Winter will return to Casper next month.

As dusk descends on the prairie, a Wells Fargo stagecoach will bound down Second Street and stop downtown.

A wide-eyed girl, among many watching the stagecoach, looks up at a horse and the driver kneels down beside her. He gives her a snow globe with the exact scene of downtown Casper with the stagecoach and with her beside it.

She shakes the globe, and the horse shakes his head as if to say that wasn't enough.

She shakes it harder. Snow begins to fly around the stagecoach scene, as it does on the street. Bystanders come alive with the first snow of the season.

Then with a tip of the hat, the driver and the stagecoach head out of town, wishing you a magical holiday.

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And that is the scene that will be filmed downtown on the nights of June 6 and 7 for a holiday commercial for Wells Fargo.

Friday morning, downtown business owners met with Brooke Johnson of ColoradoFilmLocations.com, who was scouting downtown Casper this week for the final preparations for the commercial. Johnson is a freelance location manager hired by Los Angeles-based production company Bullitt that will film the commercial.

A 60-second commercial takes a lot of work.

The production will require closing Second Street between Durbin and David from 5 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Center and Wolcott will stay open until 10 p.m., but will be closed late at night for the stage coach scene. Filming will stop, of course, for people to access the parking garage and for emergencies, he said.

The equipment includes 10 trucks, two camera units, one aerial drone with a certified pilot, multiple condors with high power lights, snow machines and art department dressing, 18 horses and two stagecoaches. Only six horses and one stagecoach will be called upon at any given time.

The core crew will number between 40 and 50 and will come from Denver and Los Angeles, plus actors, and people handling the horses and the Wells Fargo stage coach.

"So in the end, we're a hundred strong," Johnson said. "That's hotel rooms, catering and everything else that's got to happen. It's a large event, definitely."

The production company also will be looking for about 50 extras to fill the streets, and auditions will happen for them at the Ramkota Hotel on Wednesday, Johnson said.

Johnson told the business owners and civic officials the two-day filming will pump about $250,000 into the local economy.

Wells Fargo pays for everything including public works and public safety, he said. "There's no asking for a giveaway. Everything we do has got money as a rental, or covering costs for labor."

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