The Project: A 60-second spot for Citibank.

Ad Agency: Kirschenbaum, Bond & Partners, New York.

Production Company: Fusion Films, Santa Monica.

The Mandate: Film acting talent walking through a diverse set of exotic locations and do it within a tight budget.

The Solution: It was the range of locations, not just the price, which persuaded Fusion Films, Santa Monica CA, and Kirschenbaum, Bond and Partners, New York, to shoot a commercial in Mexico.

The 60-second Citibank commercial, entitled "How to Measure a Mile" required a wide range of exotic locales to illustrate how far consumers can travel using the Citibank Advantage Card. Fusion Films' director/cameraman Patrick Solomon used slow shutter speed images to portray a man stepping from a busy city street to travel around the world, walking through an array of diverse settings.

"We had to show remote and exotic locations like pyramids, beautiful white sand beaches, little towns and jungle, so Mexico was the easiest place to go for those locations", says Fusion executive producer Peter Abraham. "We could have gone to Bali to shoot, but given the financial constraints, going to the Yucatan made more sense."

After asking around, Abraham settled on a highly recommended Mexican production company, Mexico City's Ultra Films. He then passed the production to the hands of freelance line producer Coni Lancaster. After shooting at several southern California locations, including downtown Los Angeles, Mammoth Mountain and Owen's Dry Lake Bed, Lancaster and her small crew packed up their gear and flew to Cancun. They were met at the airport by Ultra Film's line producer Adolfo Navarro.

"He met us and the agency people there, put us in a van and we went location scouting," recalls Lancaster. "We shot in Cancun, outside of the city and in the ruins of Chichen Itza about three hours out of the city."

Shooting in the Mayan ruins proved a challenge. Lancaster praises the freelance Mexican location scout, Diego Sandoval for cutting through the red tape.

"I don't know how they made it happen but they dealt with it - very few people get to shoot in those ruins."

Kircschenbaum, Bond & Partners producer Betsy Schoenfeld, who was also in Mexico for the shoot was impressed with the quality of the small crew of nine provided by Ultra Films.

"Even their craft-services guy was amazing," says Schoenfeld. "We were in the jungles of the Yucatan shooting and this guy (Arturo Nunez) comes walking through with Cappuccinos - it was surreal!"

The commercial had a production budget of approximately $US150,000; of that, $60,000 was spent during two days of shooting in Mexico. Nearly 80% of the footage in what Fusion Films' Abraham calls a "pretty tightly budgeted" spot resulting from the Mexican shoot - lower costs are an obvious lure.

For example, a Mexican key grip earns about 500 pesos (or $US50 per day). Mexican commercial crew members are generally not unionized, although those who also work on features do hold union cards.

"Shooting in Mexico was money saved," says Schoenfeld. "If you look at how many locations we got and how worldly the spot looks it was very economical. It really looks like we went to many different places when we really went to two."

Ultra Films was founded in 1984 by Jean-Michel Lacor, a native of France. The company's executive producer, Nicole Soriano, says the company works on many foreign commercials, feature films, documentaries and television projects.

"We complete an average of 30 commercials per year, lending services to companies from Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia," says Soriano.

Soriano says the Americans brought their own cameras and did not need sound or lighting equipment. Grip equipment was rented from CTT EXP & Rentals in Mexico City.

"There is a lot of equipment available in Mexico", says Soriano. "But there is always a lot shooting in Mexico also."

WEB.FILES
Kirschenbaum, Bond & Partners: www.kb.com
Fusion Films: www.fusionfilms.com
Citibank: www.citibank.com
Ultra Films: www.ultrafilms.com.mx