Marc Schölermann & Robbie Williams Go Bondian

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Pop star and former/current/returning (depending on when you're reading this) Take That member Robbie Williams has often used Bondian images and themes in his work and this new spot for Cafe Royal coffee, directed by Another Film Company director, Marc Schölermann, through Markenfilm Germany and Serviceplan Zurich, goes one step further, casting the singer as a Bond-like secret agent.

Below Schoelermann gives us the inside scoop on the shoot, how they achieved the stunts and what it was like working with Williams.

Tell me about working with the stunt men, what were the complications of such a stunt-filled shoot?

I have a lot of experience in filming action and stunts so while it was a challenge to shoot it all, the actual stunts and action scenes were just meticulously storyboarded, I know who to work with so I hand picked my stunt team and I know what they are capable of delivering to ensure we get these shots. 

This included a great team from Prague,and a professional Slovenian motorcycle rider as well as a guy who is the Slovenian champion in jet-skiing (I think! Who knew there was such a thing?) We had two stuntmen for Robbie, I'd like to say he did all his own stunts but there were a lot of dangerous stunts to be done here.

Was it all shot specifically for the spot or were there any stock shots?

This was all shot by me, no stock shots.

Tell us about the fall from the building shot, how did you do that?

This was probably the biggest sequence when it comes to prep. We had a large rig on top of the building (the largest building in Ljubljana, by the way), a so-called decelerator rig; It’s a computer controlled winch that allows you to hang a stuntman on it and lower him at almost real speed. When it comes to the bottom it will slow down safely.

It’s being used for these kinds of jumps and falls now all the time. The good thing is that it can be repeated over and over again. So once we had set it up and figured out how he should move, we could repeatedly shoot it from different angles. They’ve used the same rig on Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, in the Dubai sequence, lowering Tom Cruise from it. Later, in post, we would paint out the wires.

What was Robbie like to work with? 

Rob is a very cool and professional guy. He is fun to be around and super-easy to work with. We had a great rapport on set. I am used to working with celebrities so I think he took to me quite well. He was great at improvising.

Did your experience of shooting a big Hollywood feature [Pathology, 2008] help here for this shoot?

It certainly helped in knowing what can and can’t be done in the time and with that budget. Especially when it comes to coming up with sequences and ideas, where everyone would think that it was too big and complicated. I knew what we could manage in the time and wanted to get the most out of the budget to make it as exciting as possible.

Did you bring anything to the script here or was it all shot as written?

When I first got the script it was still very open.  So over many conversations and brainstorming with the agency we narrowed down a list of 'have-to' and 'would be great if we could somehow pull this offs' that eventually became the spot.

It was a lot of fun and every directors dream to say things such as 'It would be cool if he jumped off a building', or, 'yeah, and wouldn’t it be fun if he did somersaults on a jet ski?' I am so pleased we were able to keep most of this in the spot.

Where did you shoot?

Slovenia, Croatia and Pinewood Studios.

Has it gone down well?

Yes, so far it's getting great views and on Robbie's website it had over 570,000 views in the first 24 hours!

What has your shoot got to do with Germany winning the World Cup Final?

The last shot of him walking in front of the big explosion was also the last shot we did on the shoot. Coincidentally it was on the night of the World Cup final and as destiny had it we shot it exactly at 9pm, the designated kick off time. So I am very tempted to say that we really gave everything to help Germany win!