In early June the American telecommunications company Verizon filmed their latest TV commercial “Spark” in Wellington.
Several central city streets were closed for for the early-June filming, including Willis St, Lambton Quay, Abel Smith St and Ghuznee St.
The commercial was directed by Garth Davis, who also directed two large-scale advertisements, Shadow Puppets and Fish, in Wellington for the company US Cellular.
I was involved as one of the extras running through the streets of Wellington waving massive sparklers. I guess this means I can now put “Professional Sparkler Operator” on my CV. The highlight would probably be the Sunday evening shots, at around 10pm when a Helipro helicopter was buzzing around the city filming the aerial shots.
It was a great production to be part of, seeing the amount of work that goes into such a short advert is amazing.
Here’s a few stills which really show off Wellington, while it was made to look more like a typical American city.
