The shoot looks epic, of Ben Hur proportions. Was it or was it mainly done in post?

There are only two shots done in post and these are the bigger ones. We worked with 700 extras on set, 40 horses, two cameras, helicopter, steady, cranes…

Why two directors – did they shoot separate scenes or did they work alongside each other?

We worked with two different styles with one director focusing on the acting while the other focused on the visual aspect which we think made it a much stronger film. They had to work separately in a few scenes because we only had three shooting days so we had two dops and two camera crew.

What was the original brief and did this evolve much in your treatment?

The original brief and script was very close to the final cut. Big production. Neutral location. Strong acting.

Film or digital?

It was shot on 35mm.

Where was the location?

The only location was Villa Gesell.
The directors’ idea was to have a very huge place with nothing surrounding it, no trees, no buildings, to give the sensation of a real battle spot. Far from the city, only sand and water. Besides the campaign was the summer spot for Quilmes, so they wanted beach as a possible location. We looked for other beaches near Villa Gesell but the best one was the one we chose. Dunes.
Villa Gesell is not so popular as a location. We shot there for the first time but everything worked fine. As Villa Gesell is a city with a small population, we brought extras form Mar del Plata which is a bigger city next to Villa Gesell. We picked them up at five in the morning and at 7am they were ready to shoot at the set.

What were the main challenges of the production and how did you overcome them?

We had two challenges: One was that the set was 300m away from our base. So we need five trucks to take people to the set and back to our base. It was logistical issue that took up shooting time but we handled it very well. The second challenge was the wind. It was really windy and we had some trouble with direct sound and the main actor had to shout so much that on the second day he had lost his voice so we had to work really hard on his voice on set and afterwards.

Great production stills in Related Content