Written by on Mar 4, 2013. Posted in Production News

Irene rallies Roman army filming on location in Morocco for Orange

Paris-based production house Irene rallied Roman soldiers in Morocco for a new spot promoting the Livebox Play TV decoder from Orange. Director Xavier Giannoli’s ad features a TV viewer interrupting a Roman leader’s battle cry in a remote desert.

Irene headed to the Ouarzazate region of southern-central Morocco in western Africa because of its popularity in past historical epics like Ridley Scott’s Gladiator and Oliver Stone’s Alexander.

“We just needed a desert, a Roman army and the sun!” says Guillaume Delmas of Paris-based agency WAM: “The few changes were in post-production duplicating the crowd [and using] CGI on the cars and on the tweet in the sky. Since we were in the middle of nowhere the only risks were the sandstorms.”

The location offered low production costs, reliably sunny conditions and a ready supply of period costumes and prop weapons.

Credits:
Client: Orange
Agency: WAM (Part of the Publicis Conseil group)
Chief Creative Officer: Olivier Altman
TV Production (WAM): Pierre Marcus and Guillaume Delmas
Production Company: Irene, Paris
Producer: Guillaume De Bary
Production Service Company: Ali n’ Productions
Director: Xavier Giannoli