The Project: A 30-second spot for Radio 1 Holland.

Ad Agency: KesselsKramer, Amsterdam

Production Company: Stink Films, London

The Mandate: The spot had a tight budget and required interesting city-based locations which were unavailable in Holland, or were difficult to access due to a laborious permits process there. The directors, Iceland-born, U.sboards||19991101.-based Snorri Brothers and the agency creatives were keen on shooting in Prague.

The Solution: Stink Films, which represents the Snorris in Europe brought the shoot to Prague and to that city's Stillking Films. (The Snorri Brothers are repped by New York-based production company You). The spot was shot over two days in five locations. The commercial tells the story of news spreading through a city, being passed from person to person to a variety of different people in different settings. The spot, however runs "backwards," ending with the original bearer of news waking to the sound of Radio 1.

Executive producer on the spot was Stink Films' Daniel Bergman, who is also a principal at Stillking and a native of Prague. The city is known not only for its array of eye-pleasing locations but for the quality of its production infrastructure. Stillking, founded in 1993 is located in the Barandov Studios, which house 11 sound stages, effects facilities and a full service Kodak lab.

Shooting took place in Prague's Letna Park, in the Namesti Miru subway station, on the roof of the Lucerna building in central Prague and inside and outside at the Hotel Praha. Agency producer Jacqueline Kouwenberg says it was easier and cheaper to get those locations in Prague; it might have taken weeks to get a permit to shoot in the subway in Holland, she says.

Stillking Producer Marcela Jureckova says the crew on the project was small, about 25 people in all. The daily rate for a key crew person is equivalent to about $US85. Five performers were used and Stillking conducted street casting for the spot, using real people found around Prague. Crew and cast are not covered by unions and talent can be bought out for fairly attractive rates. The spot shot on Super 16mm film, using an Arri 16SR 11, supplied by Vantage, a German-based company with offices in Prague. According to Stillking, shooting in Prague typically represents about a 40% saving over centers like New York and London. Stillking does about 10 foreign-based commercials per year in Prague as well as a number of features, MOWs and music videos.

Stillking also has a new media division which deals with Internet strategy and Web design and which acts as a support for the production service company, offering online location photos. As well, Stillking has been working on a service called Worldsite, which allows the company to post an entire project file online so that everything, including location photos, casting shots, storyboards and schedules are accessible to all global participants in a spot in a password protected file.

AGENCY CREDITS:
Art Director: Erik Kessels
Copywriter: Johan Kramer
Producer: Jacqueline Louwenberg

WEB.FILES
Kesselskramer: www.kesselskramer.com
Stillking: www.sboards||19991101tillking.com