Shooting a product film for TV and online isn’t a simple task. Even before you get to the point where you’re stepping onto a plane, to get to the shoot location, there’s been months of planning. Ten to twelve ideas will have already been rejected before the final one is settled upon and fully worked up.

In this case it was a film for the Ranger Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV), and it came with its own unique challenge. The Ranger PHEV had to be able to demonstrate capability whilst taking nothing away from its ICE stablemates.

This was the basis for the campaign we settled upon, which we called ‘Just in Case’. The idea was to show how the Ranger PHEV has more torque (697Nm) than any other Ranger including the Raptor and the V6 diesel – so probably more towing power than most people will ever require. But it’s there, just in case. It has no compromise to its off-road ability and with a 6.9kW Ford Pro Power Onboard system it offers the most powerful remote power source of any of our commercial vehicles, again, just in case you need it.

Normally we play it quite safe with this sort of thing, but we decided to push boundaries and venture into the world of hyperbole. With that in mind, we decided to show the truck competing in a snow rally to highlight its off-road capability. To show it pulling a UFO to highlight its towing ability. And then we decided to show a laser canon, powered by the truck, destroying an earthward-bound meteor before it strikes our planet. Then all we had to do was figure out how to make the vision a reality.

We chose Slovenia as a location, mainly because in a relatively small area you can find all kinds of scenery we’d need, from mountains to forests and lakes. There’s much more footage shot that you’ll ever see in one film, even the longer 60 seconds ‘director’s cut’ version which ran on UK television in September. And we only had four days to capture it all.

Most mornings the call-time is 6am, sometimes it’s earlier. You may just about get the chance to grab a coffee. And we’ll shoot late into the evening, often past 11pm. We’ve hired locations, people and equipment and we need to keep the costs within budget. Over-running means over-spending. This is when having a good team alongside you is crucial. You can lag at times, and you need others around you who can step in and help ensure that things stay on track.

And there are a lot of people involved. More than you see, both behind the cameras and in front of them. The scene with the UFO for example, was shot in a warehouse and it was made over completely with tables, computers and extras dressed as scientists. In the final cut, you don’t see any of that. But it’s better to overshoot and not use it, because once you wrap there’s no going back.

“And there are a lot of people involved. More than you see, both behind the cameras and in front of them”

Pushi Jaswant, brand content manager, Ford Pro

There wasn’t a UFO either, surprisingly enough, that was added afterwards. In fact, we’ve leaned on computer generated effects a lot more than usual, and while we’ve made it obvious in some ways, it’s also been helpful in some less obvious places; the snow rally was shot in a quarry and the snow added later, and the tree being towed was a man-made prop.

This is one of the great things about modern CGAI (Artificial Intelligence supported Computer Graphics), it allows us to do much more. In this instance, it helped make something people will hopefully find memorable. And if they remember it, they’ll hopefully remember that the Ranger PHEV has more than enough capability, just in case.

Pushi Jaswant is a brand content manager at Ford Pro