Advertising · TV commercial · December 2012

Peroni Port of Genoa.

For the 2012 Peroni commercial we built a historic port from scratch: monumental wooden structures, period scaffolding, a Roman sundial carved with the date 1760.

Story

Act one

An eighteenth-century port
in ten days.

In December 2012 we were commissioned to build the scenographic set for a Peroni TV commercial set at the Port of Genoa. The director's framing was ambitious: glimpses of a historic port, buildings with treated-wood scaffolding, period details recognisable at a glance — all of it on an industrial yard by the Tyrrhenian coast, to be built and struck on a tight clock.

The photos from our archive document two weeks of construction: the dawn of 5 December with the first scaffold still empty against the rising sun; 6 December already with three workers on the structure, complete with scaffolding and horizontal beams; 12 December with the finished carved pieces — the Roman sundial in faux stone ready for the set, the seventeenth-century decorative elements assembled, and period drapes and garlands hung above the beams.

Construction of the Peroni set at dawn on 5 December 2012: skeleton wooden structure with the scaffold still empty, industrial buildings in the background, pink-blue dawn sky, paved yard — Dawn of 5 December: the skeleton still empty

Construction of the Peroni set on 6 December 2012: three workers on the high scaffolds of the wooden structure; poles, horizontal scaffolding, crossed ladders, white containers at the base, blue sky — 6 December: workers on site

Side view of the Peroni construction: complete wooden structure with scaffolding, residential buildings in the background, parking lot with cars in front — The structure seen from the side

Act two

The sundial of
MDCCLX.

The smallest piece on the set is also the most precise. The Roman sundial carved in faux stone that appears in the 12 December photo bears at its centre the date MDCCLX — 1760. Roman numerals from four to twelve arranged in a radiant pattern around the central gnomon, and an "M" at the centre to mark noon.

The Peroni commercial called for a period detail that was credible in close-up: something that declared "this is a historic port, not a redressed set." The faux-stone sundial — patinated with the care of a polychrome portrait — is the kind of piece that an ordinary scenography company buys off the shelf. For us it was simpler to make our own, sized to the framing of the shot, with the date chosen by the director of photography.

The set stood for the entire second half of December 2012, then was struck after the shoot. The wooden structures were recovered and the faux-stone carvings kept in our workshops for possible reuse.

Roman sundial carved by Creation Art for the Peroni commercial: rectangular slab in sand-coloured patinated faux stone, the centre engraved 'MDCCLX' (1760) beneath a radiant sun, Roman numerals VII-VIII-IX-X-XI-XII on the left and VI-V-IV-III on the right, 'M' at the centre as the noon marker; the piece rests on a vintage wooden crate — The carved sundial — MDCCLX, 1760

Another view of the sundial carved for Peroni, from a different angle, detail of the sand-coloured patina and the Roman numerals — The sundial, patina detail

Decorative elements of the Peroni scenography: architectural details, period finishes, materials being worked on site — Decorative set elements on site

Behind the scenes

A historic port, for pretend,
in ten days on site.

Working on a TV commercial means compression: the same amount of scenographic work as a film set, in a fraction of the time. Our Port of Genoa, 1760, was born and died in two weeks, on an industrial yard by the Tyrrhenian coast.

The Peroni set in early morning: monumental wooden structure with complete scaffolds backlit, workers on the gantries — **Site at dawn.** The scaffolds rigged on the industrial yard before the crew arrived

The treated-wood structures

The port scaffolding is built from solid treated timber with a brown impregnating stain: vertical posts, horizontal beams, crossed ladders, walkable gantries. Using real wood — not fake — was a shooting requirement: the camera sees the knots, the grain, and the real footholds of the actors up close. The structure carries its own weight and the crew's, with no visible hardware.

Patinated faux stone

The eighteenth-century architectural details — the sundial, the window frames, the decorative elements — are made in fibreglass over polystyrene cores, finished as lime-washed faux stone. The patina is laid down in successive glazes of diluted earths and blacks to simulate three centuries of ageing: damp staining low down, fading on the flats, deposits in the recesses.

Period accuracy

The MDCCLX sundial was drawn before being carved: the radiant sun at the centre, the Roman numerals from IV (four in the afternoon) up to XII and back down to VI in the morning, the "M" at the centre for meridies. The genuine eighteenth-century Ligurian sundials follow this same scheme — it isn't generic decoration, it's a quotation of a port's clockmaking culture.

10 days

on site, from 5 to 15 December 2012

MDCCLX

the date carved into the sundial — 1760

1:1

full scale, walkable by actors and crew

Close-up view of the wooden structure of the Peroni set, scaffold details, horizontal and vertical members — **Structure up close.** Treated-timber posts and gantries, rigged to bear the crew's real weight

Second life

Struck, and kept in the workshop.

The set stood for the mid-December 2012 shoot and was then fully struck: that's the nature of commercial scenography — the client pays for the build for those two or three shoot days, not for the piece to remain.

The wooden structures were recovered, dismantled piece by piece and returned to the warehouse. The faux-stone carvings — the sundial, the cornices, the period elements — stayed in our workshops and entered the rental catalogue for other eighteenth-century period projects.

The glaze patination techniques used here — the diluted earths, the differential fading — are the same we apply to every historical set, from the Ancient Rome sets at Cinecittà to the facades of Gangs of New York. For a TV commercial, however, the constraint is different: the patina has to read in three seconds of footage, not withstand the prolonged scrutiny of a cinematic close-up.

Tech sheet

All production data

Type: Scenographic set for a TV commercial
Brand: Peroni
Scenographic theme: Port of Genoa · historical setting with buildings, scaffolds and period details
Production period: December 2012 · construction documented by photos from our archive between 5 and 12 December
Materials and techniques: Load-bearing treated-wood structures · wooden scaffolding · patinated faux-stone carvings · fibreglass decorative elements
Iconic piece: Roman sundial carved in faux stone, dated MDCCLX (1760), with Roman numerals arranged in a radiant pattern around the gnomon
Our role: Building the scenographic set for the commercial · constructing the wooden structures, carving the period elements, patinating the sundial and the architectural details
Legacy: Faux-stone carvings entered the rental catalogue for other period projects

Other commercials, advertising and period sets

Lavazza commercial — the surrealist set for the coffee ad
Ancient Rome sets · Cinecittà — the same patinated faux-stone techniques, but for cinema
Gangs of New York — nineteenth-century facades patinated for 1862
Fellini exhibition — another brand commission on a tight deadline