Written by on Jan 20, 2014. Posted in Production News

Henry de Czar recreates European coast in South Africa filming for Renault Megane

Paris-based Henry de Czar recreated a scenic European coastline in South Africa filming a new spot for the Renault Megane. Catch Me If You Can shows a bored young woman taking a drive in her Megane and leading her partner on an epic cross-country chase.

Los Angeles was considered as a filming location, but the production team ended up choosing Cape Town for lower costs and a decent weather forecast for the November shoot.

“We needed to show a diverse ‘journey’ through spectacular locations, all having a different look,” said Carmen Amos, of service company Juice Film: “Martin (Werner, the director) knows Cape Town pretty well but we showed him a couple of new spots which is always cool. Huge compliments went out to the scout who did a really sterling job trying to find ‘spectacular’!

“The spot is set in a generic landscape with a European feel. The city locations, the cafe scene and streets with dressing in terms of traffic lights and so on were set in Paris.”

“The diversity of the locations was part of the ad to explain they were driving a long way so different landscapes were really important - the challenge was to shoot in all those different locations in three days,” added Jean Luc Bergeron, an Executive Producer with Henry de Czar.

South Africa is a popular double for European and indeed international filming locations. Upcoming pirate TV drama Black Sails is based at Cape Town Film Studios and is doubling the region for the Caribbean, while lifeguard drama SAF3 (pronounced ‘Safe’) is doubling Cape Town for California.

Credits:
Client: Renault
Agency: Publicis Conseil
Chief Creative Officer: Olivier Altmann
Creative Director: Christophe Perruchas
Production Company: Henry de Czar, Paris
Executive Producer from Henry de Czar: Jean Luc Bergeron
Producer from Henry de Czar: Renaud Jaget
Production Service Company: Juice Film, Cape Town
Service Executive Producer: Carmen Amos
Line Producer: Helmke Moller
Director of Photography: Jakob Ihre
Director: Martin Werner