The Project: A three-spot campaign for AT&T Canada's wireless network.

Ad Agency: Young & Rubicam, Toronto

Production Company: Radke Films, Toronto.The spots were helmed by director/DP Gordon Clark, repped by Toronto's Radke Films in Canada and Tate & Partners in the U.sboards||19991101. Barcelona's Group Films serviced the Spain shoot.

The Mandate: The requirements were straightforward: bulls and a bull ring, and the appropriate wranglers. One spot features a bullfighter in a ring, first facing a lone bull and then a veritable stampede, as a visual metaphor for the overwhelming data demands on a network. Another spot, featuring an ice cream truck besieged by ravenous children required a European-look village square.

The Solution: The two obvious alternatives for the bull-ring spot were Mexico and Spain. The decision to shoot in Spain was based on timing (bull fighting season was in full swing in Mexico, therefore procuring bulls there was out of the question) and a strong endorsement from Clark, who had shot in Spain previously.

Radke had had previous contact with Group, a well established, 20-year-old commercial production shop, and brought the project to that company. A production manager from Group handled the initial location research, sending bull ring stills to the Canadian players via email.

Clark and Radke producer Brian Atkinson flew to Spain four days ahead of time for further scouting and settled on a small town called Tarragona for the bull ring spot and Girona for the ice cream spot. Agency producer Doug Lowe and the creative team joined them at the commencement of shooting. Canadian camera operator Jim Scott also made the trip.

The original schedule allotted for a three-day shoot, but due to one day of rain in Spain, Clark packed both technically rigorous spots into two days.

Group arranged a crew (about 50 people, with everyone including the caterer) and casting as well as bulls and bull wranglers. Crew rates, factoring in the currency exchange rate (currently about 150 pesetas per U.sboards||19991101. dollar) worked out to just slightly more than what a Canadian crew would cost, says Atkinson. (A typical key grip makes about 45,000 pesetas, or $US300 for a 12-hour day.) The quality of crew, according to all the players, was way above average. "The crew, especially the assistant director (Chema Linares) and the production manager (Lucia Grau), were outstanding says Lowe. "Given the scope and scale of this shoot, I was blown away by the lack of snags and problems."

Living expenses, like accommodation, says Atkinson were relatively high.

Gordon was also able to access the necessary camera gear and accessories for the complex shoot, including a Technocrane, two of which are stocked by Barcelona's Grip Performance (this toy is currently not even available in Canada). The crane cost about 200,000 pesetas, or about $US1,350 per day. Clark says that's relatively cheap and points to the quaity of the crane operator and the crew in general.

The notorious ill temper of bulls meant that only a handful of beasts could be used together at once, which meant that to create the look of a stampede, Clark had to shoot multiple passes of a few animals at a time. A number of steers (bulls minus the attitude) were also used - after being spray painted with vegetable dye to resemble their hormonally charged brethren. Clark then used a locked off, high angle shot to film the bulls in pie sections, a few at a time.

The same process would later be used for schoolchildren in the Ice Cream spot, says Atkinson, minus the spray paint. Compositing was done by James Cooper at Toronto's TOPIX/Mad Dog.

Group handled casting of actors for the bull spot (an actor was used for close-up scenes as real bull- fighters demanded big money) and a group of real schoolchildren for the Ice Cream spot. On shoot day - a school day - the kids showed up on set supervised by their teachers. With talent non-unionized, costs were lower as the agency could buy out actors with a one- time payment.

Extras included not only an on-set medic, but a surgeon standing by in case of gorings (there were none).

AGENCY CREDITS:
Creative Directors: John Farqur and David Adams
Copywriter: Craig Redmond
Art Director: Jeff Hilts
Producer: Doug Lowe

WEB.FILES
Young & Rubicam: www.yr.com
Topix/Mad Dog: www.topix.com/