Behind the scenes: Volvo S60 Concept

How do you visualize a visualization, in this case, the Volvo S60 Concept? The PR department at Volvo Cars addressed A+A Corporate Design, who sought the assistance of Edithouse Communication. Time and place were known: the Motor Show in Detroit, 2009. The concept was of course a known factor. As was for the film to create buzz.

Niclas Bergman, Edithouse Communication:
– Looking at it in retrospect it’s mission accomplished.  I checked how bloggers and journalists, and their commentators, responded to the campaign. We have tools that monitor and measure blogs, video communities and photo communities, and it’s clear that the S60 Concept has been very well recieved all over the world. Checking the number of downloads, it’s 50,000. (se the film here) In addition many pepole are publishing the film on their own sites. We carried through a comparison to the Audi A7 Concept, and were happy to find Volvo getting more air space than Audi. That’s how we work at Edithouse Communication, we don’t just ”scatter” a film, we want to measure its effect as well. What did it achieve? It’s all about initiating a conversation with the target groups, not just talk but listen too.

New and innovative methods are needed. The automotive business is going through some rough times. It’s even rougher if you want to do something new in the automotive film sphere. Very much has already been done. The viewers must have a sense of reality, even if concept cars are just that: concepts, not actual cars that drive around in the streets. The challenge was a contradictory one:

– We couldn’t show too much of the car, it couldn’t be driven outdoors – but nevertheless the viewer should have a feeling of reality and speed, Tobias Garsell says, director at Edithouse. And time was tight. The solution was to put the concept car in a big hall with large LED monitors placed around the car. These were later to mediate a sense of environment and speed. Then we started shooting. All of the film is shot with our RED camera. It has an unbelievable resolution and the result is very filmlike. But with all the advantages of the digital format. We normally have a lot of work to do afterwards, compositing. Using large monitors with vivid graphics, we did most of the work and the effects straight into hte camera. Steve Mattin, head of design at Volvo Cars, whispered – half seriously, half jokingly, that I would pay with my life if I ruined the concept car or if there would be pictures coming out before Volvo had given permission. I’m still alive.

Michael Grennard, creative director at A+A:
We used to address the media, but the internet has opened up for a larger audience. The films have been used to enhance the experience around the press conference. Now they are used before and after the event, as well. This means a lot more people are reached by the message.

Watch the result here: