The brief

Nova Eye Medical makes the iTrack™ Advance, a device eye surgeons use for canaloplasty, a glaucoma procedure. The company is based in the US. Its agency, Media MICE, which has a team in Đà Nẵng, wrote a comedy idea for a commercial and wanted to shoot it in Vietnam. They asked us to produce and direct it.

What made it hard

It was our first production of this kind. The idea and the final say sat with an agency, and the client was on the other side of the world and never came to set. Everything was agreed through decks, storyboards and calls before the shoot, and two people from Media MICE joined us on the day. The film also had to look like a high-society dinner in Europe or America, not a location in Hanoi, and we had one shoot day to get it.

The decision that made it work

The agency's outline was simple: a rich couple unveils their new masterpiece to their guests, and it turns out to be a ridiculous fake Mona Lisa. Our director Hạnh Vũ kept that idea and added the beats that make it land.

The guests arrive carrying small gift bags in Nova Eye's colours. The hosts sit at the head of the table with mysterious smiles, watching. Behind them, a painting hangs under a red cloth and a spotlight. When the curtain comes back, the reveal plays in slow motion, the guests' faces fall one by one, and the music stops on a record scratch. The Mona Lisa is grinning. One guest whispers, "Is she smirking at us?"

Then the line that ties it to the product: like the Mona Lisa, there is only one original masterpiece of canaloplasty.

We built the dining room set from scratch, cast every role with international actors, and shot the whole film in a single day with a crew of more than 30. The agency checked every detail, and they also took our suggestions seriously. It was one of the best collaborations we've had, and one of our biggest productions to date.

The result

The client was very happy with the film, and Media MICE released it on their channel for the ophthalmology community.

Who this kind of film is for

International brands and agencies who want to produce in Vietnam, and B2B or medical brands that want a commercial people remember, not another product demo.