With this commercial, the Producer Ville Salminen wanted to evoke a rural Italian past, with a typical old-fashioned pizzeria in a medieval village. He asked Fabio Di Segni and ITALYfixer to produce the Italian segment, from finding the filming locations, auditioning actors and extras, hiring local English-speaking crew, stylist, props person, hair and make-up, and sourcing grip and lighting gear.
Fabio found the perfect filming location, a picturesque Tuscan village with a great pizzeria in the main square. The talent consisted of 3 actors and 50 extras, all recruited locally, and their costumes which were organized by a local English-speaking stylist.
Hair and make-up was also done by a very experienced local hair and make-up artist. ITALYfixer put together a highly professional Italian TV crew and organized equipment hire for all the lighting and grip gear.
As their production manager, our function was to manage the budget, and come up with creative solutions. For example, the scenes set in an airplane were filmed in a coach nearby, and the scene with the principal actor in Finland, was green-screened in a local studio.
We organized all logistics, crew transportation, accommodation and translation as well as contracts for the actors.
The shoot went smoothly and the result was a heartwarming film in a gorgeous location.