Written by on Aug 25, 2010. Posted in Production News

Canon doubles New Zealand for Alaska and South America

Electronics giant Canon has filmed two new spots for its Eos camera in locations around Queenstown in New Zealand. Two locations were used to double for Alaska and a South American jungle. Eagle shows a photographer scaling an Alaskan rock face to capture a dramatic shot, while Frog shows a man taking a picture in a rainforest setting.

May Tang, a Producer with The Film Factory in Hong Kong, said: “We didn’t have enough time for pre-production and we’ve worked with Big Pictures so many times that we decided to shoot there (in New Zealand) instead. It was all based on time and money.”

The production shot with a small crew, all of whom were hired in Queenstown. In addition, the benefits of having a small team became apparent when sudden snowfall 24 hours before the shoot necessitated a swift location change. As it turned out the new location was better than the original and looked good with a thin dusting of snow.

William Grieve, of Big Pictures, said: “The challenge was to be able to shoot two very different scripts, calling for very different locations, on consecutive days. Queenstown in early winter offered both alpine locations for the Eagle script and an exotic forest location for the Frog script. The budget was pretty tight, allowing just one shoot day for each script and without enough for any travel between locations.”

Eagle was shot at Deer Park Heights, a 15-minute drive from Queenstown. Frog was filmed at Paradise, about an hour’s drive from Queenstown and next to Mount Aspiring National Park. The actor in Eagle had a body double for shots showing him climbing the rock face. Shots looking over the cliff edge were filmed using an Eazi Rig apparatus.

Grieve added: “We have shot commercials in Queenstown where it has represented Britain, France, North America, Russia, China and Japan.”

Click here to view Eagle.

Click here to view Frog.

Credits
Client: Canon
Production Company: The Film Factory, Hong Kong
Producer: May Tang

Production Service Company: Big Pictures, New Zealand
Executive Producer: William Grieve
Director: Man Chung Chan