(intro)
- You see 'em all the time.
You might have seen one
right before this video
and depending on who you are,
it could be the most exciting part
of the Super Bowl for you.
We're talking about car commercials.
More specifically, car commercials with sick stunts.
It takes a ton of people to make one.
But all these people
ultimately, report to the Director.
They get all the glory if it's a success
and they take the brunt of it, if it's a failure.
From scouting and story boarding,
a Commercial Director's job begins before
they even set foot on set.
There's no do-overs.
No next weekend.
This is his race day.
- Sitting on an on-ramp, on a Sunday morning
at 6 in the morning.
Yes, this is my happy place.
- Here's how he does it.
This is how to stunt.
(upbeat music)
Okay, so how does one direct a car commercial?
First, let me lay a little groundwork.
Genesis came to us and said we want to do something
to promote our new G70, and we were like sure.
How about we do an Up to Speed or Bumper to Bumper?
And they were like, no, we want something bigger.
Like a car commercial. And I don't know about you,
but when I think of a car commercial,
I think of something like this.
(upbeat music)
What kind of car is that?
Wow, that's really nice, car. Thank you.
That's luxurious. That's cool,
but that's not really our style.
Can we do something with ridiculous stunts, like this?
(car brakes)
And they were like, yeah, that sounds tight.
And we were like, yes.
Luckily, we were up for it, because we have this dude,
Ben Conrad at the helm as our Director.
Ben is one of the founders of Donut.
He is a creative mastermind
and he has directed like a bajillion commercials.
Among a ton of other things,
he's directed Monsters Recoil 2 and 3,
the opening stunt sequence for 30 Minutes or Less.
Oh, and a little something called Jim Kana 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.
They've gotten a decent amount of views on YouTube.
You should check them out.
Now, don't worry, we're going to show you
exactly how to do one of these Ford Entry 180s
which, are actually a little trickier than a Reverse Entry.
But before we do that, let's dive into all the work
that goes into directing one of these stunts.
Back when we first got approval for the project,
we sent over a rough idea to Ben.
So, he then starts coming up with a vision for the sequence,
but what does that even mean?
Visualizing is obviously,
to some extent, using your imagination, but when you are
eventually turning that vision into a reality,
you have to start adjusting.
Visualizing also often involves pulling inspiration
from other works that you've seen.
Oh, that shot from Tokyo Drift was sick.
The mood from this scene in Drive was really gripping.
That location from The Dark Knight was beautiful.
Now, all of this is in nowhere land in Ben's head,
under all that hair.
He can explain it to someone vocally and using his hands,
toy cars, whatever, but one of the easiest
and most effective ways of getting everyone on the same page
with what's in his head
is through the use of story boards.
But, who's he trying to get on the same page?
Luckily, Ben gets to choose
who most of his main collaborators are,
in fact, who he decides to hire,
might be the most important part of his job.
Even though he's the captain of the ship,
a lot of other crucial decisions
throughout this whole process are made
by other members of his team.
People like the Cinematographer.
The Stunt Coordinator.
The Assistant Director.
The Editor.
The me.
And much more.
It's not uncommon, for Directors to work
with the exact same crew, job after job. And they do.
So, if you wanna direct some day, take note.
Make as many friends as you can.
Especially the ones, who are good at stuff.
You can't do it all on your own.
(upbeat music)
Now Ben, heads out on a tech scout
with the department heads to check out the locations.
Ben knew we were trying to recreate the stunts
we all love from our favorite movies.
He wanted a gritty, modern,
and relatively nondescript location.
So, he immediately knew that 4th Street in downtown LA
and Lower Grand would be the perfect spots.
It's one of the most iconic locations in cinema.
The Terminator.
The Dark Knight.
The Italian Job.
Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift,
and a ton of other movies were shot here.
Even though Ben's familiar with the location,
you never know what ideas might come to you
once you're in the physical space.
- So, like none of us are walking and are like
oh, it has to be exactly this stunt.
You know, we see something we need to adjust,
and we'll adjust and make it better.
- Once the stunts are fleshed out,
Ben has to talk with the Cinematographer to figure out
what types of camera rigs we'll need
to achieve all of the shots.
In our case, there's a bunch.
A truck-mounted truss.
A side-car suction cup rig.
A drone, a biscuit rig and a pursuit car
mounted with a Russian arm.
Russian Arms are so cool they look like Panzer tanks
with cameras on the end of them.
Ben's also present for the vehicle test.
So, in this series we've been using the Genesis G70.
It's a capable car.
It's got a twin turbo V6 and 365 horsepower
to the back wheels.
That's a horsepower for every day of the year.
If you've watched the other videos,
you know that we needed to make some minor mods
in order to have complete control over the vehicle.
Traction Control.
Stability Control.
Wheel Speed Sensors.
They all had to go.
Rob, the Stunt Coordinator, tests the car out
to see if it's behaving properly with all of the adjustments
and Ben gets a feeling of what the car looks like
in action before the big day.
- I kinda liken it, in a way to dance or something like that
where you can kinda get into emotions through movement.
So, the shot list is prepped.
The location is scouted.
And the car is good to go.
Now, it's game time.
As you know from our other episodes,
this is a 3-part stunt series.
In this final video, we're showcasing a Ford Entry 180.
So, let's go ahead and break it down
so, that you cannot try this at home.
You're gonna start off going about 35 miles per hour.
Let off the gas
and hit the brakes to shift the weight
onto the front end of the car.
Pull the e-brake to lock up the rears
while turning the wheel to initiate the spin.
Hold the lock up for as long as you wanna be rotating.
About 3-quarters of the way through the spin,
unwind the steering wheel,
throw it in reverse
and begin letting off the hand brake.
Right as the steering wheel is getting back to center,
get on the gas to get the tires to bite.
If you don't regain traction at the right time,
you risk over-rotating, which is not good.
All of the preparation has come down to this.
We closed off streets.
We hired an entire crew of people.
We rented a bunch of expensive equipment.
All to capture these 3 stunts
and we've got 12 hours to do it.
(upbeat music)
- We start early, looked at everything
and I think we have a solid plan.
Great crew, so we should be able to nail it.
- Once on set, Ben has to be the guy
with all of the answers.
- Do you want to try to do that in one?
Or do you?
- Break it up.
- Break it up?
- Can we get that this afternoon?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- And he goes?
- Yes, exactly.
- He has to have complete confidence in his vision.
- So, we're in the lead and then we're,
- No, uh, blue would be in the lead.
- But, also really good at listening to others.
- I want the blue behind to be able to throw the 180.
- Interesting. Yeah, we'll try that.
- All throughout the day,
everyone was super calm and focused.
The crew was efficient and relaxed.
And I think a lot of that has to do with Ben
and his temperament.
As the Director,
you set the tone for the set.
Being a good leader is a serious skill.
Ben is an awesome example,
and I'm super fortunate
to have him as a mentor.
And he also happens to be a bad-ass Director
who helps us make, sick stuff.
Like this.
(intro)
(car accelerates)
(car beeps)
(skids)
(car accelerates)
(car turns)
(car accelerates)
(car brakes)
(car beeps)
(car accelerates)
Thank you so much for watching Donut Media, you guys.
Because you support our channel,
we get to live out our dreams and make car chase movies.
You guys like this episode and you want to see more,
we made 2 more of 'em,
one that follows the Stunt Driver
and one that follows the Stunt Coordinator.
They're really sick too.
I cannot thank you guys enough for all of your support.
Please share this video.
Sent it everywhere, please.
Uh, I really enjoyed this. I love you.