Capturing stills and video in Manaus for Coca-Cola
When a major brand seeks to highlight the people behind the products, they turn to an experienced Brazilian crew. This dive into the secrets of the production of ‘guarana’ took us from Manaus to the depths of the Amazonian forest, to the side of the cultivators showing us around their family-run farms.
It might not be the first thing people have in mind when it comes to Coca-Cola, but the multinational brand doesn't only produce the most famous energy beverage (since 1894) worldwide. In Brazil, the firm from Atlanta also produces the drinks Tuchaua, Charua, Simba, Guarana Kuat and Fanta Guarana: the last two of which a plant, guarana, treasured by Indigenous Brazilians, is necessary for fabrication.
As Brazil is the first producer and exporter of guarana worldwide—70 per cent of the total global amount—every seed of the “red gold” Coca-Cola uses is produced in the Brazilian Amazonian forest in agroforestry farms amongst monkeys and birds, near various indigenous cultures. And to enable this very specific agriculture to develop in the most sustainable way—both socially and environmentally—Coca-Cola has been operating for more than 5 years the development program Olhos da Floresta, which today involves more than 300 families within 14 municipalities in the state of Amazonas.
At the end of 2021, Story Productions was approached by Coca-Cola to help them document this programme and the way they work with its beneficiaries. To produce pictures as well as videos for their corporate image bank, the crew traveled 6 days to the Amazonian forest.
As it was the very beginning of the rainy season up there, the first thing Story Productions had to make sure of was getting a perfectly accurate weather forecast to be able to plan the shootings ahead and not lose any time once on site.
Along with the Brazilian director of the Olhos da Floresta programme, Story Productions sent one producer and DOP from São Paulo, and all the rest of the crew was recruited locally in Manaus, including a second DOP who operated both the drone footage and a second camera.
Filming in the Amazon often involves a great deal of logistics, as Manaus is a very isolated city, built at the center of vast swathes of Amazonian forest. Traveling inside the green lung of the blue planet requires a bit of time and therefore a reasonable amount of planning.
Story Productions handled the recruitment of the crew, as well as the travel, accommodation and catering for the whole crew.
After visiting the Coca-Cola firm based in Manaus and filming a long conversation between Milena, the director of the firm, and João, the director of the programme, the crew hit the road with a van to film in 3 different remote sites within the jungle.
All of it required no less than 20 hours on the road and 3 hours on a boat—and then a speedboat—to reach the 3 agro-ecological locations in Manacapuru, Urucara, and Novo Airao, and come back.
The objective was to go and meet up with Angelina, Cristina and Carlos, 3 participants in the Olhos da Floresta programme, obtain interviews with these characters and images of the magnificent and wild cultivation grounds—some located deep inside of conservation areas—shot on the ground with two Blackmagic cameras and one drone.
The videos and interviews aimed at exploring the way the programme wishes to contribute to the ecological development of the Amazonas by creating jobs, investing in means of production, and training farmers on the best agro-forestry polycultural practices and sustainable business planning.
Thanks to a well-documented preparation and Story Productions’s historical experience of
filming inside the Amazonian forest, the 6 days of shooting went very smoothly. The whole experience was also one more opportunity for the client to spend time with the farmers and better understand how to continue sharing knowledge with them and further develop the programme.
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