My Contribution
Concept → Creative Direction → Production → Final Execution
Throughout my career, I've been trusted to create and lead reveal films for new automotive products, often working under the industry's highest levels of confidentiality.
An automotive reveal is a big deal. These films introduce a completely new vehicle to the public for the first time, whether it's a concept car or the announcement of a vehicle entering production. They're scrutinized down to the smallest detail because, until the reveal, almost nobody outside the company is supposed to see what you're making.
Some played on theater screens during major automotive industry conventions before being released online at the moment of reveal. Others became the first public image of an entirely new vehicle.
Every one of these projects was Code Red: highly confidential creative and production processes with zero tolerance for image leaks, spy footage or anything that could compromise the reveal.
Over the course of my career, I've worked on multiple reveal films, often years apart and for different automotive programs. While each had its own creative challenge, they shared the same demands: develop a compelling idea, protect the product, navigate intense scrutiny, and deliver a flawless first impression.
Below are a selection of those films, along with a few stories from behind the scenes.
I came up with the “leap ahead” animation technique as a way to visualize the idea, but explaining it was harder than coming up with it. So I rolled a tennis ball between cubicles and shot it on an iPhone in slow motion to prototype the effect.
Sometimes the fastest way to sell an idea is to just make it.
I love when a story can be told with light. So when a V8 supercar was about to go into production as a convertible, we decided to let the sun tell the story.
Rather than simply show off the car, we used light itself to reveal its form, performance and transformation from coupe to convertible.
The LF-1 concept was striking in its details, with every inch treated like a modern art piece, and the future vision for the brand as a whole. Seeing it up close was exhilarating, not least because it was a one-of-one prototype in the world with two full-time handlers of its own.
Both were named Hiro. I still think about that.
My first automotive reveal, made with a small team and a fantastic photographer, John Higginson. John gave us beautiful imagery to work with, and we built the reveal around it.
Despite the modest production, it generated more press on reveal day than any of the reveal films I made afterward.
Not a bad first one.