Filming at high speed with a Porsche 911 GT3
Metamark produce vinyls with a huge variety of applications. A big market for them is wrapping cars. This can be used for adding marketing material to a vehicle or simply customising the colour for personal preference.
We partnered with creative agency Shoot the Moon to produce Metamark’s first high end video commercial. The brief was simple:
“Make us a Top Gear episode”
So we got it. A lot of time went into planning the logistics of filming on a race track. Additional insurances and safety precautions needed to be put in place to ensure a safe and efficient shoot day. We put together a specialist team of film-makers and headed down to Brands Hatch circuit in Kent, England to hijack a track day.
AM:
We spent the morning in the garages wrapping the black Porsche 911 GT3 in Metamark colours and branding. It took a team of 3 guys almost 3 hours to wrap the car. We went for high contrast moody lighting to dramatise the setup. We utilised the super portable Aperture 300D (2k equivalent) LED light and a LS1 light panel to bring the car to life. Owning all of our video equipment makes setup times much quicker as we know all the kit inside out and have customised each setup to maximise their impact.
LUNCH:
The window for on track filming was 20 mins. In film-making terms this is very limited. (We’ve had longer coffee breaks). Not to be disheartened we planned those 20mins down to the second to ensure we got all the coverage needed and maximised our time.
The setups included:
5 mins on the start line filming handheld.
5 mins tracking shots with the Sony FS7 and Movi pro hanging from the back of a follow vehicle. We tracked at speeds up to 70mph and therefore safety was paramont. A full body harness was worn along with lanyards strapped to kit and spotters observing the filming.
5 mins shooting handheld from the follow vehicle.
5 mins on a tripod and long lens around the track filming the car passing at speed.
Later that afternoon:
We brought along the DJI Inspire 2 drone to capture some aerial tracking shots in the lower paddock area of the race track. The aerial footage added a great perspective that a few years ago was almost impossible (if not incredibly expensive) to get.
We then packed up and headed back up North to begin the edit.
Post Production:
The brief was to deliver a number of edits for various campaigns. We created a 60s, 20s and 15s version for social maximising the clients investment. We chose an modern audio track to help carry to video forward. The edit was cut to the beat and then it was onto sound design.
Sound design was always going to be a huge component to bringing this track day edit to life. It’s something that’s often overlooked for fast turn around social content but is honestly what makes good content great. As we knew time would be incredibly limited on the day we decided to focus on the creative visuals and variety of angles. We sourced a Porsche 911 GT3 sound pack online which had been lovingly crafted by sound engineers in the USA. They’d spent days and days capturing a huge array of sound effects including engine idling, tyre screeches and removing wheel nuts amongst many others. These high quality sound effects could then be lined up with our edit giving the film the extra dimension.
Enjoy our full edit below and the behind the scenes straight after.