Having an idea to create a commercial isn’t something I can accomplish alone… especially when that idea involves a Jeep driving down a mountain chasing after a magic tennis ball. Oh, and a grizzly bear.
Thankfully having met Director Maciek Sokalski in Jordan Brady’s Commercial Direction Bootcamp, this one was able to come to life. Personally, I truly love the spot, its adventurous energy combined with the suspended realism of an animated and wily tennis ball makes for a wonderfully imaginative story that’s right in line with the spirit of the Jeep brand.
How did we make this and why does it look so damn good? Let me tell you… this idea all started with the concept of a Jeep being your Emotional Support Vehicle. Meeting with Maciek we drilled down into some fun scenarios of how Jeep owners use and treat their Jeep like a pet but it was the idea of a game of fetch that stood out and shined on its own. “Fetch” felt like the simplest and best story to tell.
Taking an idea, either written down or drawn on flat 2D paper in scribbly shapes, and then actually making them into something real and presentable for a viewing audience is more Maciek’s specialty than mine. He was able to run with things and coordinate the production. From finding a location at the Canyon Ranch, reserving our Jeep, casting the stunt driver, actress and dog… Russian arms and the whole shebang… along with 89 other little things that I would have missed.
Working on Jeep.com has been a bright spot in my career, but I always wish I did more of the production and film side of things. This was a fun process to be a part of and reminded me why I love the magic of film production.
Created as a spec spot, it was an independently funded project that took us nearly a full year to complete. We met in August, met and developed the idea that fall, Maciek shot it in December and throughout the next year in 2022 we met as a routine nearly every Friday to review the edit and shape the final cut.
Maciek’s background and skills in VFX served us incredibly well… the tennis ball and a lot of the placement of the dog in the car is the workings of a magical digital illusion. As you can see, It works, and also would have been near impossible to pull off that sort of tennis ball movement in real life. My close experience with the Jeep brand helped guide the tone and my experience working in storytelling enabled me to shape out the big picture of the story.
To put some extra shine and pro polish on it, we had some incredible collaborators that joined the crew and assist their talents along the way. Ben Pachecho of Future Perfect Music + Sound Design,
(along with others… planning to add a list of names and credits to this blog post later…)
Lastly, I want to show off a bit more of the development process below… To help envision the story, I drew up some quick visual sketches for a storyboard to share the basics of the story beats. As I’m constantly trying to improve my visual communication and storyboarding skills this was a fun exercise and helped communicate the essential story beats.
To help envision the spot from start to finish we made a couple of test edits…. Maciek scouted the Canyon Ranch location, tried a few tests to try and film a bouncing tennis ball.
Another early test edit for a :30
Working on this project was a quite an adventure, a chase and a challenge… And just like the girl in the commercial I’m excited to charge back up the mountain and do it all over again for another story. Stay tuned for more creative fun to come.