Towards the end of 2018 I was
awarded a contract to shoot a campaign across SE Asia for the energy giant
Shell. The job involved travelling through six countries, capturing truckers
and truck drivers using Shell’s product, Rimula, an engine lubricant. To do
this we teamed up with the excellent London-based production company, Foxtrot
Papa, and Shell’s then creative agency, Iris. The schedule could have been
quite punishing – especially as I was due to be getting married right in the
middle of it all! But thankfully Louise Allen, from Foxtrot Papa, is an
excellent producer and brought things into line that would have most people
tremble and give up. We ended up shooting in Russia, China, South Korea, India,
Malaysia and Indonesia. For each country we had to sort visas, source local
models and crew, find locations, and work out logistics. Louise managed this
all seamlessly. In most locations we had one day for a recce and one or
sometimes two days shooting, aiming to build a library of images that Shell
could use across local markets. To complete this brief we used local models
(often real truck drivers). The trick then was to create realistic and authentic-feeling
scenarios across different times of day, in different locations, some urban and
some rural. This meant being very clever with locations and creating scenarios where
we could get multiple assets with minimal set-up. The shoot as a whole also had
to feel consistent across the time frame, geographic and cultural spread. Below
I’ve included a selection of final campaign shots and below then some behind-the-scenes
snaps.
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Behind the scenes shots
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| Breakfast in a roadside Dhaba, India |
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| Indian village set-up |
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| Drawing a bit of an audience from the local villagers, India |
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| Dawn location, Jaipur, India |
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| Shooting truck to truck, Jaipur, India |
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| Working with Tim as my assistant and right-hand man |
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| Pulling some interesting photo squats whilst shooting in Malaysia |
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| Setting up a location in Indonesia |
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| Shooting into the night in Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia |
