“We had to cast 14 spots in three weeks,” says Abesera, a feat that would be daunting under normal circumstances. Throw in the added pressure of finding real people between the ages of 15 and 24 from 14 different countries who were willing to share their stories about everything intimate from sex to AIDS to prostitution, and the challenge might begin to look impossible.

In a partnership between MTV Networks International, YouthNet spearheaded by Family Health International, the Kaiser Family Foundation, USAID, UNAIDS, UNFPA, The World Bank, DFID, SIDA and other organizations, Staying Alive was set up in 1998 to provide vital information on HIV/AIDS prevention and to campaign against discrimination. Staying Alive works to bring global awareness by providing documentaries, concerts and public service announcements such as the ones cast by Abesera, free to broadcasters around the world.

“The key to these spots in my mind,” Abesera told 411, “was that we find real people from different countries who still had their finger on the pulse of what is really going on in each of their countries.” Abesera didn’t have the luxury of flying off to any of the various featured countries—Brazil, Russia, Mexico, China, France—so she had to work with what she could find in California.

“Casting for real people becomes a 24-hour job,” say Abesera. “For example, after a full day of in-office casting, I was in my local Ralphs grocery shopping when I overheard a French woman and her son talking in the next aisle.”

“I approached them and asked them if they’d be comfortable sharing their stories. Their open and honest attitudes toward sex made me realize how closed off to sex American attitudes can be and how we really don’t know how to talk to our kids.”

Besides grocery store finds, Abesera’s search reached to youth hostiles, tourist spots, exchange programs, as well as regular casting calls. She was also in touch with various AIDS organizations including the UCLA AIDS Institute  under the expertise of Mr. Edwin Bayrd, Associate Director and Ms. Sherri Lewis, Education Consultant.

Directed by Chris Brandi, the spots themselves are currently in their final editing stages in London, England.  Brandi spoke with 411 and explained his involvement in the project and what it meant to him.

“This project changed my life,” explains director, Chris Brandi. “I grew up in San Francisco, CA near Haight-Ashbury. The first time I heard of someone dying of AIDS, I was eight years old. I felt like directing these spots was an incredible opportunity for me to be able to give something back.”

Shot at Raleigh Studios in just two days, each spot of the Sex Drive series features two or three people talking candidly in a car from the ‘80s. “I wanted to create a sense of history and movement forward from the past into the present. To accomplish this, we used that kind of Hitchcock old school style rear projection behind the car with someone actually physically moving the car back and fourth. The backdrops themselves were made up of vintage stock footage provided by Third Millennium Films for all of the countries that were featured. For instance, we used shots of Ipanema Beach for the Brazilian spot and tropical jungle footage for the spots from the Philippines.”

The ’80s car and the vintage rear projection backdrops represent the past, but the viewer is brought firmly into the present with the youth of the speakers as well as the High Def letterbox 16X9 ratio shots. Bob Harvey of Panavision was equally enthusiastic about contributing  to such a worthy project and provided all of the HD camera systems for free.

What is actually said in the spots, explains Abesera, in many instances came directly from the conversations that evolved during casting calls. “Initially, I was admittedly trying to manipulate an answer from each person about the AIDS crisis. Ultimately, I wanted them to say ‘the solution to fighting AIDS is to wear a condom.’ But what the creative director, Leighton Cheal, made me realize was that there is no solution, or way to clean this up with one line, and it’s within that unknown space that we learn the most about young people and sex, AIDS and the prevention of AIDS.”

The learning curve for Abesera and  Brandi was steep. The target starting age range for the young adults cast for each spot quickly went from 18 to 15 or 16 as Abesera realized how much younger kids are starting to have sex these days. “One American girl who we talked to confessed to be intimate with more than 10 partners and how her biggest single regret is losing her virginity. She was 16,” recalls Abesera.

“I was hearing terms and language I’d never heard before, like references to Rainbow Parties and young guys bragging about how many girls they’ve had sex with.”

“I was amazed,” says Brandi that of the 100 or so people that we interviewed during casting only one or two knew what AIDS actually stands for.”

A commercial project that changes lives as well as a veteran's perspective of his or her business is probably pretty rare these days. But for Brandi and Abesera the Staying Alive Sex Drive spots have done exactly that.

"There was no script.  There were no characters," reflects Abesera.  "As a casting director, my challenge was to listen and not direct or manipulate an outcome.  I had to create a safe and  comfortable rapport with real people, concentrating on the subject matter, facts and events.  The script came from the powerful real-life stories and images evoked by the individual's personal experiences."

www.staying-alive.org



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