Rexona (television commercial)

Production companies RSA and Circle and Stunt Coordinator Paul Borne chose Velocity Stunts to provide the technical solutions for their stunt intensive commercial for Rexona directed by Jake Scott.

After a short meeting with Paul (to check out Velocity’s high-speed winches) followed by a survey with Jake, Velocity’s Dave Lane was ask to assemble a team and start work immediately.

The commercial was shot on and around the world renowned mountain bike trails of the North Shore mountains of Vancouver, British Columbia. The stunt sequences were spread over three different locations using four different stunt rigs. Dave put together a cohesive rigging team with a long history of rigging in both mountain environments and trees. Working quickly and efficiently, the team built the rigs almost entirely from the trees onsite creating good production value for the producers.

To meet Producers’ David Mitchell (RSA) and Tom Murray (Circle) tight production schedule, Dave divided his rigging team into two teams: one for pre-rig/wrapping and one for rehearsing/shooting. Having two teams allowed Dave to use a swing crew technique, creating a seamless rhythm of pre-rigging, rehearsals, shooting and wrapping. As each set was shot out it was immediately wrapped so that on the final day of shooting all rigs were off the mountain. This technique translated into a direct economic benefit for Production Manager Rob Lawson and enabled him to release the heavily used location back to the general public without delay.

Paul was happy to realise the maximum benefits of Velocity’s Pathfinder high-speed winches for their fast set up times, unparalleled flexibility, repeatability and safety.

On the shooting days, Jake, First Assistant Director Howell Caldwell, and Director of Photography Salvatore Totino were very happy with how well Paul, Dave and his team had translated Jake’s vision of the scenes into consistently repeatable high energy stunts. The consistency and repeatability of Velocity’s high-speed winches allowed the performers to feel at ease and concentrate on their choreography. The quality and consistency of the performances gave Jake and Salvatore the freedom to realise their creativity and concentrate on photographing the scenes. Howell was pleased with Dave and his team’s efficiency moving seamlessly from one set up to another conserving valuable shooting time in his already crowded call sheet. At the end of the last day of shooting Dave and his crew got the big thumbs up from Jake, Howell, Paul, Salvatore, David and Tom. There were smiles all around from the agency and the client. Rob was happy for Dave’s professional and efficient assistance with logistics from start to finish.

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