High School Girl?
Shiseido2015
High School Girl? is a 2015 online film for Shiseido, created by Shiseido in-house with Watts of Tokyo, Tokyo.
Why it works
The camera drifts around a classroom of Japanese schoolgirls until a line in one student’s book asks whether the viewer has noticed any boys in the room. The film then runs in reverse, peeling away wigs, make-up and uniforms to reveal that every student, and even the teacher, is male. Shiseido’s in-house creative team made it with Watts of Tokyo, its own hair and make-up artists did the transformations, and the cast held their poses through about seven hours of shooting. It was released only on YouTube in October 2015, aimed at younger buyers. It is studied as a product demonstration disguised as a plot twist: the proof of what the make-up can do is the story itself. Adweek reported eight million views within weeks. It won the Film Grand Prix at the 2015 Epica Awards and two Gold Lions at Cannes 2016, in Film and Film Craft, Shiseido’s first Cannes Gold for film since 1985.
Techniques
- Demonstration Running the film in reverse to strip away wigs, make-up and uniforms reveals that every schoolgirl is male, so the twist itself proves what the make-up can do.
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