With hindsight, I think that this project was really harder in a logistical way than a technical, but that’s interesting how the weather, and the improvisation made this video real.
The brief: the purpose was to show how the last Hybrid MINI Countryman can manage a ski week-end with friends. The idea for the customer, a car dealership based at the base of mountains, was to show the interest of its products for locals which can put themselves in a future driver seat. In addition to location scouting, we divided the shooting in 3 phases in 3 days: one day with actors on the ski resort called Peyragudes, showing the car in the snow context, and riders in the slopes. One day of B-rolls shots and details inside the car. And one last day to shoot the car in the mountain roads, going to the ski resort at surise.
The ski part.
It looks easy down on paper, but combine car availability, weather, amateur actors, drone and resort authorizations is not as obvious as we imagine. Especially the weather ! That’s how we started the shooting day under a rainy snow falling on the windscreen. It allows us to take some B-roll shots with actors with hot chocolate, which finally made the cut ! As the render was planned to be 4K, all of this ski part was shot with Red Raven, Ronin MX and mix between Canon 50mm F/1.4 and Canon 24mm F/2.8 STM. Obviously not the best lenses in the market, but by using a 4kg setup handheld and skiing switchstance, the weight was our main concern, and the batteries under the cold appreciates this. Another point to use the Jetpack module, the battery weight is held with the belt clip, and not in the Ronin, and kept warmer under the ski jacket.
Waiting for the afternoon, the sun cames out and allows us some close up shots with Anaïs, Maxime and Bastien, our 3 riders perfectly synchronized. We ended with some shots rolling up the Peyragudes altiport, which was in the James Bond “Tomorrow Never Dies” introduction scene, for the connoisseurs. No drone needed for this day !
The details part.
This seems to be a part of the previous part with actors but the time needed to perfect the details shot is pretty hard to take into account into a ski day. So the rendez-vous was some days after for a little sunny tour in order to take speedometers, start button, gear stick and all bright details useful to showcase the car innovations. Only Red Raven and Canon 24-70L F/2.8 II and 50mm 1.4, sometimes with Ronin.
The road part.
Here’s the tricky part. A very low amount of shots in the end, but as the main purpose of a car is to use… road, the road shot quality was essential. Dji Phantom 3 Pro, Dji Mavic Pro, Ronin MX, Ronin S, Red Raven, Sony a7III, Canon 5D mkIII, the heavy artillery was out ! Helped with Mathieu as pilot, Thibaut as second shooter and Quentin as coordinator, we get up early to reach the Aspin pass for the sunrise and benefit from the Payolle forest and beautiful turns without anyone to disturb us. In my opinion, the most funny part was the use of the motorcycle to get the moving close-up shots, we dont have any backstage proof but it allows us to take advantage of Ronin S + Sony mirrorless 4K setup than heavy Ronin MX + Red Raven. The 120 frames per second at 4K can make the difference in the end, but for a standard speed shot, my arms have a quick answer.
The introduction.
Here’s a joke: even if the introduction shot with the headlights was in my mind from the beginning, it was the last last shot taken just before taking back the car to the dealer, after night was fallen. And it ends as the first shot of the final edit.