It is amazing how tricky and difficult it is to actually create a decent advertising video. I knew I had to have a professional involved! In my case I got lucky. One of my best friends is an artist of many descriptions and he also happens to be into creating “punk DIY” video’s. He’s gonna kill me for this but he’s actually a bit of a short film genius. You’ll undersand why once you see the list of equipment used below for this entire video.

1. The bus
2. Camera
3. Small tripod
4. Large tripod
5. Fiat panda (with a sunroof)

During the planning of this video we knew very quickly that the one element which it had to have was an event. I toyed with creating a make believe event and inviting a bunch of friends around for a piss up. But as it transpired I had a real event coming up and we could use it to showcase the bus. My girlfriends sister was getting married in September of 2017. The couple had requested use of the bus anyway so I kindly asked them if we would be able to film the event. They happily agreed for us to do so. The date was set! All we had to do now was plan the actual film format and get rolling.

My film maker and I agreed right from the word go that it would be no longer than 3 minutes. Peoples attention span on line is so short these days you gotta get them hooked instantly. We also agreed on a format.

1. Start up sequence
2. Journey
3. Event

Once the format was sorted we discussed locations. We’re very fortunate to live right on the edge of the Ashdown forest. Location scouting was easy. Filming was split in 3 days with a bonus day in case we needed it. The actual event could obviously not be moved so it was key to have all the shot that involved it in the can on the day. We could always falm other shots later.

1. The weather, on day two we had to really hurry to get the travel shots done before the heavens opened.
2. Getting a steady shot out the roof of our chase car was tricky. Lots of footage but not much “usable” footage.
3. Set up on the event location shots were hard because it was a very hot day.
4. Getting travel shots without other traffic in it was virtually impossible.

We’d had a practice session on the start up sequence about 6 moths earlier so we knew exactly what we were doing on day one. It saved us a lot of time on the day and we completed shooting the footage much faster than we thought. Day two we had big clouds looming and the race was on to get the footage. Luckily my other half came along with a Fiat Panda (with a sunroof) in record time to capture the driving shots whilst the light was still adequate. Day 3 was our bonus day which was actually used to start editing the day 1 and 2 because we where bang on schedule. We did do a little filming to make sure everything was physically set up for day 3, the actual wedding.

In the end all the elements fell into place. The weather played along, the guests where great, the staff played along and the bus looked the business obvs ;) It was now all down to the post production.

With all the shots safely on the plane back home to Berlin (where my film maker resides) it was time for me to complete the task I had been working on for about half a year. Find a piece of music. My original thoughts where Thurston Harris Little Bitty Pretty One. Sadly the copy right laws meant I’d have to pay over £2000 per year just to have the song at our disposal. So I was left looking for a copyright free track that would suit. Trust me this was not easy!! The track I eventually picked is very suitable I think. You’ll be surprised how much of an impact the background music has on any piece of film.

Once nearly completed I was advised to have the entire film colour graded. This is the process of adding colour to all the various shots to give them an even quality. It stops the sequence seeming different when you mix shots that were taken in different light or at different times of the day. Again, I didn’t think this would make all that much difference… Turns out that it did!! It suddenly looked sharp and professional. A few small tweaks and bingo, we were ready to go! I’d like to thank all the people involved (you know who you are) I’m super pleased with the result so without further ado I present to you…..