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Volvo – around the world in 30 days

The Volvo C30 shoot was a great experience – a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. It was also typical of how shoots have evolved since photography went digital.

These days you often go to locations just to shoot a backplate, with the object – or vehicle in this case – added later in the studio. I guess it illustrates how important good backplates are when it comes to the CGI polishing work in the studio.

Volvo C30 around the world

The brief was to shoot the latest Volvo C30 in exotic locations around the world. Problem was most of the models had yet to roll off the production line plus to transport a fleet of C30 around the planet would have been prohibitively expensive. So the idea was to shoot the backplates and then fit CGI cars from data supplied by Volvo into the backplates that we shot on the different locations.

To give the job an edge we had only 3 weeks’ notice for the 4 weeks shooting in 6 locations, from the US and South America to Europe and the Far East.

London-based Caspar and Co Productions did all the logistical work, which they sorted in breakneck speed. I mean, this was really on the hoof stuff.

Crew, Miami

They had 3 weeks to do everything:

– location recces
– paperwork – visas, customs carnets etc…
– equipment
– tickets
– permits
– car, trucks & helicopter hires
– hotels

The lot!

We seldom knew the exact location we were going to just the destination on the flight tickets. So it was stressful, but heaps of fun. Bit like “Around the world in 80 days” only it had to be done in 30 with a dozen passepartouts and no hot air balloon.

Along the way we were lugging some 20 cases weighing 20-30 kilos each, manually loaded and unloaded every time we got to the shoot.

The 4 day routine

The general rule was land on day 1 and on day 2 do the recce. Shoot on day 3 and fly to the next destination on day 4. In Chicago and Miami we were there for several shots so we stayed a little longer. But you don’t get paid to sit around on a sun lounger, it was full on. Sometimes the way the flights worked out we got the odd half day off here and there, but that was a rarity.

N LaSalle St, Chicago (Batman was shot at the end of the street )

Volvo C30 Miami

To begin with we shot the lifestyle pictures in Barcelona. We hired several models – male and female – to give the Volvo C30 a sophisticated, trendy image. This was the only location where the car was available.

Lifestyle, Volvo C30 Barcelona

Lifestyle, Volvo C30 Barcelona

Imagine the shot

With most of the job it was left up to the imagination of the Creative Director (Joooohaaaaan as his Mum calls him!) & myself. Indeed, the difficult aspect of each shoot was visualising the vehicle in the shot. How to make the subject look good, while the subject is absent.

Oddly, in some locations – in Hong Kong’s Kowloon Bay, for instance – you can’t put a car in the shot anyway. Where I thought it would work best, you couldn’t put vehicles outside the hotel. So we had to build that in CGI later to fit the vehicles in. Foreground, midground and cars.

Kowloon Bay, Volvo C30 Hong Kong

Likewise with Chicago. With that shoot I had to work out the heights, angles, positions and how the car would look at speed and parked up. Funny, but after a while you don’t really need a subject to see the shot in your head.

Again, similarly in Rio. We just took the backplate with the famous statue of Jesus in the background. Added the car later. Again we hired models and shot outside Museum of Contemporary.

Volvo C30, Cabana Beach Rio

Statue of Christ, Volvo C30 Rio

Lifestyle, Volvo C30 Rio

Volvo loved the shots, which made it all worthwhile. I was pleased with the backplates and the CGI work and even added a couple of hobbyist shots of the crew to boot. Bless ’em. They did work their arses off.

Crew, Rio