Kamo Residences, a small collection of luxury riverside residences run by Reflections, sits on the Kamo River in Kyoto. For this luxury residence video production in Kyoto we worked directly with the owner. We concepted, planned and produced a three-day lifestyle and architecture shoot at the peak of cherry blossom season, and filmed video and shot stills at the same time.
The brief
The idea was simple: show the property and its neighbourhood as beautifully as possible. Kamo sits in a quiet part of Kyoto, close to everything but away from the crowds. You can walk out along the river in any direction, or rent a bike and reach most of the city on the riverside paths. The film needed to feel like that.
How we produced it
Cherry blossom is hard to time perfectly. The weather, the bloom and the crowds all have to line up, and a busy weekend can ruin a morning. Because we kept our dates flexible, everything came together: the sun shone, the blossom peaked and the crowds parted.
Andrew Goldie was both DOP and photographer, so video and stills shared every lighting setup. A gaffer, a camera assistant, a stylist, a make-up artist and a producer made up the rest of the team, with a location van and driver to move us between setups. We took care of casting, location scouting, storyboarding and creative planning. For the models, we presented options to the client and negotiated usage terms with the agencies, so the client got the rights it needed at a price that suited the budget.
What we delivered
The deliverables were a 2-minute brand film, a 30-second edit and several 15-second reels, plus versions reformatted for each booking site. We also delivered the stills as a full-resolution library the client can recrop for any future use. The photography has its own post: Kamo Residences Kyoto photography.
See more of our hotel and resort video production in Japan, or another Kyoto project: ROKU KYOTO.
Client: Reflections, Kamo Residences (direct)
Location: Kamo River, Kyoto, Japan
Services: Concept, creative planning, storyboarding, location scouting, casting, talent usage negotiation, production, editing, colour grading, retouching
Crew: DOP and photographer Andrew Goldie, gaffer, camera assistant, stylist, make-up artist, producer
Deliverables: 2-minute film, 30-second edit, 15-second reels, booking-site versions, high-resolution stills library
