Shot in the Wadirum desert of Jordan, this ad follows the road trip of four friends re-united for the weekend.

I wanted to treat this shoot like its subject, the road trip. We had a lot to shoot in a day and a tight schedule to work with, but at the same time I wanted to feel the freedom of the open road. Additional to the drone and a support DSLR, the second camera and second DOP were instrumental in reaching that blend of efficiency and wiggle room to look for the surprise, the mistakes, the unique improvised moments as much as capturing the grand open landscapes. The Wadirum desert is a truly magical place and shooting in the winter gives you amazing light all day long, even if the days are short.

With this approach, the amazing location, and the synergy happening between our 4 talents, we tried to step away from the commercial look, to feel the true beauty and ruggedness of the environment, and ourselves within it.

It came down to editing to go through all this material. We had to design 4 films, 4 chapters of the trip (morning, day, evening and night) and then a longer format that would be a mashup of the whole. We had way enough material to make it happen, and the selection process was tough. One of the guidelines I came down to was, disregarding what I thought was essential for the narrative, I only kept what was the most exhilarating, free and fun bits. Sure enough, the story was still coming through nicely and the film only got stronger in the process.

Credits