GREG FUNNELL // BLOG: Advertising Campaign // Shell Rimula

Wednesday, June 05, 2019

Advertising Campaign // Shell Rimula

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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