Jucy – Find Your Happy.
Two production units. 15 years of stock footage. one epic new brand for Jucy!
The expectations…
Jucy were looking for a brand story that followed their journey from it’s roots in a small garage to one of the biggest travel companies in Australasia. They wanted prospective travellers to get a feel for the Jucy experience and how they’d grown over the years by putting their CEO and founder, Dan Alpe, front and centre to tell his story and announce their new brand.
And….Action!
Production took place simultaneously across two units in Queenstown and Auckland. Our Queenstown team was tasked with capturing drone footage of the new vans while our Auckland team focused on the interview and campsite b-roll.
One of the biggest challenges was finding the right campsite for the interview. In high summer, they’re busy, noisy and tricky to navigate permits for. In the end we found a local farm and built a campsite set which gave us complete freedom. But when we turned up to shoot after the cyclone, the field was completely waterlogged and we ended up losing 2hrs of our shoot trying to tow out one of the vans!
Aiming to bring Jucy’s history to life on screen we knew we had work to do trawling through 15 years worth of stock footage. We also wanted to incorporate that history into the set itself rather than just cutting away to archival footage. So we printed a number of polaroids from old photos & videos and hung them from a washing line across the set. This allowed the camera department to shoot these within the environment of the film and provide the perfect segway to cut away from.
We only had Dan for a few hours – he’s a busy man. So, it was key to set everything up ready to shoot fast! We spent the morning building the set and rigging various modifiers to control the natural light. Shooting into sunset is always a rush because you want every last drop of that golden hour goodness and our handheld setup worked great for an authentic look & feel that was also super nimble from a production perspective.
Highlight?
Using our vintage lenses from the 1960s for the first time. We love the softness and imperfections that give a dreamy, romantic and sentimental feel to the b-roll of the campsite as the sun set on our scene.
Roll credits….
Agency: Shotover
Director/DP: Pete Whittaker
Second Unit Camera: Zyanya Jackson & Ash Walton
Drone Pilot: Zyanya Jackson
Art Diretor: Lydia Perez
Senior Editor: Floriane Caillot
Edit Assist: Millie Ketchley