Globe-trotting film Nomad comes to Brazil

As Story Productions well knows from experience, filming in Rio de Janeiro is not without its challenges. And those challenges mean that having a Brazilian fixer or local production crew on the ground can make or break a shoot. That’s why US production company TXL Films called us to provide production support for an ambitious indie feature film they’re currently shooting – Nomad – directed by Taron Lexton.

Nomad captures the love story between a young woman who meets a man with a strange condition: every 12 hours he spontaneously shifts to a different location on Earth, with no idea which climate – or continent – he’s going to next. The production will take the TXL crew and cast across 25 countries and 7 continents over five months, capturing some of the most remote and spectacular locations on Earth, using only real locations, with no green screen or studio sets.

Once the locations were chosen, the Story production team worked round the clock to attain all the necessary film permits in less than a week. Some locations had a backlog of filming requests that we were told would take weeks to clear, so we used our local contacts and “jogo de cintura” – a very Brazilian expression, invoking an image of a footballer dribbling their opponent, but which means the ability to think quickly on your feet to solve problems – to make sure we had the green light in time.

You can plan a pretty picnic but you can’t predict the weather
The weather in Rio de Janeiro is impossible to predict, but with rain forecast for the days ahead we purchased a detailed meteorological report to have the best possible idea about what to expect in terms of visibility, wind, rain and light throughout each day of the shoot. That way, we could plan the schedule to make the most of the clear patches we had.

The first shoot location was Christ the Redeemer. We were up at 4am and had pre-arranged an early-bird breakfast for the crew at the hotel before setting off to get to the top of the mountain before dawn. The rain was as expected but our meteorological report hadn’t forewarned the gale-force winds which gusted at up to 60 kmph whilst the crew was setting up the equipment.

As dawn approached, however, the winds died down and strands of light began to appear between gaps in the clouds. Any concerns we had had about jostling for space with crowds of tourists vanished; we had the mountaintop all to ourselves as the cameras rolled, capturing glorious vistas of the city from its highest point. The Nomad team were delighted with the result, as their Instagram posts show:

Next up, the second location on our schedule – Santa Marta lookout point – where strong winds made the planned drone filming impossible. We needed a plan B and fast, so we showed images of Praia Vermelha – a nearby beach – to the director who agreed to the idea. At Praia Vermelha, at the foot of Sugar Loaf Mountain, the clouds were opening, the sun was shining and the day was heating up. A crowd of tourists and locals soon gathered to watch as we set up the equipment. Our security detail made sure that the Nomad team could focus solely on recording, whilst the Story fixers set to work to deal with the crowds and to round up pigeons to release in certain scenes!