Written by new-contact on Jun 19, 2012. Posted in Production News

Blink Productions stages a global odyssey in South Africa for Tennent’s Lager

Blink Productions has created a global period odyssey in a new campaign for Tennent’s Lager. World Trip shows the brand’s characters Hugh Tennent and Barnes on a Victorian trek across deserts, through jungles and remote valleys, before they settle on a hillside to enjoy their lager.

The production team looked at locations as far afield as Jamaica, Costa Rica and Uruguay but eventually chose to film entirely in South Africa, with the cast and small crew spending three days in and around Cape Town. Finding the spaces here to double for exotic international locations was one of the challenges.

Clare van Zyl produced the campaign for Monkey Films: “All locations were within a 200km radius of central Cape Town. The production required that we shoot in pristine, uninhabited locations showing vast geographical diversity, as if on an adventurous around-the-world trip in the Victorian era. The actual locations used were the Stanford River, Kraalbaai Beech, Atlantis Dunes, Sivermine Nature Reserve and Constantia Greenbelt.”

Filming was either handheld or stabilised with an EasiRig and a lot of time was spent driving between locations. The team also had to track down a great drycleaner to remove 5kg of coloured pigment from the period costumes after shots where Tennent and Barnes enjoy the religious Holi festival.

Shooting sound on the top of a windy mountain, while trying to capture a sunset, with interference from the TV signals of Cape Town mucking up the radio mike, is not something I'll forget!

Patrick Craig, Blink Productions

Patrick Craig produced the spot for Blink: “Scheduling was very tricky because most of the locations only worked at specific times of day. So it was one massive jigsaw puzzle, working out how to schedule everything to work in the time, while also making sure Paul [Minor, the Director] and Matthias [Koenigswieser, the Director of Photography] had the best possible light.

“Shooting sound on the top of a windy mountain, while trying to capture a sunset, with interference from the TV signals of Cape Town mucking up the radio mike, is not something I'll forget!”

There was a small crew, one of the reasons being that chasing epic scenery with no traces of modernity led them to a lot of national park locations where filming regulations are very restricted.

Craig concludes: “Make sure you work with Monkey Films; I don't believe anyone else could have pulled this off.”

Credits:
Client: Tennent’s Lager
Agency: Newhaven, Edinburgh
Production Company: Blink Productions, London
Producer: Patrick Craig
Production Service Company: Monkey Films, Cape Town
Line Producer: Clare van Zyl
Director of Photography: Matthias Koenigswieser
Director: Paul Minor