An alien fairytale: the inspiration behind Samsung's 'Night mode' film

When Matilda Finn, the director behind Samsung's "Night mode" ad by Mother, was a child she would look out of the window at night to the nearby town and dream of something bigger.

This was her inspiration for the otherworldly dreamland that is the Samsung film released last month. It showcases upcoming designer Charles Jeffrey and his entourage of friends enjoying the night time in a forest, with a light shining on them – a Samsung Galaxy S22 phone.

Finn says her thinking was an "integral part of the background conversations between myself and Mico [Toledo, creative director at Mother] representing who these nightwalkers were: the artists who can't sleep, who strive for more".

She adds: "I wanted it to feel like an alien fairytale, with a childhood innocence to it. The alien is how I felt like an alien sometimes in my little sleepy village."

Toledo approached Finn for the project through mutual friend Ben Fordesman (director of photography). "Mico and Mother were clear that they wanted to embrace something weird and wonderful with Charles [Jeffrey] and Samsung on board," Finn adds.

Working with a fashion designer
The idea behind the collaboration with Jeffrey was to deepen Samsung's relationship with fashion as the brand wanted to target new audiences, Toledo says.

"This campaign is very much part of a series including collaborating with talent such as YungBlud and Samm Henshaw," Alex Conaway, head of brand for mobile, wearables and hearables at Samsung, explains. "We love to work with exceptional creators, pairing them up with our technology to enable them to produce innovative and engaging content."

Samsung had been in conversations with the British Fashion Council for some time and Jeffrey and his Loverboy brand was highlighted from the off. "His deep connection to club nights and being dubbed the 'king of the night' integrated brilliantly with the exceptional night-time photographic capabilities of the new device," Conaway says.

"Loverboy also represents freedom of expression, joy and absolute positivity – this is true to our brand DNA, which we wanted to bring to life.

"We also were looking for something incredibly distinctive for this launch. A strong, ownable look to stand out among a sea of sameness in the category. There is no doubt at all that Charles' eye-popping colour, styling and design delivered that."

Toledo notes that Jeffrey is considered to be the next Alexander McQueen. "To be able to invest and partner with such a talent that could also speak to a younger audience with such originality and authenticity was a really important thing for us," he explains.

"If we were going to dip our toes into fashion, we needed the right partner and Charles was brilliant, from providing all the clothes, make-up and notes in our fashion film, to acting himself in our six short films that really burst the fashion bubble with humour and wit."

'Bonkersness of the fashion world'

Samsung often uses shorts to show the functional side of its products. The fashion film wasn't the place for this, Toledo says. So the team turned the narrative and produced a series of comedic clips. One showcases the S Pen, which Jeffrey uses to design on the go and declare: "I'm all about practicality." He then struggles to leave the taxi he's in because of his impractical big hair.

"We decided to write some really funny films that went the opposite way of the fashion film," Toledo says. "Almost as if the shorts were poking fun at the fashion world, as the fashion film itself was a bit more serious.

"The short product films were a way for us to be self-referential to the bonkersness of the fashion world and Charles Jeffrey was really on board when he read the scripts and actually worked with us to further develop some scenes and dialogues.

"He's super funny in person and really self-aware of some of the ridiculousness of the fashion world, so we took on a lot of his personality and tone of voice and added that into the script.

"If you think the fashion film is Superman, the little fashion shorts are the Bizarro World Superman. They're in contrast with each other but together work in beautiful synchrony."