Asana, the US work-management platform, hired us to film a customer story with Fujitsu about how Asana supports the Japanese giant's digital transformation. We handled this bilingual corporate video production in Japan from the first interview call to the final English dub. Three senior Fujitsu leaders tell the story, including Yuzuru Fukuda, then Fujitsu's CIO and Chief Digital Transformation Officer. We filmed over two days at Fujitsu Technology Park in Kawasaki, just outside Tokyo.
The brief
Asana's US marketing team needed a customer story of two to three minutes and a set of short promotional clips, in Japanese and English, following a visual style set by their US agency. They needed a partner in Japan who could handle every conversation between Asana, the agency and Fujitsu.
How we produced it
Before filming, we ran pre-interviews with each Fujitsu interviewee by video call, in Japanese. We then translated the transcripts and questions for the Asana team, so everyone arrived on the day knowing what would be asked. After scouting the location, we filmed interviews on the first day and B-roll on the second. The Asana team flew in from the US for the shoot. We had less than an hour with Fukuda-san, so every setup was lit and tested before he sat down.
Projects like this need care. Fujitsu is Asana's customer and deserves great respect, while Asana was asking busy executives for a lot of their time. Clear, polite communication in Japanese keeps everyone comfortable and fully informed, with no surprises on the day. On other projects we have been brought in after an overseas team's first approach didn't land well, and we have always found a way through. We know what to say, how to say it, and where the boundaries are. We also know how to get things done.
The crew: director/DOP Andrew Goldie, a bilingual producer and translator, a camera assistant, a lighting assistant and a sound recordist.
What we delivered
We delivered the customer story film in Japanese and in English, with the English version dubbed, plus three promotional clips of 30, 15 and 15 seconds. Each clip came in 16:9, square and vertical formats, with subtitle files for every version.
See how we work on corporate video production in Tokyo. For more work with global teams filming in Japan, see ServiceNow and KPMG.
Client: Asana (direct)
Featuring: Fujitsu, including Yuzuru Fukuda (then CIO and CDXO)
Location: Fujitsu Technology Park, Kawasaki, Japan
Services: Bilingual pre-interviews, translation, location scouting, scheduling, production, interview filming, editing, English dubbing, subtitles, social cutdowns
Crew: Director/DOP Andrew Goldie, bilingual producer and translator, camera assistant, lighting assistant, sound recordist
Deliverables: Customer story film (Japanese and English); three short clips in 16:9, 1:1 and 9:16; subtitle files