If you’re a long term reader of our blog, you’re probably aware that here at Stone’s Throw Media we’re not really ones to blow our own trumpets*.
However, when a super exciting project reaches our doors, we feel it’s only right that we tell you all about it, so that’s precisely what we’re about to do. Sorry. (Not sorry.)
Late last year, we received a phone call from the team at 2AM Ltd, an award-winning commercials company based down in London.
2AM were overseeing a handful of projects for Jaguar Land Rover, and wondered if we’d be interested in teaming up with them and using our drone to give their videos that extra special flourish.
After mulling over their offer for at least half a second, we decided that “yes please” was probably the right answer, so we duly accepted and then waited with bated breath for more details.
In all, we teamed up with 2AM for three separate projects.
Firstly, we descended on JLR’s “Experience” site, based in Solihull, to help create a video showcasing the fun visitors can have at the site.
After capturing some aerial video, with our drone, we were invited to get behind the wheel of a rather fancy Land Rover for ourselves, and give it a test drive round the course.
As you can probably imagine, the £110,000 vehicle didn’t disappoint, which is why as soon as we finished we immediately ordered two for ourselves – one for Mike, and one for Matt – and now drive around Wolverhampton in them with the windows open and the Top Gear theme blaring out.
For our second assignment, we travelled to the JLR plant at the i54 business park, situated just off the M54 motorway by Wolverhampton.
Once again our drone was in action – this time for a video celebrating JLR’s status as Britain’s largest automotive manufacturer.
For this video, we were tasked with co-ordinating a visual shot which saw 200 workers from the plant forming together to make a heart when filmed from above.
This wasn’t the original plan, however! Plan A was for a projector, attached to a rig on a crane, to display an animation of an engine on a white background on the floor, with the workers walking into the shot and thus showing that they were a key part of the “JLR engine”. Yes, we love metaphors.
Disaster soon struck, however, when due to the high winds on the day, the crane locked up and wouldn’t hold any weight, thanks to a fail-safe mechanism which prevents any nasty accidents from occurring.
Health and safety gone mad, I think we can all agree, so we had to revert to Plan B (the workers forming a heart, not the musician).
Last but not least, the third project of the three was a particularly exciting affair which revolved around JLR’s Christmas Advert for 2015.
Once again we were on hand for our aerial video skills, as we travelled to the middle of nowhere** with our drone to get the shots crucial to the advert’s narrative.
We had to show the remoteness of the cottage – a task made quite tricky by the fact that we only had a window of just 30-60 minutes to do this, to ensure our shots were filmed just as the sun was going in.
Don’t worry, we love pressure, and we eat it for breakfast.
Loads more on these projects can be found on our portfolio, located right here.
If it’s a montage video containing the highlights of the projects you’re looking for, however, please do watch the video above!
Now that we’ve got the bug for working with car companies, who will be next? Our letters are winging their way to the good people at Ferrari, Bentley, and Lamborghini as we speak…
*No, that isn’t rude. Come on folks, you’re better than that. Yes, even you.
**It was actually Bramley in Surrey, but don’t tell anyone.