Hey there,

I just came across your info and was hoping that you may be able to help. My name is Erin Halldorf and I’m a film producer located in San Francisco. I’m currently researching a possible story on “buildering” and was hoping that you may be able to help.

I have pasted some info on the project below but here (in a nutshell) what we would like to do:

-climb a building in San Francisco (the more “scenic” the better obviously)
-our host will learn how to do this (has no climbing experience and cannot be replaced by a stuntman)
-somebody will have to teach him and climb with him (must be comfortable in front of the camera etc.)

Obviously, this needs to be totally legal and I think the hardest part is going to be to find a building that’s “climable” and agrees to let us film there.
My contact info is below. Hoping to hear back from you soon! Have a great weekend.

More about the project:

– The new BMW X-5 Sport Utility Vehicle will be released in early 2007.
– As part of their advertising campaign, BMW has hired the German ad agency BM8 (www.bm8.de) to produce 11 clips that will be featured only on the internet.
-The style is going to be that of a road movie/documentary where the German host and his camera team will travel through Europe and the US for about two month.
– In each location, the host is experiencing an adventure – so this one would be climbing a building.
– The images captured are going to be a mix of high-quality driving scenes, panoramas etc. and also loose, semi-improvised and spontaneous conversations between the hosts and various guests. In the case of Buildering, that would be the climber who’s teaching our host how to climb a building.

______________________

Erin Halldorf
Producer
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Work: (415) 2XX-0X01
Cell: (202) 5XX-20X7
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Fax: (415) 2X2-X71X

These days I get a lot of emails from people wanting to do buildering commercials, documentaries, articles, music videos, novels, etc. I almost got flown down to Brazil to shoot a shampoo commercial — but like everything, it didn’t quite pan out. I’ve learned not to get my hopes up. Usually it’s not me specifically that they are looking for, rather they are looking for information.

I called Erin and offered her what little I knew about the San Franciscan buildering scene. Initially she was very excited about having me to scout a suitable location and be in the commercial with the German host. However the more I talked with her, the more I realized that there was no way this was going to happen.

First they were surprised that I didn’t live in San Francisco, and weren’t willing to fly me over.

Also, their game plan was that I’d teach the main actor how to climb in 30 minutes, and then we go soloing off into the sunset together — no permits, no safety rigging.

Cool concept for sure, but they’re gonna need some producers who understand basic logistics in order to pull it off. Hope it works out for them.