Toyota — Commercial

I have spent years working with fixers while filming internationally, but I have never gotten to return the favor until Juan and Tito from Mama Húngara reached out to my producing partner Annie and I through our good friends at Brother Films. The project features a line of Toyota off-road vehicles in extreme terrain for the Hispanic market. We love automotive productions, and getting the chance to put these vehicles to the test sounded like a dream! 

This project was all about the perfect locations, and knowing we had to be within driving distance of Los Angeles, we turned to Alexandra Gibson, an incredible Locations Manager who worked tirelessly to find two perfect locations, each with varying desert-centric terrain to help us feature the vehicles in the most epic ways. Director Tomás Mastroscello wanted to accomplish a lot during our two days on set and so we brought out all of the toys: U-Crane Arm, FPV Drone, as well as Slow Motion and 360 Cameras. 

Along with “the toys,” we assembled our crew including frequent collaborator DP Jeff Sukes, our buddies at Filmotechnic, Greg Tracy - a highly accomplished Stunt Coordinator and Driver, and last but not least a stellar Assistant Director, Patrick Gorman, who masterfully kept the production train moving full steam ahead without derail. The logistics were a beast on this one! Feeding and hydrating 75 people in the middle of the desert in 90+ degrees while also being sustainable is no small feat! And then there is transportation for key personnel, the hauling of 3 hero vehicles and 3 duplicates, motorhomes for talent, 4x4 gators to haul crew and gear from basecamp to wherever we were filming, and a mobile production office for our Production Coordinator Anita, Annie and myself to work from….and that’s just a snapshot. 

It truly takes a village when running a production at this scale. But as the sunset painted the evening sky and the “martini shot” was called over our walkie’s, we knew that the long days of prep, countless Zoom meetings, and dust-caked clothes we were wearing were all worth it. And call me crazy, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat!