Written by on Jan 21, 2011. Posted in Production News

Mercedes films on location in Austria with Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen

Mercedes has taken to the icy roads of Austria for a new spot showcasing the brand’s 4MATIC all wheel drive system. Sunday Drivers shows Formula One champion Mika Hakkinen trying to overtake a slow motorist on an icy mountaintop road. The other driver turns out to be Michael Schumacher.

Filming took place on the Grossglockner Hochhalpenstrasse in Tirol, which is 2,500 metres above sea level in some places. One major advantage was that the road itself is closed during the winter, and with the production shooting in December they had complete control.

Snow turned out to be one of the biggest issues.

The production worked with local plough companies in the week leading up to the shoot to prep the road in the best way, but temperatures rose above the optimum levels on the first day of filming and the melt became an issue.

Chris Bohm, of Radical Media Berlin, said: “For making snow we were limited. No artificial snow is allowed due to the national reserve. To make snow it needs to be -4 Degrees Celsius. It became unbelievably warm on the first shooting day - most of the snow completely melted and for us unexpectedly the higher areas were affected the most as they were completely sunny. But as we had a 12km stretch [of road] the really low areas had shadow and the snow was still okay. We needed to prep it as it got slushy but we could still work around it.”

The production used a Russian Arm to shoot the cars in motion and a helicopter with a stabilised camera rig was used to capture the opening wide shot of the car driving through the mountains.

Image courtesy of Cine Tirol.

Credits
Client: Mercedes-Benz
Agency: Jung von Matt/Neckar, Germany
Creative Director: Michael Ohanian
Production Company: Radical Media, Berlin
Director: Tarsem