Two cups of single-shot espresso at Cafe Zoetrope will set you back about $10.
What really runs up the tab, however, is hiring an Academy Award-winning director to film you and your friend walking there to drink them.
That costs about $3 million.
At least it did for tech titans Sam Altman and Jony Ive, according to film permits obtained by The Standard.
Altman, king of the chatbots, and Ive, iPhone designer, last week unveiled their collaborative company io in a nine-minute commercial. Gushing with backslapping pride, the video shows the best friends swanning through downtown and North Beach streets for nearly a minute and a half before convening over the zinc bar at Zoetrope to hype a mysterious product they’re developing together.
Though it may appear that Ive, who was wearing an army-style field jacket, and Altman, rocking lego-themed Adidas sneakers, were walking among the rest of us on the city’s streets, the film permits reveal the two tech bosses went to great lengths to insert themselves into “ordinary” life, shutting down roadways in the heart of North Beach, relocating a bus stop, and hiring San Francisco Police Department officers to redirect traffic.
The five-day production by Bob Industries, a Santa Monica-based video company, and director Davis Guggenheim, who won an Oscar in 2007 for his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” totaled $3 million, of which $1 million was spent in San Francisco, the permits reveal. Roughly $30,000 went to the SFPD. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency got about $2,700, and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development walked away with $1,500.
The production company also booked 275 hotel nights and made 75 “local hires.” It’s unclear how the remainder of the funds were spent. Attempts to reach Bob Industries were unsuccessful.
Two anonymous film industry sources told The Standard that most high-end commercials cost between $1 million and $1.5 million to produce.
“Holy shit,” said one Los Angeles based videographer who agreed to speak anonymously. “You can film someone walking down the street for free on your iPhone.”
Several city departments defended their involvement in the video. The police department said no officers were taken off regular duty (although so-called 10B overtime frequently corresponds to sick-day usage). And the SFMTA said the production caused just one bus stop to be moved a block from its normal position.
“We are happy to work with production companies who want to show off San Francisco and inspire people to come here and ride Muni,” said Michael Roccaforte, spokesperson for the SFMTA. (Just why a video showing billionaires walking around town would inspire others to ride transit was not clear.)
The branded short was quickly trolled online, as was whatever the new device might be, with AI-generated images of butt plugs and the like, replete with OpenAI branding.
“I’m just so confused why they needed so many walking shots,” the videographer said. “‘This is our journey to get coffee together. Also, we mingle with common folk that we hire to walk around.’”
For a price tag steeper than their beloved San Francisco hills, it does seem Ive and Altman could have made a video that avoided featuring extras who appear repeatedly in ways that defy physics or logic.