Hollywood Heavyweight Turns Lens on Team Singapore Sports Stars for 28th SEA Games

Sport Singapore, Ogilvy & Mather Singapore, and Oscar-nominated film director Tony Kaye have teamed up to produce a series of TVCs to rally the nation in support of Team Singapore athletes ahead of the 28th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games which will return to the Lion City from 5-16 June 2015, after a 22-year hiatus.

Building on the SEA Games’ theme of “Celebrate the Extraordinary”, the nine web films and TVCs turned the lens on Team Singapore athletes as they showcase their extraordinary sporting abilities – from shooting hoops while blindfolded to delivering 40 punches in eight seconds, with no camera tricks necessary.

“Singapore has a shorter than short supply of heroes, especially when it comes to sports stars. That, in a nutshell, is the brief and objective of Sport Singapore’s SEA Games campaign – using the platform of the 28th SEA Games to lionize our athletes. It is thrilling to see their superhuman qualities captured so powerfully through Tony Kaye’s directorial vision,” said Eugene Cheong, chief creative officer, Ogilvy & Mather Singapore.

“When people watch these films, they will really get a sense of not only the phenomenal physical abilities of the athletes, but also their extraordinary sacrifice and devotion. These local heroes deserve our support and we hope to see our stadiums and stands filled with Singaporeans cheering as One Team Singapore,” said Toh Boon Yi, chief of strategic development and marketing group, Sport Singapore.

Tony Kaye, the acclaimed English director, whose works include Academy-recognised films such as American History X and Lake of Fire, says he decided to lend his artistic eye to Singapore’s local sports scene simply because the scripts and ideas were great.

“These films are a celebration of people that have pushed themselves further than a lot of us have. An athlete is a kind of a mythic god. Everyone looks up to a great athlete because they know the sacrifices that they have to make to get themselves into the condition to compete,” said Kaye. “This project was really a labor of love.”

The series of TVCs featuring Singaporean sports stars in rugby, swimming, basketball, table tennis, athletics and more, will be released throughout the month of May and will run until the end of the SEA Games on 16 June on TV, out-of-home billboards, screens and social media in Singapore and across Southeast Asia.

Check out the behind the scene making of video.