Written by new-contact on Sep 15, 2010. Posted in Production News

Mini ad shoot dodges political demonstrations on location in Milan

Mini has filmed a new commercial in Milan and around Lake Como in Italy. Flow shows off the car’s versatility as it speeds around the tight streets of the city. As the car drives it multiplies into a fleet of vehicles but still manages to power around without any problems.

The production considered Barcelona, Turin and Maggiore as shoot locations but chose Milan as it offered a good blend of modern and classic architecture in a European setting. Shooting took place throughout the centre of Milan, including the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.

Laura Thoel, an Executive Producer with Smuggler, said: “The city of Milan and the Lake Como area are very co-operative. We had some serious problems in Milan due to a strike happening on our shooting dates, as well as the big event of the Inter team that had won the Champion’s League and all the supporters had a long night party in the whole town.”

The streets of the city were covered in litter following the football party celebrations. Local authorities provided four street cleaning machines that spent three hours cleaning the areas that the production needed to film so that shooting could start at 7am. A demonstration organised by a right-wing political group resulted in a week-long shooting postponement on security grounds.

Around ten working days are normally needed to secure all the relevant permits, while police assistance is needed to help with temporary road closures. Lots of equipment is available in Milan.

Michele Anzalone, of Some of Us in Milan, said: “Milan and Rome are the production centres of Italy and the country as a whole is now very serious about filmmaking. On most occasions specialist equipment can be found nearby. Perhaps 2% of the time it will need to be imported from places like the UK or Germany.”

Equipment including car rigs, cherry pickers and cranes were used during the shoot, as well as a truck ramp to film the car jumping onto a ferry on Lake Como.

Click here to view the ad.

Credits
Client: Mini
Agency: BSUR
Creative Directors: Paulo Martins, Jason Schragger
Production Company: Smuggler
Producer: Tim Kerrison
Executive Producer: Laura Thoel

Production Service Company: Some of Us
Location Managers: Sergio Devidovich, Paolo Bertoldi
Director: Brian Beletic