Written by Tom Deehan on Jul 8, 2016. Posted in On Location

Ronaldinho drives through the streets of Rio in XXL commercial

For their latest commercial, sports-retailer XXL have enlisted the help of SouthWest Productions to shoot on location in multiple areas throughout Rio de Janeiro. The spot features a young boy who attempts to return a wallet to acclaimed footballer Ronaldinho, but is mistaken for a thief by the local authorities and gets caught up in a chase.

Based in Lisbon, SouthWest Productions has a wealth of experience in servicing commercials shoots for a number of high-profile clients including McDonald's, Adidas, Microsoft, Mercedes and IKEA.

In discussing why Rio was chosen for the commercial, Executive Producer of SouthWest Productions Staffan Tranæus explains: “XXL’s previous commercial, Airport Love was made as a protest against the homophobia surrounding the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia by featuring a lesbian character. They want their commercials to be on the edge and with this spot, they wanted to highlight the treatment of street kids in Rio in the run-up to the Olympics.”

“Our two Directors, Måns Mårlind and Bjorn Stein have worked on a number of big projects including the popular TV show The Bridge, so they quickly understood the logistics. We shot early in the morning to avoid traffic and made sure that we moved between locations that were close to one another to create an efficient schedule.”

“We had plenty of challenges to overcome including the use of green-screen and capturing skateboard tricks, but the real challenge was one we couldn’t predict. On the day with the money shot down at the beach, it rained! This was a shame because Rio usually has fantastic weather.”

When asked what advice he would give to people filming in Rio, Tranæus proclaimed: “call me! I’ve worked in Portugal for many years but with my wife being Brazillian, I have spent a lot of time in the country and I love it there. Despite its recent economic turmoil, Brazil has extreme beauty. It has always been an expensive place but the recent fall of the local currency has made it more affordable. I only wish I could shoot there more often!”

In the absence of a national tax incentive, foreign Producers are encouraged to enter into co-production agreements if they want to film on location in Brazil. Co-production status can provide access to domestic grants for filmmaking.

Rio is a particularly popular location for commercials shoots, with Ocean Films having shot there earlier in 2016 for a spot advertising the 20^th anniversary of Pokémon.

Credits

Client: XXL

Production Company: Camp David

Production Service Company: SouthWest Productions