"Fast...Like Bobby Rahal"
We were off to Florida to shoot Bobby Rahal, his racing team and car for Miller Beer and Leo Burnett. Bobby was going to be in an upcoming race at the “Homestead-Miami Speedway”. We’ve shot in Florida on numerous occasions and we have a production manager located just outside of Miami, so it’s like home, away from home. We pulled crew and resources together in Florida as if we are in Chicago. The art director, my assistants and I arrived in Miami a day earlier than the shoot to scout the racetrack. The exact location within the track was decided upon the day before the shoot, which was scheduled at daybreak, the following morning. We arrived at the track well before sunrise. Now here is where the real fun starts. “Location” is not “vacation”. It never has been, nor will it ever be. That being said, we had about 20 minutes to shoot our shot, because Bobby’s time to test the track for his race that day was scheduled directly after our photo session. Time being of the essence, a larger concern was looming... a fog, which was not lifting. It was nearly impossible to see past 30 feet. The preceding evening, being unexpectedly cool, combined with the saturated morning air left us with a swamp scene in a horror film. The shot we had blocked out the day before, needed immediate attention. The telephoto lens I was intending to use, caused too much distance (showing more fog) instead of Bobby, crew and car. I needed to reduce that distance drastically from sixty feet to around twenty feet. I went to a moderate wide-angle lens for the fix. We suddenly had everything going our way. As we changed the lens, the sun started to burn through the fog. Our race team already had their make-up applied, we jockeyed the car in place and the sun had risen high enough to create a beautiful soft box effect. The fog behind Bobby and car, gave me the same net effect (of a softened background) that my telephoto would have given. That’s when I used the other half of my 20 minutes to shoot Bobby and crew. It also helped that I remembered everyone’s name when first being introduced. I always have a vision on how the final shot will look. It’s the in-between forces you deal with. Happily, the shot looks like I had all the time in the world, along with having all the perfect conditions. Now that was fast, just like Bobby! |
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