Producer Irakli Kurdiani about his last project filmed in Georgia .
Johnnie Walker commercial video is one of the most interesting projects I was involved in as a producer. It’s implementation appeared to be truly complex and challenging, but these factors only reinforced my motivation and enthusiasm.
The most complicated scene to handle was one in which the main character with acrophobia should have flown over Mestia (Svaneti, Georgia) by a moto delta plane and we were supposed to shoot this episode with another deltaplane. Mestia is situated on 1500 meters above sea level and the weather conditions are somewhat unsteady especially in late autumn, when we had to complete the project.
Shooting was planned in Batumi (seaside) and Mestia (8 hours drive from Batumi). Overall, we had to shoot 23 scenes at 18 different locations in three days, with group of 68 people full of enthusiasm and energy.
The time was so limited that even one obstacle could ruin all our plans, therefore we had to fit the schedule and ensure the quality at the same time.
The adventure started when 7 hours before the planned camera start, the car which carried the moto deltaplanes was stuck on its way because of rockfalls. In addition the weather in Mestia was no longer suitable for flight. Our schedule went upside-down, we had to rearrange everything and travel to Batumi. While shooting there, we received notification from the meteorological service of Mestia aerodrome about the possible 4-5 hour “Window” with good weather and the permission for flight in this period of time. As the scene was central episode in the commercial, we decided to split the team into two parts – one would stay in Batumi and the other would go back to Mestia to complete the shooting.
Despite all these and other impediments we managed to shoot all the planned scenes. The entire team was very happy, as this project was our joint success, we all made our best to get the desired result.
My lesson learned from the project was that when you want something with all your heart, when you are determined and persistent, when you do not surrender easily and struggle till the end to reach the goal, the entire universe supports and helps you. I am grateful to all the participants for their resistance and hard work.
Johnnie Walker commercial project is very special to me for one more reason – as the candidate for a supporting role was not selected, I was offered to try participation. Thus, once in my life, I was a producer and at the same time had a supporting role in the commercial.