Inside the Ad That Used Hidden Cameras and Matty Matheson to Trick Unsuspecting Restaurant Staff

As trends are shifting to elevate culinary luxury to new heights, Arnold recently unveiled a campaign for Toast, celebrating the details of crafting a magical dining experience in a restaurant. The ‘One of Those Nights’ campaign stars The Bear’s Matty Matheson, and captures a distinctly demanding evening all staged at one of New York’s most iconic restaurants, Marea.

The experiential spot was directed by hidden camera expert Sam Cadman and features real people putting unsuspecting restaurant staff to the test. They believed the restaurant had agreed to let Toast have cameras document a “typical” night of their ordering system in action. However the experience saw restaurant staff navigating challenging orders to spotlight the zaniness of demanding customers.

‘One of Those Nights’ is a humorous and candid approach to the underappreciated moments that make a restaurant truly shine. LBB’s Lucy Briggs speaks to director Sam Cadman about hidden cameras, fast-paced environments, and coordinating radio frequencies.

LBB> Sam, you have a knack for working with hidden cameras and real people. How did you carve out this niche? 

Sam> I got my break as the co-creator and director of a prank comedy series called “Trigger Happy TV.” As soon as these episodes went on air, I was lucky enough to start pitching on ads. Over the years, some incredible creatives from some fantastic agencies and brands have asked me to keep doing this kind of thing, so I would have to say any kind of ‘carved niche’ is entirely their fault!

LBB> Tell us about the use of those techniques in this project. Was it always the plan? What was the pre-production like?

Sam> From the very first call, the lovely Lawson Clark and Jude Senese, whose excellent idea this was, were certain that pranking a real-world fancy restaurant was the only way to go. I totally agreed and we had a lot of fun casting the most absurd real-life picky eaters, as well as creating some ridiculous types of our own. P.J. Calapa, the super-talented head chef at Marea, and one of only three people at the restaurant who knew what we were doing, was even chucking in ideas he knew would drive the kitchen mad – I think this felt cathartic for him! Together, we created a simple premise that was immediately plausible to all the staff, that the management had agreed to let Toast document their ordering systems in action during a typical evening service. The tech-scout was hilarious, we all had to speak in code, pretending we were making something entirely different while my producer, Tony, made sure we booked every table. 

LBB> You used all available radio frequencies in Midtown Manhattan while talking via 40 earwigs in diners’ ears. What was it like to coordinate the whole team in such a high-pressure environment? Tell us about the logistics of that kind of undertaking.

Sam> The sound on this production was epic. As you mentioned, we had 40 earwigs spread across the principal diners, on top of at least 50 radio mics dotted throughout the venue. This had the potential to be insanity in our ears, however the gang at Gotham Sound were the best. From our control room hidden in the bowels of the building, I could call out any table number and immediately have only those mics come up, while at the same time being in the ear of those diners, guiding and directing them live. Good sound is more important than picture on this kind of production and often glitches and gremlins get into the system, but not this time.

LBB> How did you collaborate with the production team to create the perfect fast-paced environment and keep restaurant staff unsuspecting of what was going on?

Sam> A live experience like this is a huge team effort – in a nearby church hall PAs were making sure each diner knew exactly what to order, on the sidewalk outside the restaurant Sound Department were mic-ing up diners just before they went in, in the control room my tireless DP, Matthew Woolf (yes, Living in Oblivion fans, that really is his surname) was having to wrangle the five-person camera team via walkies; these poor operators had to hurriedly find hand-held frames as we went from table to table to table, without a break, for the whole evening. As each diner ordered, I’d be in their ear with any spontaneous prompts or alt lines based on how the waiters were reacting. And in the kitchen, when Matty went to meet the chef, I was quietly encouraging him to waste as much of the hard-working staff’s time as possible - Matty was brilliant at improvising this!

LBB> What’s the editing process and style like for a hidden camera job like this?

Sam> In total, there were eight cameras rolling non-stop for four or five hours. In my experience, the only way to cope with this volume of material is to sync it all up and watch on split screen in one go, skimming off anything that feels good regardless of the coverage. Once we had all the best bits in dedicated bins, it was about finding the right pace and tone. It felt important to balance the staff reactions with the funny orders, making sure we saw their polite frustration and weary surprise as we pushed them to the max. As a director, I love this part of the process and was keenly emailing notes to the very patient, uber-editor, Tom Scherma.

LBB> What was the most interesting challenge you faced during production, and how did you overcome it?

Sam> Knowing we only had one go at this, when all 70 or so diners hadn’t ever set foot inside the restaurant before should have been the biggest and most interesting challenge. However, in reality, this only made things more exciting and electric. In the church hall, I spent the afternoon rehearsing with all the diners. We set out tables in a rough approximation of the restaurant’s floorplan, seating them in the best configurations for our cameras and giving them the actual menus they would be ordering from. We then ran through the evening in the same sequence as I had designed - trying to make as much of this feel as familiar as possible. I should add, the patience of the agency and client during all of this was incredible, letting us concentrate on what really mattered as the clock counted down to service, making sure we’d knock it out of the park.

LBB> What was the funniest thing that happened during filming?

Sam> Matty and Ricky ordered and ate all their supper before our cameras got to them, which is why in the final film the waiter looks so surprised - they’re actually ordering a second helping of everything on the menu!