Back to School with SanDisk and Pokémon


September, 2026

Sandisk came to us with two new products from its Pokémon collection: the Mew Edition USB-C flash drive and the Mewtwo Edition portable SSD. Our assignment was to build a story around them that felt playful, cinematic, and true to the world people already love.


The fun part was obvious. The challenge was making sure the products never got lost in it.


Pokémon brings decades of character, nostalgia, and visual language into the room before you have filmed a single frame. We wanted to use that energy without trying to recreate the Pokémon universe too literally. The film still needed to feel like SanDisk, and the drives needed to be more than props. They had to help move the story forward.



The Best Kind of Location Scout


This was our first shoot at Oakland Hills Campus, a former school where many of the spaces are already built out as labs, lecture halls, and traditional classrooms. That variety gave us a solid foundation from the start.


The location scout was especially fun. We walked through the campus, tried different angles, and talked through how we might use each space. Having those environments already in place gave us more room to play with the framing, lighting, and production design.


Keeping the Products at the Center


With a world as recognizable as Pokémon, there is always a lot you could do. The discipline was knowing when to pull back.


The concept needed enough color and imagination to feel worthy of the collaboration, but the SanDisk products still had to lead. That shaped everything from the framing to the pacing. We kept looking for ways to make the product shots feel integrated into the action rather than inserted between scenes.


Watch the finished film.

A Crew That Ran With It


Our Director, Laura D'Antoni, brought the playful energy to the storytelling. Our DP, Erick Turcios, gave the visuals their rich color,  energy and sense of adventure. Melda, our Art Director, transformed the familiar school setting into a world with its own personality. Each department added another layer, but everything still felt connected.


That is one of our favorite parts of a shoot like this. At the scout, you can see the outline of an idea. Then the crew arrives and starts making it real. A hallway changes once it is lit. A familiar room becomes strange from the right angle. A tiny drive fills the frame through a probe lens. Everyone brings something that pushes the original idea a little further.


This project had plenty of those moments.

If you are the kind of person who pauses a behind-the-scenes frame to figure out what we were shooting with, this part is for you.


Cameras and lenses


  • ARRI Alexa Mini LF
  • RED Komodo
  • Nikon ZR
  • ZEISS Supreme Prime lenses: 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 100mm
  • Angénieux zoom lenses
  • Laowa 10mm RF
  • Laowa 24mm Probe EF
  • Sigma 18–35mm EF



We’ve been spending more time lately partnering with brands on unique projects across Robotics, AI, Defense, Autonomous Technology, SaaS, Advanced Manufacturing, and more.  If you’re working on something interesting, we should meet. hello@thinkfoundry.com

Our  Video Production Work

We’ve worked at tech companies ourselves, so we know what tech companies need. We understand manufacturing, engineering, robotics, and more because we’ve experienced it. Learn more about us and see what we’ve accomplished.