Written by new-contact on Jul 14, 2014. Posted in Production News

MOB Film subverts Hollywood action movies with VW shorts in South Africa

MOB Film played with the conventions of Hollywood action movies filming a series of new commercials for Volkswagen on location in South Africa. The spots show high-speed movie dramas being unintentionally sabotaged by VW’s safe distance technology.

Bus features a hero trying to leap onto a hijacked bus from a pursuing VW, only for the car’s safety features to kick in and kill the speed. In Explosion, a hero tries to destroy a villain’s stockpile of chemicals by leaping from his speeding VW and using it as a missile, but the vehicle safely slows to a halt when it detects the impending collision.

The spots were filmed as cinematic shorts for screening ahead of features in UK cinemas. Director Paul WS Anderson is a veteran of the Resident Evil franchise, The Three Musketeers and this year’s historical epic Pompeii.

“They were filmed in South Africa,” explains John Brocklehurst, MOB Film's Managing Director and Executive Producer: “Because these were not traditional ads we didn't use traditional locations. The flyover for Bus has been used in ads before but you've never seen an ad like this before – it was shot as a movie for the movies by a movie crew."

“Explosion was shot at a deserted dynamite mine," he continues: "This was by far the most difficult location to find as the ad needed a very specific location because of the complicated stunts involved. We needed a very long run up to the building where the bad guys were stealing the dangerous chemicals. We shot each script in one day so everything had to be in one large location each day.

“I can honestly say we had one of the best crews I have ever shot with. The stuntmen were phenomenal, nothing was any trouble and they moved super-quick but always safe.”

Each commercial was filmed in a single day, with a third, Chase, to be launched in September. Moonlighting serviced the shoot locally. “They were awesome!” Brocklehurst adds.

Credits:
Client: Volkswagen
Agency: adam&eveDDB London
Global Executive Creative Director: Jeremy Craigen
Agency TV Producer: Pamie Wikstrom
Production Company: MOB Film
Executive Producer: John Brocklehurst
Production Service Company: Moonlighting
Director: Paul WS Anderson