The Latin American ad market has risen both quantitatively and qualitatively–the latter underscored by Marcello Serpa, partner/general creative director of AlmapBBDO, Sao Paulo, Brazil, recently being named recipient of Clio’s Lifetime Achievement Award. While it’s a bit curious for such an honor to be bestowed upon a man who’s only 45, in the prime of his creative life, the accolade is most deserved when you look back on Serpa’s accomplishments. In this week’s SHOOT Chat Room Q&A column, Serpa cited as a career highlight his becoming the first Latin American to win the Grand Prix at Cannes, for a 1993 campaign on behalf of Antarctica soft drink back when he was at Brazilian ad shop DM9DDB.
Serpa observed that the Grand Prix win was significant “because it generated attention for all of the Latin American community. People around the world started to notice Brazil and we’ve built ourselves from there.”
As for the state of Latin American advertising today, he related, “The market is coming of age. It’s not just Brazil doing well but Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Peru. There are good creative people throughout the region–young people with new, fresh ideas; new talent that is trying to make a difference. It’s a powerful market.
By contract, 15 or 20 years ago, creative performance was spotty. Once in a while you’d see good work from Brazil but it wasn’t consistent. Now we’re consistently seeing good work all through Latin America.
“The problem we’ve always had–which was even more prominent years ago–is that we don’t often have big budgets. But we’ve learned to turn that into an advantage. Without big budgets, you’re forced to be simple and fresh. You don’t have Hollywood behind you so you have to rely on simple and easily executed ideas. And clean, fresh ideas work well in print, TV and the Internet. Local budgets are still rather tight. Yet we do have many international companies coming to Latin America to tap into our creative talent and those budgets are a bit larger.
Filming
As for the alluded to quantitative barometer, in recent years Latin America has seen substantive growth as a filming location. Per the Association of Independent Commercial Producers’ (AICP) fourth annual Survey of the Commercial Production Industry covering 2005, Central and South American locations experienced the largest growth in foreign filming activity by AICP member companies. The independently conducted study found that whereas Central and South America accounted for but 12 percent of U.S. production house foreign shoot days in 2002, that figure increased dramatically to 28 percent in ’05. While that tapered off a bit to 26 percent in the latest AICP survey covering calendar year ’06, the big picture growth has been remarkable.
And the projects coming to Latin America are high profile, a prime example being Monster.com’s “Legs” directed by Rupert Sanders of bicoastal/international MJZ for BBDO New York. The creatively ambitious shoot came to Buenos Aires, with production services provided by Benito Cine, the shop in Argentina under the aegis of executive producer Georgos Nicolaides. Benito Cine is part of the Global Production Network (GPN) roster of production service companies worldwide. GPN is headquartered in Los Angeles.
The offbeat ad opens on a guy who gets out of bed, presumably to go to work. As he walks through a charmingly quaint, picturesque village, the camera reveals him to have massive legs that dwarf the rest of his body even though he himself is a big man. We see him pass villagers from all walks of life, some engaged in mundane tasks, others in more significant endeavors such as a young couple who just got married and are celebrating. Our large-legged protagonist briefly joins the celebration before continuing on his way.
He then arrives at what looks like an isolated shed in the middle of a field. He enters the makeshift structure, which we discover houses a rickety elevator that he takes down to what seem like the depths of the earth. As the elevator descends rapidly, he holds his ears in discomfort due to the jarring drop in altitude. The elevator door opens, placing him in what looks like a mineshaft. He walks through the shaft catacombs and finally arrives at his destination–an elaborate, larger than life gyrosphere contraption that centers on another man who’s seated upon a bicycle and peddling away feverishly. He too has massive legs and is glad to see the relief shift coming to take over his duties.
For a moment he stops peddling so that his replacement can take over. When the peddling comes to a halt, so too does the power throughout the village. The abrupt nature of this transition jostles about a man taking a bath as water jumps out of the tub, knocks another gent off his bike as he was riding through a field, and causes the bride, groom and rest of the wedding party to topple just as a camera is taking a picture of them.
Our original large-legged chap then begins peddling and in the process returns the village to normalcy.
A message appears on screen, which reads, “There’s a perfect job for everyone,” followed by the Monster.com logo and the slogan, “Your calling is calling.”
