“A father experience – son transformed into a TV spot” – I think it’s a fair title for the story of the Skoda Kodiaq spot.
In fact, this story should have two ramifications: the first would be to discuss how it is possible, from a technical / artistic / budget point of view, to make a spot in the mountains – but super low budget.
And here the answer is simple: a small team, made up of creative people, a good set of lenses and a small but very powerful video camera – Sony a7 III, along with a Ronin S gimbal, an automated Rhino Slider and a drone, in our case a DJI Phantom 4 pro V2.
All of the above do nothing, however, unless the good weather helps you and a well-done prospecting. And here we come to the second part of the story, the most beautiful and exciting part, where the search for beautiful places in the mountains has turned into a little father-son adventure.
I left Bucharest for three days together with my 10 year old boy, in order to look for beautiful places in the Iezer Păpușa Mountains. We took with us supplies of food, water, sleeping bags and everything else we needed for a camp fire in the evening.
The plan was simple, we kept to it and it was wonderful: the day we would drive around the mountains and when it was evening we would stop on the roadside, prepare the fire, eat, sit on chairs and look at the stars.
Every night I slept in the car, either in a meadow near a creek or at the top of a mountain, in a beautiful landscape.
During the day we walked, by car or on foot, and I stopped from place to place to take pictures. Thus, we gathered a serious portfolio of possible filming locations that we later discussed with the agency and client in Bucharest, we made a plan and over a week I returned with the filming team and two Skoda Kodiaq cars in the mountains. and I went on to produce the spot.
I thank my colleagues Vlad Anitei and Aurel Minulescu for all the creative and production help they put in this spot.
Also down the hat for Alexandra Gheorghe and Bogdan from Roddia, who were with us every minute of the filming and helped us with everything we needed.
Here is the “director’s cut” version of the spot:
the short version for TV: