Written by on Mar 4, 2010. Posted in Production News

Visa Europe World Cup ad shoots throughout South Africa

The latest commercial for Visa Europe has filmed in locations throughout South Africa for a new spot called Football Evolution. The spot celebrates Visa’s sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup.

The advert shows an overweight football fan running from his house in the UK and running across Europe and Africa to the football stadium. It is filmed entirely side-on and shows the fan running through shallow water, deserts and alongside ostriches.

Ken McKenzie, of McKenzie Rudolphe Film Services, explained that the production lasted two weeks, nine days of which were spent filming and the rest of the time used to travel, sometimes up to 1,500km between locations. He said: “One of the shoot days in Cape Town started at 4am, 50km out of Cape Town. We then travelled right across the peninsula, stopping to film the Tyre Shack sequence en route to Strand Beach where we filmed the ‘Costa del Sol’ sequence.”

For scenes involving wild animals the production filmed on game farms in Hoedspruit, where wardens and expert animal wranglers were on hand to maximise safety. A range of private and city permits were acquired to shoot at the different locations, although capturing twilight scenes posed one of the biggest issues.

Mr McKenzie added: “Challenges with twilight shooting is obviously the loss of light so suddenly so you don’t have any time to waste and you only get one shot at it.”

Click here to view the ad.

Credits
Client: Visa Europe
Agency: Saatchi and Saatchi
Production Company: Gorgeous
Production Service Company (South Africa): McKenzie Rudolphe Film Services
Agency Producer: Rebecca Williams

Production Company Producer: Rupert Smythe
Copywriter: Xander Smith
Art Director: Jonathan Santana
Account Handlers: Michelle Greenhalgh, Clare Woolfenden
Director: Chris Palmer
Planner: Martin Smith