Shooting an Aston Martin, and a dog!
Filming cars, I’m used to that. But this morning I’m a bit nervous as we’re dealing with two “Legends” at one day. A legendary brand and a legendary challenge.
The legendary brand is known for their long heritage. When you think England, a drive through the fresh green fields, a gentle but pleasing, non-aggressive noise from the engine, swinging sixties, a tweed hat and, well, James Bond, you think of Aston Martin.
This morning no Bond car however. I would have loved to shoot the classic DB5 used in Goldfinger, but the DB11 V12 is extremely pleasing to the eye as well. When it arrives at the filming location, appearing from around the corner, I’m certainly not the only one turning my head. At this hour the street is quiet but the few passers-by all admire our light-blue Aston Martin.
In any other setting you would probably call its color baby-blue, but it looks stunning on the Aston and certainly doesn’t give it a kiddy look. On the contrary. I get the feeling the body lines are nicely enhanced by the color, it is different but doesn’t get ‘ordinary’. Eye-catching in a subtle way. The interior is stunning as well. Every stitch between the cream-colored and darker blue leather parts is impeccable.
And the car matches extremely well with Charles, our second very British legend of today.
Charles, our Beagle.
Charles is a full-blooded Beagle, who arrives by taxi accompanied by his Boss, who needs to leave for work straight away. That leaves us with a crew of just five people and a dog to tame.
The legend of shooting with animals is that they are very difficult to film. Prepare for endless re-takes, triple the planned shooting time, have plenty pet food available, and DON’T excite the dog. But of course it’s exciting. To us, but even more to a dog, this is all very exciting. Please… Charles…, be nice to us.
We’ve prepared everything. A quiet and nice location with a crossing. A completely metal-free leash for Charles so it can’t scratch our precious Aston Martin. The weather is also splendid.
Charles loves to jump. He’s the relaxed kind of dog in ordinary life but it’s early in the day and there are so many new smells to sniff! Let’s jump and sniff the car, let’s check the drivers smell! I hold my breath for the most important and fun shot of the video, where Charles is being “walked” by the Aston Martin. Audience is kept at distance, we can only block the traffic for a minute or two. The Aston Martin gently roars, I press “Record” and shout “Go!”.
To our amazement, during this shot Charles performs perfectly and with natural British grace. We do three takes just to be on the safe side. The pace of the second is best and ends up in the fun New Year video.
The only downside of this British dog-car Legend Shoot is that the Aston Martin doesn’t go faster than a staggering 4 km/h. For this video, it’s all that we need. Although it performs well, this is obviously not quite what the Aston Martin is built for.
In just over an hour the shoot is finished. After the ‘wrap’ we need to return Charles home and let him sprint at his own top speed. But not aside our pretty Aston Martin, but next to a Mobike.
The storyboard
