Written by new-contact on Mar 25, 2011. Posted in Production News

Energy firm Enel doubles Uruguay for Italy filming new ad spot

Italian utility Enel has doubled Uruguay for Italy. The Plane begins in 1967 with an Italian island getting a power cable from the mainland and charts progress as a boy throws a paper aeroplane into the sky.

Uruguay was chosen as the filming location because it offers a similar climate to the Mediterranean, but is cheaper to film than other options that included Italy, South Africa and Chile. There were nine days of pre-production and five days of shooting.

Alessandro Cesaretti, Head of Production with FilmMaster in Milan, said: “Uruguay is a very young country and production companies should make sure they have time to prepare any project. We had a very short time to do it but all the local crew were friendly and co-operative. They are a little bit weak on costumes.”

The opening scenes set in 1967 were filmed on a beach near Punta del Este in southern Uruguay using 16mm film stock to sell the archive feel more effectively.

The opening scenes set in 1967 were filmed on a beach near Punta del Este in southern Uruguay using 16mm film stock to sell the archive feel more effectively. Landscape filming took place between Punta del Este and Montevideo, which are only 120km apart, meaning there were no days lost to travelling. Scenes showing the interior of a modern office block involved extensive work from the art department and were filmed next to the same railway station that Stella Artois recently doubled for the French Riviera.

Edoardo Rossi, a Management Consultant with CrossWind Advertising in Buenos Aires, said: “The beach party scene is set in 1974 and we built the beach hut using Italian specifications. We also filmed in the colonial old town of Montevideo, which has European architecture and so is a good double for Italy. Wardrobe is one of the weak points in Uruguay. The production ended up bringing wardrobe over from Italy as we needed a typical Italian look for the early scenes.”

Cesaretti added: “If I should do another similar project in that country I will take more time to prepare it to understand what they have and what they haven’t before leaving to Montevideo.”

Credits
Client: Enel
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Italy
Production Company: FilmMaster, Milan
Head of Production at FilmMaster: Alessandro Cesaretti
Production Service Company: CrossWind Advertising (CWA), Buenos Aires
Management Consultant with CWA: Edoardo Rossi
Director: Bo Plat