Award-winning director films advert at water tank

The Mediterranean Film Studios, in Kalkara, has just hosted one of the world's top commercial directors, Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, for the filming of a commercial for France's mobile phone network Orange - yet another commercial attracted by the studios' water tanks.

Mr Bardou-Jacquet is renowned worldwide in the TV commercial industry for several award-winning adverts, the most recent being the Honda Cog commercial for the UK, better known as the domino-effect commercial in which a single cog kicks off a chain reaction that sets component parts of a Honda Accord in elaborate and orchestrated motion.

The two-minute advert, which won several prestigious awards, required meticulous planning and lots of trial and error.

It is also claimed to have been the most downloaded commercial on the internet, according to the Producer's Creative Partnership, the production company that managed the shoot in Malta. Mr Bardou-Jacquet's Malta shoot consisted of four days in the Rinella tanks at the Mediterranean Film Studios, filming mainly underwater scenes, and also at Comino.

Taking advantage of the good weather, the 40-strong crew filmed various scenes for Orange's commercial, involving a "whale", a fish bowl and "lots of water", a PCP spokesman said. He was, however, unable to elaborate on the story concept until it is aired on TV stations this summer.

The PCP thanked both Mediterranean Film Studios and Malta Shipbuilding for their strong support in the making of this commercial. Malta Shipbuilding was instrumental in building a 13-metre platform in the deep-water tank within the space of only three days.

"Not only did they do an incredibly fast job," the spokesman said, "but they also priced fairly, making it feasible to shoot in Malta".

The production company said it was also the first time that an advanced technological system was used to cut down by half the time usually required for the director and director of photography to see what they have shot.

Typically, this process would take two days since there was no film laboratory in Malta and the film would have to come back from overseas by air. But a hi-tech lab in Rome, associated with PCP and using a dedicated high-speed internet line, was contracted to do the job.