability to relax in front of the camera and personalize these moments in ways that instill the scenes with a feeling of complete and total naturalism. To push this feeling of spontaneous realness, it might be worth opening up the casting to actors with experience in improv. 

The idea of having them play games feels perfectly in tune with giving our people the freedom to have fun and make these moments there own. Let’s take full advantage of that by encouraging our cast members to truly get into the games, have as much fun as possible, and be ready to capture the magic of the moments and all those happy accidents when they happen. 

In the past, when casting stories like this, I’ve also explored the option of bringing in real family members. The level of familiarity and comfort that already exists between them, the unspoken language exchanged between parents and their kids, and the dynamic they have, can help bring an extra texture of humanity, warmth, and charm to the scenes. So, at the very least, it’s worth considering as we move ahead.

The Look & Feel

This type of film lends itself to being captured with a cinematic style that is voyeuristic and observational. We want to gain that fly-on-the-wall sense of seeing things unfold naturally in front of the camera, and even take things a step further by immersing our viewers into the action and lives of these people. It shouldn’t feel as if we’re spectators. We want to put the camera in motion and create a feeling of intimate involvement in the scenes. 

This means taking a somewhat looser approach to the photography. Putting some air under the camera, working with subtle touches of handheld, capturing moments from interesting perspectives such as glancing over someone’s shoulder, through an open doorway, past people gathered in a room, across bus seats, etc. It’s an aesthetic that will offer our audience a feeling of witnessing these moments from a more personalized and human point of view, and that’s the feel we want to bring to our story.

We can support this by illuminating the scenes with soft and warm naturalistic light. And the quality of the light should shift as we move forward through this story. Some of the moments can happen in soft early morning light, others can occur in the golden glow of the evening, or take place at night. It’s just a way of adding some scope to the story while at the same time maintaining the natural look we want to capture.

Art Direction and Styling

As much as we like to think we’re going to get all those little tasks done well in advance of the holidays, we never really do. If you’re anything like me, you plan wrapping those presents gorgeously so that they can rest in a Pinterest-like arrangement under the tree. But… invariably, I always end up wrapping presents at the very last minute. That’s life—real life, and we want that sense of authenticity to be reflected in the propping and art direction.

That means embracing all the imprecations of a true holiday home environment. Things can be scattered about. Some open packages can appear in the background. A plate or glass might be resting on a table somewhere. Shoes have been cast off. Life is unfolding in a lovely potluck of action complete with all the wonderful and cozy messiness that families create during these celebrations and gatherings. The intention is to art direct this home in a way that feels loved and lived-in. We want it to appear as inviting and warm as possible—a nice and slightly aspirational setting that says, come on in, relax, make yourself at home, you’re one of the family.

Share the Joy

As I mentioned during our call, I love the idea of developing a narrative that tells two separate stories that ultimately come together when Frank arrives home after his first semester at college. That first trip holiday break always feels a bit more emotional for everyone—the student coming home, the parents, his or her siblings, even some dear friends or relatives who look forward to seeing that familiar face again.

His ten-year-old brother, Steve is as anxious and excited as anyone to see him. His big brother Frank was his role model growing up; the guy he shot hoops with in the backyard, played video and computer games with, and looked to for support, advice, and help when he had trouble with homework. 

He misses him. He’s asked his parents a hundred plus times about when Frank is getting home. Every time he hears a car door, his ears perked up. And Frank quietly feels the same way about seeing his little brother. 

Creating that backstory can really help add a hint of underlying emotion that we might feel in the performances, and in support of this, we’ll want to set up moments that look and feel as genuine and believable as possible. 

So instead of parents wrapping presents and sipping eggnog, maybe we open on something a little more real and relatable—like Dad, who’s supposed to be wrapping presents, being drawn to the Switch. And Mom having to drag him away to help get things ready for this holiday get-together.

The same sort of dynamic should hold true for the study group. These are good kids, but they’re still real kids. Maybe we drop in on them in a moment in which they’ve been preparing for a final in a challenging class. Notebooks, and tablets are scattered amidst pizza boxes, drink cups, and backpacks. Needing a break, one member of the group pulls out his or her Switch—and within an instant, the rest are shoving the books aside for a well-earned breather.

This provides us with a great organic way of featuring the Switch’s flexibility by seeing someone using a TV and others using table-top and portable mode. Once they get into the game, the feeling of fatigue dissipates and the room is filled with fun and energy.

As the camera moves through the room and catches different actions, we can see someone pass a Joy-con off to someone else. The first of these actions can be fairly simple. Perhaps we can cut to a tight shot of the Joy-con being passed to the side, and then match cut to another angle of a Joy-con, which we reveal is being passed from Steve to Grandma. 

