Written by new-contact on Sep 29, 2010. Posted in Production News

Mercedes films new ad on location in New Zealand and Switzerland

Car manufacturer Mercedes has filmed a new commercial on location in New Zealand and Switzerland with Roger Federer. Reach the Top shows the tennis superstar driving the Mercedes ML across roads, remote plains and mountain ranges. The theme was Master of All Surfaces and the spot’s intended to parallel Federer’s prowess on different tennis court surfaces.

Most of the shoot took place around Queenstown in New Zealand’s South Island. It involved extensive aerial shooting to capture the scenery.

Mike Salter, of Window Productions, said: “As a base, Queenstown is an almost too-popular destination and many companies from around the globe have and continue to film there because of the plethora of locations the area offers. Sometimes their fabulous coffee shops have to schedule breakfast times for the multitude of international crews.”

Before the New Zealand shoot began, the production decamped to Zurich for a lightning filming session with Federer - he was only available for a day and he lives in the Swiss city. The shoot encompassed a meadow around a riding school, which was shut down while the cameras rolled.

Scenes were also filmed in the city’s Lobster Studios as several locations the production wanted to use were snow-covered. These wouldn’t match what was upcoming for the New Zealand leg of the shoot.

A Libra camera rig, with a three-axis remote head, was used for both ground and aerial shooting. Salter added: “Other than that there were just hard mounts to the Mercedes and a nose mount on the chopper. One of the main reasons I recall we used it was its flexibility to go from the RHINO (camera car) onto the chopper within a very short period of time.”

Click here to view the ad.

Credits
Client: Mercedes Benz
Agency: BBDO Beijing
Executive Creative Director: Tim Evill
Production Company: Window Productions
Producer: Mike Salter

Production Service Companies: Alpine Films (Switzerland), Two Birds (New Zealand)
Producers: Stefan Zurcher, Nikki Walker
Location Scout: Dave Comer
Director: Sng Tong Beng