In 2010, French DJ and producer Martin Solveig scored a global hit with his bouncy electro-pop confection "Hello" and a funny, hugely popular accompanying music video shot at Roland Garros Stadium in Paris, site of the French Open.
Creative agency Herezie remade the clip with a nocturnal spin for this year's tennis tournament, touting Amazon Prime Video's exclusive deal to stream night sessions from center court.
Marking the debut of French Open matches under the lights, the film features a silly match between Solveig and Swiss player Stan Wawrinka. D.J. Bob Sinclar—Solveig's opponent in the 2010 video—also appears, as do YouTubers McFly and Carlito, and French tour star Lucas Pouille.
That's a cute twist ending and comic turn from Wawrinka. Unfortunately, the winner of three Grand Slam titles is out of action at present, nursing a foot injury. At least he's got famous pals to hang with and a comfy couch for after-dark Prime tennis viewing. (Nice bathrobe, dude.)
Cadence director Marie Schuller, who's held court in commercials before, comes up aces, maintaining a breezy pace that serves the jokes well. Since this is 2021, of course there's a TikTok challenge around Solveig's faulty dance moves at 2:45.
Here's the original "Hello" video, filmed in broad daylight, with a cameo by current world No. 1 Novak Djokovic:
Herezie executive creative director Etienne Renaux calls the "Hello" reboot, "one of the toughest projects of our careers so far. At one point, two weeks before the shoot, we even considered canceling it. You can't imagine how complicated it was to get all the talent together on the same day. I think we wrote 30 versions of the script, so we'd be ready for anything."
The team shot it all in a single night.
"We started filming at 5 p.m. with the indoor scenes, then we moved on to the actual game—until 5:30 a.m.," recalls Paul Marty, the agency's other ECD. "We needed to wait for a very dark lighting to get the best images possible, so we didn't even start shooting the first images of the game until around 11 p.m."
He adds: "Our biggest fear was that we'd 'lose' the talent at some point since it was an all-night shoot, but guess what? Martin stayed until the very end, Stan until 4 a.m. They really wanted to be there and play themselves. They stayed there all night. So, guys, if you're reading this, we're very, very sorry!"
CREDITS
Music: "Hello"
Written by Martin Solveig and Martina Sorbara
Composed and Produced by Martin Solveig
Performed by Martin Solveig and Dragonette
Published by Dragonette Inc, Temps d'Avance, EMI Music Pubishing
Video: Co-produced by AMAZON PRIME VIDEO & TEMPS D'AVANCE
Brand: Amazon Prime Video
Senior Social Media Manager: Alexandre Andresciani
Social Media Manager - Sport: Harry Hesp
EU Creative Director: Xuan Pham
Agency: Herezie Group
CEO: Andrea Stillacci
Executive Creative Directors: Etienne Renaux, Paul Marty
Creative team: Leo Michel & Marie Dutech
Business Director: Dimitri Boudnikoff
Account Manager: Hugo Gobin
Account Executive: Caroline Bescht
TV production: Tanya Kozlova, Laureen Rigot
Influence & talents: Joshua Roa (Studio 71)
Production company: Cadence
Director: Marie Schuller
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