The key to creating these match cuts will be to choreograph actions that allow us to highlight the social aspect and easy portability of the Switch—while simultaneously acting as a modular transitional device that helps us build a fluid and seamless editorial flow. 

There’s no need to do anything tricky. When these actions happen, they should never feel gratuitous or intentionally staged for the sake of shooting a commercial product moment. The idea is to keep them natural and organic to the action. 

They’re motivated by someone being excited about having another person join the game. They act as an invite for someone to try their hand at it. Or, maybe even feel like a natural reflex—big brother sits down next to his little brother on the sofa—little brother hands him a Joy-con. Nothing needs to be said. It’s just something you do.

We’ll also look to keep the eye engaged by searching for different ways of passing the Joy-con. It can be tossed from the sofa to a person sitting in a chair nearby, slid across a seat cushion or coffee table, lifted up into the air to someone standing up behind the sofa, etc., etc.

Either way, as we move forward in the story, we’ll see the family having fun playing Super Mario Party at Grandma’s house. Joy-con’s are passed from one member of the family to another. 

At first, Grandma might even be trying in to play while holding the Joy-con upside down—somehow making it work, or failing in a way that gets a good-spirited laugh from everyone, Grandma included.

In the midst of the game play, the camera finds Steve who uses a Joy-con to nudge a sleeping Grandpa awake, and when he sees the game being played a spark lights up and Grandpa rediscovers the kid that still lives inside him. (Maybe later on we could even play with the idea of seeing the Joy-con gently lifted out of napping Grandpa’s hand.)

We cut to find Frank seated on a bus home, and we can cover a moment in which the person seated next to him wakes up followed by Frank handing him a Joy-con. But since we just saw something similar with Grandpa, maybe we can explore a few other options.

The two could be complete strangers both traveling home from college. Frank can be playing a game on his Switch and senses the eyes of the person next to him watching. Without a second thought, he gives the person a glance, removes the Joy-con, and offers it to the person next to him. The person’s attitude immediately brightens. So does Frank’s—because now he has someone to play the game with. 

Another option might be for someone seated behind him to be looking over his shoulder or around the side of the seat. Again, Frank can feel eyes on him, and causally offer the Joy-con—handing it up over or around the seat or across the aisle. If the seat is open next to him, the person could even slide in and start to play.

It might even be interesting for Frank to run into someone he knows from high school. He or she could be in their first semester, but in a different field of study and living in a different dorm. After saying hi and catching up, they can have fun, and make the bus ride so much shorter and more enjoyable by playing games on the Switch.

Depending on the action, we’ll use the passing of the Joy-con to crate a transition to Steve at a busy family pot luck. We see Steve pass a Joy-con to his female cousin, and we want to make sure to keep this moment as natural as possible. Maybe there’s some good natured arguing over the game. You get the sense that this is part of the relationship they have with each other. In the midst of this, we might even catch Steve glancing to the front door in a way that suggests he’s waiting for someone to arrive.

I also love the scene with the uncle. Seeing the game catch his eye, and then watching him slowly become entranced with the car’s moving parts and the way they work within the game can be really charming. Finally, we see him stare obviously and longingly at one of the Joy-con’s. Steve of course, passes it to him with a smile, and his uncle plops right down beside him and gets right into the game.

Finally, the moment we’ve been sensing all through this story comes about. The door swings open. Steve’s head whips toward the sound, and we cut to reveal Frank entering the home dragging luggage, a duffle of dirty clothes, and backpack inside. 

Steve leaps up and runs to greet him. And moments after getting a hug from big brother, their old relationship kicks up where it left off. Frank grabs the Joy-con from his  brother’s hand, and the friendly family battle is on. 

That familiar sound brings Mom and Dad out. Hugs are exchanged. Mom and Dad join into the game. Maybe in the midst of all this we can even see that favorite uncle nudge his way in—wanting one last chance to finally get a win before the day ends.

That’s all for now…

These are some of my thoughts, which will continue to develop as we move ahead. The key is to brainstorm on ideas, develop the ones you’ve scripted, and strive to cover a wide range of moments that give you all the editorial material you need, and much, much more. 

The rest comes down to focusing on great casting and performances, and capturing this all with a cinematic approach that is wonderfully and imperfectly real. That’s what I think will offer us a story that is entertaining, filled with moments of fun and energy—and most of all—true to the feel of a dropping in on a family in the midst of the holidays.

Thanks so much for thinking of me for this project. I’m truly excited about all the possibilities, and I look forward to chatting with all of you again.