International production company, Papaya teamed up with BBDO Warsaw to help Mercedez-Benz Poland show appreciation for Poland's Mountain Volunteer Search and Rescue with a 90 second short, capturing the essence of the everyday life of a GOPR rescuer.
Director, Antek Nykowski, describes the challenges of filming the day to day activities of the mountain rescuers and the use of aerial drones and RED dragon to enhance the shots.
Q: How long was the process of directing / filming from start to finish? Was there a part of production that took longer than another?
Antek Nykowski: We came up with the idea with one of the creatives during post production on one of our previous projects. So I was involved in the creative process from day one, which is quite unusual, but very productive. As usual the pre production process took some time, especially since our idea was to work with a real rescuer, not an actor or a model. So we had to cast them around places they work, in their environment. For our talent it was the first time in front of the camera.
Q: How challenging was it to showcase the day to day activities of a GOPR rescuer? And how did you do it?
Antek Nykowski: Our basic idea was that we use typical environments and surroundings for our hero. Most of them were quite remote. What I mean is that we had to get all the gear there with 4x4 cars, or even on foot. What’s more is we wanted to be as close to nature as possible, so we used almost no artificial light. That is why, during three shooting days we were chasing the sun constantly. I wanted to keep it simple and true.
Q: Tell me a little about the use of aerial drones and the RED dragon and how you think it enhanced the spot.
Antek Nykowski: The drone was an obvious idea because it is lightweight, but I wanted to use it rather as a platform for interesting camera perspective rather then dynamic fly by shots. There is no other equipment that enables you to float gently 300 meters above a moving car. And the graphic of such a shot is hard to match with anything else. The drone which we used was really small but at the same time very fast and with its 4K sensor we could get good quality for further postproduction. As for the RED Dragon - it is quite lightweight and gives you a lot of lattitude, which helps you tweak the image in grading and post. As we mixed the RED footage with old VHS and GoPros it was extremely important and helped us match different formats.
Q: What upcoming projects are you working on?
Antek Nykowski: I am finishing a production for one of the biggest beer brands in Europe, taking two weeks holiday and then kicking off a mysterious sci-fi project with Papaya producers. My work/life is balanced, I love directing commercials, interactive content and shorts.
Q: Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Antek Nykowski: I really enjoyed the creative freedom that BBDO Warsaw gave me, seldom you get such great support from the creative team and have them so open to your ideas. I believe it is the only way to create some really unique advertising. Also I recently joined the Papaya roster, and this film wouldn’t be so great without their production team. Papaya's technical solutions, location research, planning and execution was on point and thanks to working with a lightweight crew we were able to cover much more than we anticipated. When you chase the elusive magic hour for three days on end, this is absolutely crucial. A big thank you to all of them.
