PROJECT: "Back to School," a K-Mart spot targeting the Puerto Rican market.

AGENCY: Castor Advertising, Miami, FL.

PRODUCTION COMPANY: La Casa Films, New York, with services provided by Magic Films, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

MANDATE: To assemble an authentic, talent-rich ad that could speak to both young and adult Puerto Ricans.

Director Maria Mendez-Anthony, of La Casa and Andres Fortuño of Miami's Castor Advertising worked with Magic Films of San Juan to cast and shoot "Back to School," a song-and-dance kids fashion spot.

Mendez-Anthony worked with New York-based DP Joe DeSalvo and a Puerto Rican crew on the one-day shoot, reigning in 20 pre-teen and adolescent Puerto Ricans dancing and gamboling in both street clothes and school uniforms. Fortuño explains why Puerto Rico was chosen as the shoot's location: "First, the commercial was for Puerto Rico," says Fortuño. "Secondly we found a wide variety of characters, a mix of white, hispanic, indian and black people. Also, right now with the SAG strike, everyone is filming outside of the States."

Robert Mazze, executive producer at La Casa, says the SAG strike was a secondary concern; locations and appropriate talent were key, as was pricing. Mazze estimates prices in Puerto Rico at approximately 35% less than those in the continental US. Mendez-Anthony says Puerto Rico offers the same kind of savings as shooting in Mexico, but with fewer currency issues.

"What sometimes makes it difficult to work in Mexico is the exchange (between dollars and pesos), but since working in Puerto Rico is working in the US (the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is a territory of the US), all transactions are in dollars and everybody speaks both English and Spanish."

Mendez-Anthony swears by the talent and dedication of the young actors, aged five to 14, who participated in the K-Mart spot. She was particularly impressed with a teenaged break dancer, Carlos, who freestyled some K-Mart sponsored moves on a specially constructed platform.

"Given the age groups we were looking at was five to 14 it could have been hard to find breakdancers - a lot of the kids who came in were bigger and older. They looked like men," recalls Mendez-Anthony. "This kid walked in the room and I knew it as soon as I saw him - he could spin on one arm! He was strong and creative and was trying to find new moves, so we used him."

Crafts people brought together by Magic Films built a four foot wooden platform with plexiglass on top and a scaffold structure on either side, enabling the camera crew to capture the breakdance sequence from all angles, including below. The rest of the day was made up of larger group dance sequences overseen by Mendez-Anthony and local choreographer Jon Jon. Film was run by two camera teams operating Arri 435s doing crane shots and running a Power Pod remote cam. Executive producer Mazza says both crew and gear used for the job were almost exclusively Puerto Rican.

"We hired everybody except for the director and the DP in Puerto Rico and 95% of the equipment was from Puerto Rico; the unavailable lenses we had shipped in," says Mazze, who adds the majority of the gear came from PJ Gaffers in San Juan.

Puerto Rico does not have the established film industry present in other Spanish-speaking Caribbean countries like Mexico or Cuba, however Arlette Ayala, executive producer of Magic Films, says both local and foreign productions have been fueling the local production community.

"Since we were established in 1996, we have worked with local productions as well as larger jobs, like a global Pepsi spot starring Ricky Martin out of BBDO Puerto Rico," says Ayala. She says that while Salsa- and 'Latin-' themed ads make the island a popular location for European spots, others come for the tropical backdrop and variety of local faces. Director Wayne Isham out of A Band Apart Commercials, LA, filmed "Passion," a Bacardi ad out of McCann-Erickson with Magic Films. (Isham also shot the Ricky Martin video "Cup of Life" in Puerto Rico, although not through Magic.) However, Ayala says only about 10% of Magic's work comes from providing services for foreign shoots.

AGENCY Credits:

Creative Director/Copywriter: Andres Fortuño

Art Director: Provided by La Casa Films

Producer: Nadia Voukitchavitch