Written by David Lewis on Oct 5, 2009. Posted in Production News

HSBC braves Chile's winter for the perfect shoot

Sometimes everything falls into place on a commercial shoot: An exciting script with a heartfelt message, a director inspired to bring the story to life, and the right casting and location as a palette from which to work. So it was with HSBC's Dolphin Responsibility.

The spot, by creative agency JWT, was shot off the central coast of Chile near the village Caleta Horcon at the end of July. The basic storyline of fisherman struggles to feed family, fisherman catches dolphin, fisherman chooses to act responsibly was brought to life with the help of Academy Films and the fledgling company Straightforward Films, their first job.

HSBC have recently opened in Chile so it was the client's decision to set the story there although several other countries, including Brazil, were considered. One of the main concerns however, was the weather. July is mid-winter in Chile, so the team had to be prepared for anything. But the spots' director, Academy Films' Frederic Planchon, knew what he wanted was in Chile so he wasn't going to be put off.

Bud Theisen, Straighforward Films' Service Producer, explains: "One of the challenges of winter shooting in open seas is that coastal waters are very cold. This made working underwater a painful undertaking for the dolphin crew, camera operators, and safety divers. Our hats are off to them."

But in the end even the weather came together for them as they got two days with clouds and rough seas and then three days with perfect sunny skies.

Chilean actor Luis Dubó played the role of the hero fisherman. Besides growing up in Puerto Quintero and working on a fishing boat as a teenager, Dubó has starred in several well regarded Chilean films, including La Fiebre del Loco where he played a shellfish diver. He's a hero with the local fisherman and a hometown boy made good.

But the true star of the show was the animatronic dolphin from Edge Innovations, creators of Flipper and Free Willy. In the water, the dolphin looked incredibly lifelike.

Theisen adds: "We got lots of onlookers along the way, usually smiling ear-to-ear like little children. CGI dolphins get most of the film roles these days so seeing the reactions people had to the animatronic dolphin, and how it interacts with human actors, my feeling is that it facilitates a much more believable performance from the artists, probably better than anything done against a chroma key."

The job of making everything tie in, and look realistic, fell to Straightforward's art department. Days of testing were needed on the nets. Ideas were drawn up and then tried by the art department and the fishermen again and again, until finally a way was found to bring it all together.

Lucy Gossage, Academy Films' Producer, sums it up: “All the crew were amiable from the outset; it was a tough job that demanded a lot from everyone and there was never a moment when they lost patience. It goes without saying that Chile has an amazing plethora of locations and that coupled with great crews makes it an excellent film destination in global terms."

Gossage also commented that although this was Straightforward's first job: "It was obvious that even though it was a new company, the team had worked many times together and functioned as a well-oiled system.”