Written by on May 2, 2012. Posted in Production News

The Corner Store films Canadian lottery campaign on location in southern Africa

Toronto-based production house The Corner Store has filmed on location across southern Africa in a new campaign for ILC Lotto Max, the Canadian lottery game. The campaign is designed to inspire Canadians by showing some of the amazing experiences a lottery win can buy.

The Corner Store considered using filming locations in South America, but in the end opted for a combination of Cape Town, Zambia, Namibia, Zanzibar and Tanzania. Many of these locations doubled for other parts of the world too, as the campaign has a global setting.

We compared filming options in places like Brazil and Argentina as they offered much of the diversity of locations that we were looking for, but in the end we decided Africa was the best option.

Susi Patterson, Executive Producer

Susi Patterson is Executive Producer and Partner at The Corner Store: “We compared filming options in places like Brazil and Argentina as they offered much of the diversity of locations that we were looking for, but in the end we decided Africa was the best option.

“It came down to a combination of great filming locations, our prior relationship with The Big Picture Company and the fact that everyone is English-speaking.”

Cape Town was used as a double for several international locations, including Indian and New York City interiors, while a mountain ridge stood in for Japan as a young adventurer plays with Kodo Drummers. Zanzibar footage was edited to look like a pyramid in Mexico. Namibia and Zambia were used for more general location adventures involving an aerial trip over Victoria Falls and dune biking.

The only location that we had to make any changes to was the Mtoni Ruins in Stone Town, Zanzibar. We filmed in the ruins of a palace which had no doors or gates on it, only walls made from coral.

Di Davis, Producer

Di Davis produced the campaign for The Big Picture Company: “The only location that we had to make any changes to was the Mtoni Ruins in Stone Town, Zanzibar. We filmed in the ruins of a palace which had no doors or gates on it, only walls made from coral.

“Our Art Director, James Mader, had to fly to Zanzibar a few days ahead of us in order to source an old gate and fix it into a doorway without being able to hammer nails or supporting structures into the wall of the ruin - a little challenging considering the gate had to be functional. Obviously it all had to look like it had been there for thousands of years so creepers, spider webs and dust had to be artfully placed.”

Moving the Arri Alexa filming equipment between all the various locations was one of the biggest challenges. The crew was only three-strong and between them they were carrying 300kg of equipment on ten separate flights across southern Africa. They used a Tyler Mini Mount in Namibia and Zambia for aerial filming sequences.

Davis comments: “[The Tyler Mini Mount] is an amazing piece of equipment and extraordinarily effective with very little fuss needed to rig and de-rig - so very valuable on a shoot with limited funds and resources in terms of rigging crew and time constraints.”

The team “street cast” in each location, which basically involved roaming hotel bars, street cafes and pubs in search of people who had the right look for the campaign and then recruiting them for the shoot.

Davis concludes: “We found some wonderful and willing talent and they all enjoyed the experience immensely.”

More spots are scheduled for release as part of the campaign in the coming weeks.

Credits:
Client: ILC Lotto Max
Agency: MacLaren McCann, Toronto
Production Company: The Corner Store, Toronto
Executive Producer: Susi Patterson
Production Service Company: The Big Picture Company, Cape Town
Producer: Di Davis
Director/DoP: Jorn Haagen