Written by new-contact on Sep 14, 2010. Posted in Production News

Coke Zero shoots action-packed commercial in Bangkok

Soft drink brand Coke Zero has shot a new commercial in and around Bangkok. The Date shows a man racing to meet a girl on time and being helped along the way by a rapid-response unit resembling a SWAT team.

Los Angeles and Istanbul were both considered as shoot locations as they offer sprawling cityscapes and a seafront, but Bangkok was eventually chosen as it proved cheaper. Louise Scheibye, of Hundred Percent Film Production, said: “We filmed on a highway in Bangkok city called Rama 3 and on a roof-top/beach restaurant in a place called Sammook, two hours from Bangkok city. On Sammook we built the whole restaurant ourselves. We brought our own set designer and he was in control of the local team.”

Shooting on the highway involved using a kilometre-long stretch of road. Rather than shutting down the road completely the police would halt traffic until the production had travelled about 500 metres, and then they would allow the public to carry on as usual. This way the traffic flow remained steady but the crew normally had half a kilometre of empty highway to shoot.

Filming coincided with violent clashes between the Thai Government and red shirt protestors, although this did not impact the production. A combination of police protection and the SWAT costumes worked in the crew’s favour.

Miles Johnson, Managing Director of Bullet Productions, said: “We were not affected at all [by the clashes], even though we were aware of red shirts watching our film unit, because we appeared to be a SWAT team prepared for action. However we had special police protection ringing the area where we were filming every day.”

All the filming equipment was hired in Bangkok, with only the costumes imported. Several heads of department were flown in but a US-trained rigging team was used in Thailand. Johnson added: “Be very careful who you choose for your production service and don’t be swayed by price alone - we tend to be 10% more expensive than some of our competitors because we will only use the ‘A’ team crew and the best equipment and lights.”

Click here to view the ad.

Credits
Client: Coke Zero
Agency: Grey, Copenhagen
Production Company: Hundred Percent Film Production
Production Service Company: Bullet Production Ltd
Director: Martin Werner