Ford Roars Through the Desert in New Middle East Campaign for the F-150

If people have been feeling a little bit cooped up recently, this cinematic campaign from Ford Middle East for the F-150 truck delivers a sense of freedom and confidence.

‘Make Way’ was devised by Impact BBDO and brought to life by production company The Talkies. Shot in the desert, about 45 minutes from Dubai, it capitalises of the boundless, open expanse of the desert.

Director Andreas Grassl and DP Oliver Maier bring a cinematic scale and aesthetic to the spot. Impressively, the team were able to capture 30 shots in a very tight schedule – one day. The solution, says Gabriel Chamoun who is the CEO of The Talkies, was a smart and efficient production set up.

“As is frequently the case nowadays, the available budget didn’t allow enough shooting time. So, the challenge was to fit about 30 shots in one day, given the 12 hours of daylight,” explains Gabriel. “We covered every scene with four cameras: Russian arm, drone, another camera on a buggy, and the 4th camera on the Russian arm for the vertical formats. The choreography was of course very challenging as the cars were very close to each other on an uneven and dusty terrain.”

When a production needs to be executed with military precision, the key is planning. “Our director Andreas Grassl created the scenes and organized the movement of each truck using miniature toy cars on his dining table in Munich. Then, we had a full rehearsal day on location to get everything right before the shoot,” says Gabriel.

In total, there were 21 real cars shot in live action, including the hero of the spot, the 2021 F-150. The wider swarm of vehicles were added in post-production, which also involved a lot of cleaning up, taking tyre marks, drones, pylons and camera vehicles out of the image.

The commercial was originally created for the Gulf markets to promote the new 2021 model of the tough Ford truck, the F-150.