In case you haven't heard prior to this article of this series, a few years ago, Pennzoil started a brilliant marketing plan to release a series of videos showcasing a car being driven to its absolute limits in a seemingly real-world environment (for the most part), and they are pedal-to-the-metal hardcore action movies from beginning to end. If you're a car guy like me they even give you goosebumps and get your heart pumping. Just a few weeks ago, while I was on my way back from Sweden, Pennzoil dropped their newest addition to the series with a short film dubbed "The Last Viper," and it's an action-packed thrill ride from beginning to end.
If you watch the video at face value, it's simply an extremely well done video showcasing an amazing car tearing up the streets of Florida. Diving into the behind the scenes though, talking about working on this project, the amount of effort, time, and dedication that goes into producing a video like this is simply staggering. From personnel, equipment, permitting, scouting, editing, it's no small feat, and more closely resembles a film set than anything else, which in essence is exactly what this is.
Diving into the shooting of this kind of project, it's definitely not for the faint of heart as there's no speeding up of clips in post and no trick photography. When you see the Viper flying through the air, or sliding sideways around a banked turn just inches from the steel safety barrier, the car is doing exactly that. Rhys Millen, their on set professional driver, is renowned for his driving prowess around the world.
This undertaking is definitely not a trivial matter and each video I see is just more motivation for me to continue on in my own work. For more information on the making of this video, you should definitely check out the BTS video below for a more in-depth look at what goes into the making of these videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kdq-7AlfEc
