When surfing through TV channels in May, you might spot four guys clinking bottles of Coors Banquet beer on a lake that looks oddly familiar.
Trust your memory.
A cast and crew have been on the North Olympic Peninsula making a commercial for Coors Banquet beer for just more than a week, and on Monday they were filming at sites such as the Junction Roadhouse, Lake Crescent Lodge and the newly opened Peninsula Plywood mill.
Coors Banquet beer, which is brewed in Golden, Colo., often looks for locations that emulate its hometown, said Bill Lindsey, creative director for Draftfcb, the company that is making the commercial for Coors.
For a 30-second spot, 10,000 to 30,000 feet of film might be shot — for roughly 7 to 25 minutes of material, he said.
In addition to finding locales that have the same rugged terrain as Colorado, the group also looked for casting that would be realistic, Lindsey said, who added that the commercial was set to air nationally in May.
“We found most of the cast in Seattle or Portland, and some locals will make their way in as extras,” he said.
“We wanted a very realistic type of person.
“We don’t want the type of casting that would end up in a Pepsi spot next month.”
The locals have already been cast.
“It is very different for a national brand to do the casting this way,” said Sean McGrath, senior vice president of Draftfcb.
Filming at Lake Crescent featured four guys enjoying a few cold ones on a dock. Good weather and smooth waters helped the day along.
For the filming at Junction Roadhouse, most of the bar’s decor was left intact, said Jason Puccinelli, production designer from Seattle.
“We really liked the look of it in here,” he said.
They did add a few extra Coors signs, and Puccinelli said he perused Port Angeles for older ones.
Port Angeles Antique Mall “was really helpful,” he said.
They had a few of their own, and they called others who also “brought us a few.”
Mouse Trap Antiques & Gifts also helped out with a few signs, he said.
Josh Renshaw, president of the PenPly mill, said the filming there was a happy accident.
“They just were driving by and saw it and said that this place looked cool,” he said.
“So they came and did some filming [on Monday morning], and even a few of the millworkers got to be in the shots, if it survives editing.
“It’s great — 30 cast and crew staying at our hotels, eating at our restaurants is always a good thing.”
A local barn will be set up to look like a wood shop, and other local spots will also be filmed throughout the rest of the week.
“We even got a local guy to let us use his pickup,” Lindsey said.
Diane Schostak, executive director of the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau, said the Coors spot was a large one, but filming isn’t new to the Peninsula.
“We get a lot of the ‘outside Puget Sound’ filming because people can come film and get a lot of different looks in one day — they can get the flat prairie, the Victorian look, the whole spectrum,” she said.
Schostak, who was out of the country at a meeting and speaking by cell phone, said she didn’t have statistics at hand.
Within Olympic National Park alone about a dozen films or commercials are made each year, said Loretta Commet, the park filming coordinator.
About 10 per year are made within the park boundaries and an additional couple every year are made at places such as Lake Crescent Lodge that aren’t required to have a park permit because they are run by vendors.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige. dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