For the “Legs” shoot, Nicolaides said that director Rupert Sanders and production designer John Beard “went deep inside Buenos Aires where they found a workshop full of special old objects, an enigmatic town built in the middle of a poor suburb and real, real people. Rupert wanted to do everything in camera. We built the gyrosphere with the huge rotating rings, the volcanic tunnel, the elevator and the crazy bike for Mr. Big Legs. The legs came from [renowned creature creator] Stan Winston, an amazing job.”
The shoot went from Nov. 27 to Dec. 1. The DP was Greig Fraser.
Traffic jam
Meanwhile, in sharp contrast, the urban side of Buenos Aires came to life–or more accurately, a stunning halt–for a Honda commercial out of Tokyo agency Hakuhodo directed by Brent Bonacorso of Notorious 24/7, Los Angeles. Notorious and Japan house Robot were production companies on the job, with production services provided by Red Creek Productions, Buenos Aires.
The January shoot took place in the streets of Buenos Aires, where Red Creek assembled a large-scale traffic jam over the course of three days. The City of Buenos Aires provided full cooperation with street closings and the proper permits.
Red Creek co-president Ivan Entel exec produced the Honda job. His exec producer counterpart at Notorious 24/7 was Neale Ferguson. Tim Nolan and Rafael Chinchilla were producers, respectively, for Notorious 24/7 and Red Creek.
Asked what the biggest production service challenges are when working with a U.S. production house on a shoot in Latin America, Entel observed, “Choosing the right local partner is the key. With the right team you can do anything. Working with a local production company that knows production, that knows their own turf and that knows the meaning of service is the only way to have a great experience.
“The challenge is bridging the cultural gap, and the choice of local production company is probably the biggest piece of the puzzle for a U.S. company shooting in Latin America. Unions, permits, customs, rules and habits should work for the project, not against it… and that is basically in the hands of the local production company. Choose wisely and budget, crew, locations become assets, not problems. It can be an exhilarating journey if the local production company is able to provide a sense of comfort, a place for the American crew to thrive and take creative risks. Choose wrongly and it can quickly become a massive headache.”
American infusion
Benito Cine’s Nicolaides noted, “Most of the important U.S. production companies have been coming to shoot in Argentina during the last seven years, and some very often…Like in any relationship, there are many reasons to like each other and also many things to learn. The good thing is, when U.S. producers, directors and local people communicate, amazing and creative things have been achieved.
“For me the most important thing in all areas is to know exactly what’s doable in Buenos Aires and what’s not.” Nicolaides then offered some tips along these lines. For example, he assessed that there are capable special effects people in Buenos Aires, much better than in all South America. But if an effect is even difficult to be produced in the U.S….”please don’t try to come to do it in Buenos Aires.”
In terms of crew, he noted, that there are many good DPs in Argentina, “but we learned normally you should bring one…It’s just different the way they shoot.”
As for assistant directors, there are high quality ones in Buenos Aires that can bring a lot to a project. But, Nicolaides cautioned, “never expect the local A.D. to put hard pressure on a U.S. director, it’s just a cultural thing…The line producer will have to do that job. By the way, always bring a line producer…It’s better for the agency, for the director and for us.”
On the budget score, Nicolaides said there are lessons to be learned. “Argentina is cheaper than the U.S., especially because of talent buyouts. But don’t try to save even more money than what’s reasonable…There will always be a local company saying yes, but you risk having to pay many overages and still have a bad production… I know U.S. cost controllers put on lots of pressure. They don’t care because they are not coming with the rest of the agency and the director to produce the job… Better to solve this situation before everybody is here and the problem is for real and with not many solutions.”
There’s a wealth of locations and talent throughout Latin America. In Buenos Aires, there are 10 million people and a large proportion are European immigrants. There are many Caucasian-look options, and quite a few acting schools turning out very capable performers.
Nicolaides noted that “nice looking people and high-end models” are on hand. The trickier proposition, though, if to attain the wide range of ethnic diversity that many U.S. commercials seek.
“That’s a real challenge,” he said. “In the end we have to make it work, but everyone has to be a little flexible” due to a limited number of Asian and African-American options. But it you look at a noteworthy X-box commercial recently shot in Buenos Aires–directed by Tim Godsall of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles–65 performers were selected that made the piece look like it was cast in New York, London or any metropolitan city with lots of diversity.
