Sky Sports F1 2015 Season Launch Ad BTS from Director Jacques Salmon…
Sky F1 Chasing Pack 'behind the scenes' from Jacques Salmon on Vimeo.
Shooting 7000ft up a mountain with six wolves isn't something that I do every week… but I’m not one to turn down a challenge.
I had over 30 different set ups to achieve over three days of filming with safety paramount for both the wolves & the crew.
Having met the wolves at their home & scouted the location with my DOP I set about meticulously planning how to execute the filming in a successful way, working with A-list Hollywood wolves who have appeared in Game of Thrones, True Blood & Vampire Diaries meant the pressure was on.
We wanted the narrative of the spot to reflect that of a Formula one race so it was important that the wolves had to navigate through corners, straights & the occasional coming together. In order to be able to get the camera close to the wolves electrical fencing ‘hot lines’ had to be erected. These fences were then painted out, frame by frame, in post production.
For each set up the team of wolf handlers had to put out the ‘hot line’. Extras would stand in as wolves so the camera department & myself could rehearse the moves & get focus points on all cameras.
All non essential crew would then have to leave the set, as not to distract the wolves. The wolf handlers would then walk the wolves down to the set up & the wolves would acclimatise to their new ‘hot line’ zone.
They are trained not to go near the hot line. Once everyone was happy we would then shoot. The wolf trainers would release our wolves, always with our hero wolf ‘Cody’ at the front of the pack, unfortunately Cody wasn’t the quickest but always had to be in the lead, so the wolves had to be held back, staggering the release in order to create the right formation at the key moment in front of camera.
This was all marshalled by the coolest guy I’ve ever met, Steve Martin – Wolf Master.
Once we’d repeated that process on over 30 different set ups it was a wrap….
This BTS film was created by Matt & Sam evofilmsusa.com
Bonus Video…
Sky Sports F1 2015 Season Launch #thechasingpack from Jacques Salmon on Vimeo.
Current Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton will be under extreme pressure as he defends his title.
With his F1 rivals hungrier than ever, beware #thechasingpack
#thechasingpack is the first campaign to run across the new pan European Sky network, with on air, print & digital executions.
Director: Jacques Salmon
Lead Creative: Jacques Salmon
Creative Director: Noel Kearns
Executive Creative Director: Simon Buglione
DOP: Patrick Loungway
Producers: Jon Hinton / Roberts Jones
Wolf Master: Steve Martin
Editor : Jeff Collins
Sound Design: Simon Hitner
Lead Flame: Laura Smith
Flame: Paul Dixon
VFX Supervisor: Matt Unwin
Colourist: Steffan Perry