Written by new-contact on Nov 3, 2011. Posted in Production News

Chevrolet drops its Sonic car from the sky over desert in Arizona

Chevrolet has taken to the skies over Arizona for a daring spot for its Sonic small car range. Skydive shows a Chevy being dropped out of the back of a C-130 aeroplane at 10,000 feet and drifting gracefully through the atmosphere while being filmed by a team of skydivers.

The commercial was shot in airspace ten miles from Eloy municipal airport near Tucson, where Skydive Arizona has a lease to test parachute delivery systems. Shelli Hall is Director of the Tucson Film Office: “They wanted open empty space with big blue skies. They had to go about 30 miles north of Tucson to find it because the desert immediately surrounding the city is actually very green. The Sonoran desert is the most fertile desert in the world.”

Greg Gasson, of Sky Diving Stunts in Tucson, helped co-ordinate the shoot with the Tucson Film Office. The team had 74-foot-diameter parachutes specially made for the Chevy.

We had no idea how the car was going to fly because we were unable to test its flight behaviour. It could have just gone in a total tail spin, but it flew beautifully each time and proved to be a really strong car.

Tom Weissferdt, Slim Pictures

Three separate cars were used over the four-day shoot. The first was dropped from an altitude of 5,000 feet to film footage of the car’s parachute deployed, and then the second and third were dropped from 10,000 feet to give more time to film their freefall to the desert below.

Tom Weissferdt Executive Produced for Slim Pictures: “We had no idea how the car was going to fly because we were unable to test its flight behaviour. It could have just gone in a total tail spin, but it flew beautifully each time and proved to be a really strong car.”

The footage itself was captured using no fewer than 27 different cameras. Two Red Epics with Zeiss super-speed primes captured the main footage from the helmets of Greg Gasson and Joe Jennings. GoPro cameras were placed inside the C-130, inside the cars, on the desert floor and on the helmets of three supporting skydivers.

Drea Cooper co-directed the spot and forms half of directing partnership ZCDC with Zack Canepari: “It’s not your usual dose of car porn and beauty shots. The idea became how to create this beautiful reality and communicate an experience that differentiates it from the everyday. There is no other car commercial like Skydive out there.”

Credits
Client: Chevrolet
Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Creative Director: Joakim Borgstrom
Production Company: Slim Pictures
Executive Producer: Tom Weissferdt
Directors of Photography: Greg Gasson, Joe Jennings
Director: ZCDC