If you had told me when I got pregnant that I would be spending the first day of my third trimester on a car commercial shoot in the middle of the Mojave Desert in California I would have laughed and said ‘who would do that?!’ But life being the crazy ride (car pun partially intended?) that it is never stops surprising me.
Working closely with Independent Media Director Doug Liman (Bourne Idenity, The Instigators, etc) the Mill’s Creative Director Jimmy Bullard and our team lead the VFX side of the shoot to create a seamless one-shot for Nissan’s latest Endless Thrills campaign.
We spent 3 days in the desert shooting the hero car shots and 360 footage (shot by Radiant) and then the last 3 days on a volume stage in LA where the desert footage was projected behind the talent to help tie talent driving and the location footage together. We had roughly a month to finish the work from edit to finish and a stacked list of final deliverables – Social Celeb collabs, OLVs, Social platform aspect ratios, cutdowns, etc.
The team at The Mill killed it – VFX Supervisors Renato Carone and Siro Valente alongside 3D Lead Karim Moussa really helped manage the team and make the process as smooth as possible. I co-produced the project with Katharine Mulderry who focused on the OLVs/Socials while I watched over the TVCs for General and Hispanic Markets (different talent which was a fun twist 😉 ).
We’re all very happy with the final product and as my last project before going on Maternity Leave for 6 months I felt like it really helped the third trimester (which mind you, is not the most comfortable of times) fly by. I find myself due in less than two weeks, Nissan’s delivery only a few days past me and reflecting on how lucky I am that I get to do what I love and also take a break to start a family 🙂
Check out the final product at link below!