Most of us in the more southern regions of the world take it for granted that when we wake up in the morning we'll be greeted by the sun. But for the residents of towns in northernmost regions, like Canada's Inuvik, the rising of the sun can be something of an event.

Inuvik, situated in the Northwest Territories, experiences 30 days of continuous polar night every winter, culminating in a Sunrise Festival which celebrates the return of sunlight in January. Beverage brand Tropicana decided to invoke the sun a little earlier however with its Brighter Mornings for Brighter Days campaign.

Launched earlier this month with a kick-off spot, "Arctic Sun", directed by Radke Film Group, Toronto and Film Group, Vancouver director Samir Mallal via BBDO, Toronto, the campaign documents the raising on an artificial sun much to the delight of the town's citizens.

To achieve this feat, the production team constructed a 36-foot wide helium balloon, which emitted 100,000 lumens of light, roughly the same amount of illumination provided by direct sunlight.

"The first time we turned the balloon on, a crowd gathered because people had heard about what we were doing," says Mallal, a documentary filmmaker who made his commercials debut with this spot. "The whole crowd gasped. Fortunately we were recording sound - we didn't record sound for most of the spot - but for that moment we were and we actually used it a little bit in the commercial. We captured this real reaction and at that moment I realized this was really cool."

Cool but also downright cold. Temperatures during the shoot averaged around -40 Celsius, which presented its own unique challenges.

"My eyelashes kept getting frozen, that was the biggest challenge of the production for me," jokes Mallal. "Things don't work the same way when it's minus 40. You need double of everything. We had two cameras because if one malfunctions you have to be ready right away with something else. As an example, we shot on film but you can't bring the camera inside, you have to keep it cold. If you bring it in it condenses."

A similar calculation had to be made for the helium. The balloon was supplied by lighting balloon manufacturer Airstar, who found a balloon of the right dimensions sitting on an inventory shelf in France that hadn't been used for years. At temperatures that low, helium shrinks in volume, which meant that some 125 large cylinders of helium had to be shipped in.

"We had to figure out how much more helium would be required to fill the balloon at these low temperatures and then somehow find that amount of helium and ship it north," notes EP Michael Haldane. "The biggest concern is equipment freezing up and the crew working slower. Everything takes 3x longer and costs 3x as much in the Arctic!"

Mallal remarks that "everyone in the town was so warm that it made up for the cold." Indeed, everyone in Inuvik - whose diverse population, which includes Inuvialuit and First Nations but also Lebanese, Nigerians and Indians - was amenable to the shoot, including town mayor Denny Rodgers. The balloon launched during a Saturday-morning event organized by Tropicana, which also worked with local leaders to identify breakfast and nutrition programs that needed financial support. A true community effort, the towns people themselves figure prominently in the documentary-style spot.

"It was really about the effect that the balloon was having on people and seeing it from as many different vantage points as possible," says Mallal of his focus. "Because of the way we shot it, we planned it and said, ‘We're going to have these elements in place.' But then there's a certain amount of improvisation there because you don't know exactly what's going to happen. That kind of energy you feel in the cut. For me, it was about capturing it from as many points as possible so that later on we'd be able to construct a story that functioned on a really emotional level."

www.bbdo.ca
www.radkefilms.com
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www.airstar-light.com