Finding the Right Location to Shoot a Commercial

By Massimo Martinotti

A few months ago we got the board and the specs of the project. It was clear from the first moment that the location was the main challenge: we needed a beautiful, picturesque, historic, little Spanish town with perfectly preserved architecture and sunny, warm weather.

Of course many towns, both in the Iberian Peninsula and in Latin America, meet these requirements: A few places came immediately to my mind such as Chinch๓n in Spain, Evora in Portugal, Antigua in Guatemala, Cartagena in Colombia and San Miguel de Allende or Oaxaca in Mexico, but I decided to extend the research a little further. I called a few of my usual sources in Madrid, Barcelona, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires and I told them the story. "You should think of Sigenza", a Spaniard told me. "Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay is the right place, believe me!" affirmed an Argentine. I decided to concentrate our efforts on 5 towns that, despite their architectural peculiarities, fit the original requirements of the project: a picturesque, historical little town with a Hispanic flavor.

San Miguel de Allende was founded by a monk in 1542 and has been designated historical landmark since 1930. The town has preserved its colonial look by banning new construction and therefore most of its buildings keep their original style.

Antigua Guatemala, the first colonial capital of Central America, was established one year after San Miguel, in 1543. UNESCO declared Antigua "Heritage of Humanity" because of its colonial houses, churches, convents, squares and fountains structured according to the traditional Spanish grid design.

Sigenza, situated in Spanish "meseta", conserves its medieval structure with narrow and winding streets, stone buildings and historic monuments. The Plaza Mayor is a fantastic example of Renaissance architecture while the Cathedral has interesting gothic rosette windows dating from the 12th to the 15th centuries.

Evora, the capital of the Portuguese region of Alentejo, has over two thousand years of history. It combines roman ruins, medieval walls, gothic building and churches from the 16th century. Most of the houses of Evora have balconies covered with carnations and many of its streets and squares like Pra็a do Giraldo are flanked by an ancient arcade.

In Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, is a perfectly well preserved colonial town just across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires. Founded as Nova Colonia do Sacramento in 1680 by the Portuguese, it still preserves the colorful houses and cobblestone windy streets, reminiscent of certain sections of the old Lisbon.

While our producers in Latin America and Europe were working on gathering pictures of the different options we activated the estimating process. We detected that Antigua was the least expensive place to shoot, followed by Colonia (5% more), Evora (20%) and San Miguel or Sigenza (approximately 30% more expensive).

We got the locations pictures within 24 hours and we shared them with the director who decided that we should narrow down the list to three towns: Evora, Antigua and Colonia.

We analyzed the average weather conditions of all 3 places in the middle of February when we were supposed to shoot. We found out that in that period Colonia has approximately 13 hours and 30 minutes of sunlight a day, Antigua 11 hours and Evora a little more than 10 hours of sunlight. Furthermore Colonia, on average, receives 4.1" of precipitations with temperatures of 73บF, Antigua only 0.2" of rain with 63บF and Evora approximately 3" with an average temperature of 50บF.

Colonia and Antigua offered warmer and longer days, an important factor in this project. Even if we deeply regretted loosing the opportunity of eating a delicious Borrego Assado (Rosted lamb) at Fialho, the most traditional restaurant in Evora, the Portuguese town was dropped from the list.

If we shot in Antigua, we could cast in Mexico City, Bogota or Miami, cities less then three hours away by airplane. In the case of Colonia, the talent would be selected in Buenos Aires and transported to the location using the hydrofoil ferry that takes one hour to cross the estuary of the river from the Argentina to Uruguay.

We showed several casting tapes from previous jobs to the director in order to give him the feeling of what type of talent he could find in all those cities. He determined that Miami and Buenos Aires would give him the models he needed.

Colonia and Antigua were at this point on the same level in many aspects: the textures, the colors, the density and the atmosphere of both places looked perfect for the spot. The costs were pretty similar and the appropriate talent could have been found at a short distance.
We could have indeed shot in both places.

The Uruguayan town nevertheless had a few advantages in some areas: slightly warmer weather, one extra hour of sunlight a day and a faster connection to a major production center such as Buenos Aires which would make the production more efficient. Finally Colonia was the winner. We proposed it to the client and the agency, they all fell in love with the atmosphere of that little South American town, and a few days later we got the job awarded.

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