Corona commercial shoot in Paamul

[English Stu]

Hi all
I was on the last Corona shoot in Mexico in June this year. I filmed the 'Behind the Scenes' during the shoot, which lasted 10days, finishing on June 11th with a fun 'wrap party'.
Was a great experience, about 90 people on set, all the production crew, actors (I think Melissa and Ana were the nicest...), catering crew etc.
Started pre-dawn most days - had to be there at about 5am!

None of the last commercials were filmed in Paamul. - Several different locations were used for this batch of 9 or 10 commercials, quite a few were at Xpu-Ha where the crew actually built an entire building as a 'hotel room' on the beach at Xpu-Ha. There was one which was further south - not far from Tulum. That had a deck built for it, with a male model sitting in a chair, listening to an ipod, and then his 'girlfriend' (a.k.a. real life name Melissa from Brazil) join him on the deck. We shot a LOT of takes for that. I think it was something stupidly high like 130 takes. Even the clients were getting restless for sure...

I was going to (at the time in June 2007 ) write about the shoot on this site, but i never got round to it.
I have plenty of stills shots (a few hundred) of the making of these Corona TV commercials (i can post them up soon if anybody wants to see them(, as well as a 1hour highlights DVD i put together for one or two of my fellow workers on the film set. I could probably make some copies of that DVD if anybosy wants one (for a few pesos...).

I know that the 'Ghost' commercial aired in the USA (and i think here too) over Hallowe'en. The star of that one was a very tall, very white, very skinny guy called Kurt who was flown over from Australia just for that one days filming !! He was the 'anti-cool' guy who stumbled across 4 bronzed beautiful folk sunbathing on the beach. Funny guy Kurt - very entertaining!

If anyones got any questions then fire away and i'll do my best to answer..
Oh yeah - bit of trivia for you. The beer bottles used for the shoot are all specially made out of very high puirity seamless glass and the LABELS for the beer bottles cost.... US$600 each. Nope thats not a typo. Expensive beer bottles !!

The guy responsible for looking after the prep of the beer bottles (Barry Conner) was the same guy hired to do all the special effects for the Sony Bravia 'Bouncy Balls' TV commercial shot in San Francisco. (never aired in the USA for some reason). That was a fantastic commercial - Europeans will all know it..

Corona are planning another set of TV commercial in this area for about the same time in 2008. May or June i think.

[GreatLakes]

Originally Posted by English Stu

Hi all
I was on the last Corona shoot in Mexico in June this year. I filmed the 'Behind the Scenes' during the shoot, which lasted 10days, finishing on June 11th with a fun 'wrap party'.
Was a great experience, about 90 people on set, all the production crew, actors (I think Melissa and Ana were the nicest...), catering crew etc.
Started pre-dawn most days - had to be there at about 5am!

None of the last commercials were filmed in Paamul. - Several different locations were used for this batch of 9 or 10 commercials, quite a few were at Xpu-Ha where the crew actually built an entire building as a 'hotel room' on the beach at Xpu-Ha. There was one which was further south - not far from Tulum. That had a deck built for it, with a male model sitting in a chair, listening to an ipod, and then his 'girlfriend' (a.k.a. real life name Melissa from Brazil) join him on the deck. We shot a LOT of takes for that. I think it was something stupidly high like 130 takes. Even the clients were getting restless for sure...

I was going to (at the time in June 2007 ) write about the shoot on this site, but i never got round to it.
I have plenty of stills shots (a few hundred) of the making of these Corona TV commercials (i can post them up soon if anybody wants to see them(, as well as a 1hour highlights DVD i put together for one or two of my fellow workers on the film set. I could probably make some copies of that DVD if anybosy wants one (for a few pesos...).

I know that the 'Ghost' commercial aired in the USA (and i think here too) over Hallowe'en. The star of that one was a very tall, very white, very skinny guy called Kurt who was flown over from Australia just for that one days filming !! He was the 'anti-cool' guy who stumbled across 4 bronzed beautiful folk sunbathing on the beach. Funny guy Kurt - very entertaining!

If anyones got any questions then fire away and i'll do my best to answer..
Oh yeah - bit of trivia for you. The beer bottles used for the shoot are all specially made out of very high puirity seamless glass and the LABELS for the beer bottles cost.... US$600 each. Nope thats not a typo. Expensive beer bottles !!

The guy responsible for looking after the prep of the beer bottles (Barry Conner) was the same guy hired to do all the special effects for the Sony Bravia 'Bouncy Balls' TV commercial shot in San Francisco. (never aired in the USA for some reason). That was a fantastic commercial - Europeans will all know it..

