Subject: [sumo] offtopic: sumo commercial

[Robert Hovestadt]

If all else fails John I can pu them up on my Photobucket Account and give
the list access to it.

Bob "Sherlockiama" Hovestadt

On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 12:43 AM, john traill <johnofuji at hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> Usu
> The Lenovo Sumo Commercial was shot over three 12 hour days in Sydney and
> they contacted me through the Australian Sumo Federation to assist with the
> mawashi and some of the sumo choreography- if you could call it that. No CG
> was used so they had to arrange the 40 odd sumo extras involved to make the
> formations. A massive crane was used to film overhead and also to suspended
> the "heros" as they are called in the air for take-off scene. There were no
> safety harnesses as they wouldn't fit so a steel frame was built around
> them.
>
> We started at 5am and they blocked off a few streets in the middle of the
> city. Quite a few visiting pilgrims from World Youth Day were seen blushing
> as they looked on at this remarkable spectacle. My first question was the
> same as  Huzayomama and then I realised that it is not hard at all to find
> 40 large units especially since we overtook the US as the fattest nation on
> the planet. In fact there seems to be agencies that specialise in oversized
> extras mostly Tongans, Maoris and Samoans.(I blame immigration for taking
> that title off the Americans) one guy was a dead ringer dor George Foreman
> but bigger and there was even an Ugly Betty look alike. The average weight
> would have been over 160kgs with a couple of them weighing in at about
> 240kegs or over 500lbs.
>
> Sumo wigs are usually a problem  and sometimes cost $3000 to make with real
> hair and $600 a day to hire. I usually give up even trying to show them how
> a chon mage should be as hairdressers always have their own interpretation
> of how what think it should look. The end result looks more like what would
> happen if cows could fly. On this occasion the hairdresser managed to find
> enough cheap wigs and apart from a few of the distant extras she really did
> make silk purses out of sows ears.
>
> I got hold of all the mawashi I could find in the country and the other
> half had to be made. The producer wanted the white ones to be whiter and the
> black ones to be not so black so they don't absorb too much light. As it is
> bad luck to wash a mawashi I told them that was as white as they were going
> to get and convinced them that those suspicious marks were just clay from
> the dohyo.  Thankfully the wardrobe department bought some disposable
> fundoshi/undies and made some ingenious elastic slip on mawashi for the rest
> of the extras because there was no way I could retie them every time someone
> felt the call of nature. My hands were very sore after having to tie the
> mawashi almost 100 times in 3 days. I made sure I had plenty of disinfectant
> on hand. On the final day I insisted on no lighting in the change room they
> set up in a parking lot where they filmed the blue screen flying shots. Some
> blokes had bulges on their bulges and it was a real challenge to make sure
> the wobbly bits didn't reach daylight. One guys hernia lumps were so strange
> I thought he had a co-joined foetus growing out of his tummy. I was forced
> to ignore authenticity and had to use a bit of creative mawashi origami for
> people like Konishiki sized Herb who is first off the bus.
>
> The catering truck really worked overtime to feed everyone with exotic
> gourmet food. At meal time many of the sumo extras would just park their
> chairs next to the smorgasbord to save time getting up for seconds and
> thirds and fourths. They even had people to bring munchies, pastries,
> toasted sandwiches and hot soup onto the set to keep up energy levels. There
> was a first aid officer on hand but I suppose being half naked in the
> freezing cold meant that a bit of bonding and comraderie inevitably
> distracted them from sore feet, fatigue and diabetes. At one stage they all
> performed the maori haka whilst waiting for the cameras to be reset.
> Whenever they were asked to back it up the jokers all made noises like a
> truck in reverse.
>
> Anyway It certainly was an experience but I will not be giving up my day
> job in finance. I got to keep the new mawashi (after I insisted on having
> them all dry cleaned) so they will be perfect for the junior sumo team
> Katrina is putting together.   Unfortunately there was only one possible
> recruit for the team but I'm sure I could lure more of them if we put on a
> free hangi.
> I have some pictures to go with it but sumo forum won't let me post them
> for some reason so if anyone can please help I can forward them on.
> Gotsuandesu
> Johnofuji> Message: 6> Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2008 21:36:11 -0400> From: "Emma
> Kolstad Antunes" <emma at rpg.net>> Subject: [sumo] offtopic: sumo
> commercial> To: "Sumo Mailing List" <sumo at webtrek.com>> Message-ID:> <
> dfbadead0808161836m8820820yee3b7921c9e68098 at mail.gmail.com>> Content-Type:
> text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1> > I've been seeing this commercial while
> watching the olympics, and it's> fun to imagine sumo wrestlers flying...> >
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OesLO1hvN6U> > Enjoy,> mineyama> > >
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