Go behind the scenes of Pacing, the Crown Royal commercial created to introduce the brand's distinctive purple NASCAR stock car, driven by Kurt Busch.
Filmed over two days in and around Los Angeles, this behind-the-scenes piece follows the production from the inside—capturing the crew, locations, equipment, setups and controlled chaos involved in bringing a major automotive commercial to life.
I accompanied the Pacing commercial production for the entire two-day shoot with one job: document as much of it as humanly possible.
My crew was just me and a Sony camera.
While the commercial production moved through its scheduled setups, I worked around it—constantly changing position, finding angles and looking for moments that revealed not only what was being filmed, but how it was being accomplished.
The challenge with behind-the-scenes coverage is that the production you're documenting can't stop for you. I needed to stay out of the commercial crew's way while anticipating where something interesting was about to happen, getting into position quickly and capturing enough material to construct my own story afterward.
That meant running and gunning throughout the weekend: wide shots that established the scale of the production, tighter coverage of the crew at work, equipment and vehicle details, candid interactions, setups being built and the moments surrounding the actual takes.
Rather than simply documenting that a commercial had been made, I wanted the finished piece to give viewers the feeling of having been there while it was being made.
Two days. One camera. One person trying to be everywhere at once.