Corona are planning another set of TV commercial in this area for about the same time in 2008. May or June i think.

Cool! Thanks for the info Stu. Please post some pics from Xpu-Ha.

[candylady401]

I'd love to see your photos too!

[English Stu]

OK guys i'll dig out the CD with them on.
Its around somewhere.. gimme a day or two to find it.
Maybe you will be able to recognise some of the people from my still shots with the TV commercials that are airing. I don-t have much time to watch TV but if anyone sees a Corona TV advert (it-ll probably be one of the ones filmed last June) describe it for me and i'll tell you a bit of the background !

[cuffedlinks]

Corona - No Service Ad.

Uploaded to Youtube August 30th, 2007.

[English Stu]

thats a good one cuffedlinks ! wasnt one of the one's filmed in June though - probably one of the previous batch. They tend to take 6-12months bewfore they air them it seems.


this one's pretty funny :
YouTube - corona

[RockyR]

[quote=cuffedlinks;]Corona - No Service Ad.


Thank you, Cuffed Links

[TnJ]

¡¡¡ thanks for the background info !!! We always look forward to those commercials, kinda takes us back there. Whatever pix you want to put up to share, we'd love to see. T

[MartyC]

Yes, yes, post some pics. That would be great. Thanks for the insider info. That's always interesting stuff.

[diogeron]

I can certainly get behind dumping Corona, for whatever reason. It's dreadful beer, IMHO.

Originally Posted by Susie Q Roo

A little excitement in Paamul this morning. In the wee hours (3:15AM!), I heard Rick get out of bed and go outside and I had no idea why and just went back to sleep. This morning he asked if I didn't hear all the people outside and he wondered what they were doing. In time, I realized there was way more activity than normal outside our quiet little place. And huge moving-van-size trucks! And big pieces of strange equipment sitting inside of them!

Turns out Corona was here again to film their next commercial! (This is at least the second one they've filmed here in Paamul.) We stayed out and watched them for quite awhile and it was pretty darn interesting. Amazing how many bodies it takes to put one of these things together. After awhile the repetition and retakes got a little boring though.

Here's a few pics of the whole production:

Setup:


These guys were shoveling out extraneous shells and rock from the very edge of the scene so as not to ruin the "perfect" beach image:


Breakfast tent:


Camera ready:


Talent ready:


Beer ready (this guy's job was to get the foam and condensation exactly right for the closeups on the bottle):


Director in grey shirt and light shorts, mid-photo:


For the shot, these two had to drop everything in their hands in a particular order BUT... for every retake, the guys in front of them here came in and picked up each item for them to make sure it went back exactly the way it should be:


The other two actors brought only their bucket of Corona and got to just chill in the sand:


The two "talent" couples again:


The "real" story? Corona beer is dumped out of its bottles and replaced by Modelo because Corona itself doesn't show up dark enough on film. How hilarious is that?

[Babaloo]

Originally Posted by diogeron

I can certainly get behind dumping Corona, for whatever reason. It's dreadful beer, IMHO.

back in the States I liked my beer dark and thick
but down here in the sun and heat
i find an ice cold Corona much more refreshing

[Heather]

Corona tastes skunky to me, and I hate it.

There, I said it.

Give me a Montejo (in an ugly brown bottle) any day of the week, and twice on Sundays. A case of Montejo, I mean.

[Maverick69]

Originally Posted by Heather

Corona tastes skunky to me, and I hate it.

There, I said it.

Give me a Montejo (in an ugly brown bottle) any day of the week, and twice on Sundays. A case of Montejo, I mean.

Heather , I'm with you. Thats why I need a lime to choke it down .

[See Turtle]

Originally Posted by Heather

Corona tastes skunky to me, and I hate it.

There, I said it.

Give me a Montejo (in an ugly brown bottle) any day of the week, and twice on Sundays. A case of Montejo, I mean.

Wow. I'm glad that's out in the open. I kinda have a problem with Mexican beer in general. Though, as the man said, "All beer is good, some are better than others."

What's the choice among Mexican beers if one wants something a bit more full-bodied? Modelo Negro?

[thelmaandlu]

Hey Stu any chance I could get a copy of that DVD you made... I was in charge of building the hotel room... a lot of hard work as you know! I wouldn't mind getting some of your stills too...It's Matthew by the way.. I hope you are still around... You can always email me direct at matthewholt[at]mac.com
Hoping to hear from you..all the best,
Matthew