The Project: A 30-second spot for Coke Lite targetted to an international audience.

Ad Agency: Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, OR.

Production Company: Ritts/Hayden, Los Angeles, CA

The Mandate: To create an international spot for Coke Lite that is set in a train station familiar to both European and Latin American markets.

The Solution: The spot entailed a three-day shoot orchestrated by Pioneer Productions, Budapest on location at Budapest's Keleti train station.

Ad agency Wieden & Kennedy had already developed a 30-second spot for the American market through Ritts/Hayden in July, 1999. Titled "At the Station," the commercial was shot in Philadelphia by director Carlton Chase.

When Coca-Cola decided to recreate the spot for an international audience, Ritts/Hayden began searching for a train station that could pass for either a European or Latin American location. Paris, Madrid and Budapest were among the locations researched for the shoot.

Bill Hayden, executive producer at Ritts/Hayden, contacted Jennifer Webster, executive producer at Pioneer Productions in Budapest. Together they defined the parameters of the desired location: the station should appear generically European and its tracks should be inoperable throughout the three-day production.

Webster forwarded photographs of a couple of train stations in Budapest to Ritts/Hayden via email. The LA production house chose the Keleti train station.

Having shot at Keleti before, Webster knew the availability of the station would depend largely on scheduling.

"Yes, in theory they could close down and control the traffic of one or two of the tracks inside," Webster explained to Hayden. "It would all depend on the days of the week and the price and so forth, depending on how much we wanted to control."

Webster drafted a budget proposal which ranged from $US200,000 to $230,000, including location fees, equipment, crew, and service fees. In addition, a separate talent budget was quoted between US$30,000 and $35,000. One of the benefits of shooting in Budapest is that the buyout is included in the talent's daily rate. The flat rate is negotiated up front.

"We were considering either ultra modern European train stations or old European train stations," says Chase. "As far as the old ones went there were other options as well as Budapest. It was primarily getting the best production value for the least amount of cost."

Agency Producer Robyn Boardman agreed. "It was a combination of the fact that they had a great location and it was much cheaper to shoot there. Extras are like $45 a day compared to $US220 or $230 for eight hours."

Casting began with the search for a guitar player, since the spot features a musician waiting for a train on a hot, sunny day. Thirsty, the musician begins playing in an effort to earn money for a Coke.

"All of the casting was done in Budapest," says Webster. We were casting for real guitar players, and Carlton also wanted to do street casting in order to get real people - a real faces approach."

Chase was involved in most of the production process, and according to Webster, paid particular attention to authenticity.

"He definitely has an interesting approach and he really likes everything to be as authentic as possible. For instance, he wanted to stay in this tiny little hotel in the Jewish quarter to get a real flavor for the local place and the people. This was a real mom and pop hotel. In fact the woman at the front desk thought that she knew Carlton's parents because she'd lived in Cleveland, it was really bizarre."

Approximately 60 extras were involved in each day of the shoot. There was also a customs clearance person in the crew, which is standard procedure with Pioneer. Also, a high-speed photosonic camera was brought in from Germany for a day to capture shots of money floating through the air. The cost of the photosonic camera, including an operator, transport and insurance was about $5,000.

"We had total control of one of the tracks all day long and then one of the tracks, the one next to it, we controlled for only half of the day. So that was kind of nuts in the morning hours when we were shooting and there were people trying to get on and off the trains and around our crew."

"At The Station" is slated to air end of 99 or early 2000.

WEB.FILES
Pioneer Productions: www.pioneer.hu