In July 1998, I flew to Finland for a Sprint commercial shoot.
The decision to shoot overseas was based on financial
considerations – primarily talent fees.
In the U.S., actors are unionized. They get paid a fee for the shoot, and then
additional fees every time the commercial airs.
Overseas you can pay people a session fee and call it a day.
Based on our schedule, I calculated a savings of $250K.
In
Finland, the production people weren’t unionized either.
That was a bit tricky because having unions means rules like
– an eight-hour turnover. That doesn’t
mean that you get to sleep eight hours, because you still have to get from the
location to the hotel. But at least you
get some sleep.
We flew over on one of those overnight flights where they
pretend that you are getting a full night’s sleep. But we couldn’t even pretend as our plane was
filled with college students returning from an overseas visit who were too
excited to sleep.
When we arrived in Helsinki, it was beautiful – sunny and in
the 70’s.
The production team immediately began showing us costumes and
props while giving us a cardboard take-out pizza for lunch.
Yes, that’s another thing unions do – they make sure that you
are well fed. Usually too well fed
actually. In addition to meals there is
also a table filled with goodies all the time.
Some really cruel caterers even walk around the set with snacks. And you
wouldn’t believe how good food made in a food truck can actually be. It makes staying slim very challenging,
especially since shoots are so incredibly boring.
But on this one we actually broke into a cafeteria to score
some snacks. Don’t worry – we left
money.
By the time we got through the day and headed to the hotel we
were absolutely exhausted.
But even though it was fairly late, it was still light out,
because in Finland in the summer the sun doesn’t set until 11 pm and then it
rises again at 4 am. And even between
11:00 and 4:00, it doesn’t actually get dark – it’s more of a twilight glow –
hence the name “White Nights.”
If it was just about the light, I probably wouldn’t have had
a problem falling asleep, even though the extra heavy curtains did not totally
block it out, but the hotel room was also stifling hot. That’s because it’s never sunny and 70 in
Finland. Most of the time it’s freezing
so the buildings are built to hold heat in.
Opening the window didn’t help much because the windows in
Finland only open a foot wide. It’s a
safety measure, because in the winter when Finland has 19 hours of darkness
suicide is an issue. Yikes.
Casting in Finland was a challenge because we wanted
diversity in the cast and there isn’t much diversity in Finland. But the production team persisted, and found
a couple of Black men whose wives were working at the American embassy and an
Asian man working in a Chinese restaurant who was game.
We spent a few days shooting in Helsinki and then went to
Vaasa.
The commercial we were filming was about using remote online
collaboration to build a bridge. Sounds easy now, but in ’98 it was cutting edge
technology. We were told that the reason
for selecting Finland for the shoot was that there was a new bridge being built
in Vaasa.
Almost. It was
actually finished when we arrived,
so we had to do some magic in post-production, but it was
spanking new.
Meanwhile, Vaasa’s claim to fame is that it is the closest
city to Sweden, where they have much higher taxes on alcohol than Finland
does. So Swedes come over on booze
cruises and party till they stumble back to their boats to head home.
I also scored some really cool Pez with characters that don’t
exist in the U.S.
And now that we knew what to expect, an art director with a
Swiss army knife came to everyone’s rooms and opened the windows so we could
get a decent night’s sleep.
All went well the first day.
If
you want to film a sunset, Vaasa in the July is probably the way to go since
they last about three hours. I think
that Stellenbosch in South Africa may have been the same in January. It’s all about how close you are to the
poles.Unfortunately, we lost our good weather the next day so it
was pouring when we shot on the bridge.
I’ll never forget the moment when the creatives informed us
that we were done shooting without covering the money shot. Oy vey.Needless to say, I insisted that they cover the shot – the
protagonists shaking hands on the bridge - despite the protests that we were
losing the light.
That’s what I was there for.
The most important rule on a shoot is to deliver what you promised in
the approved storyboard. Not doing so,
could cost someone their job, so it baffles me that they didn’t cover it
first.
After that, we called it a wrap and headed back to Helsinki
for our flights home the next day. I
settled all the clients and creatives into their rooms at the hotel and when it
was my turn, the desk clerk said: “I have one good room left, but it won’t have
hot water after 8:00 am.”
Since it was still raining out and was due to rain the next
day as well, I had given up on the idea of taking photos the next morning before
we left. That made getting up early
unnecessary, so I opted for the room with hot water, without bothering to ask
what qualified it as a “bad room.”
When I opened the door to the room, I realized that it was on
the first floor, directly above the bar, where a boisterous crowd was watching
the World Cup.
But I live on First Avenue, so I’m used to bar noise. And, since you can’t get hurt jumping out of
a first floor window, I could open it all the way. In the end, it was the best night’s sleep I
got on the entire trip.
Good times indeed.
Here is a blog about a second shoot in South Africa...
https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2022/01/south-africa-shoot-1999.html
PJ Lehrer
© 2026 PJ Lehrer
