Anyone who knows the Reel 360 Team, knows that we love our horror. So, when we discovered Canadian-based Radke Director Ed McCulloch’s twisted take on the genre in a new Hyundai Sante Fe spot, of course, we had to make it our Reel Ad of the Week.
The goal is to craft a fun little story that highlights the new Hyundai Santa Fe’s Lane Following Assist feature and along the way pay homage to our favorite scary movies.
The film, developed by Innocean, is a playful send-up of horror movies from the 70s & 80s in which some threatening presence lurks in the shadows along a deserted country road or a remote forest cabin. Think The Evil Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th. Watch below:
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“We wanted take a few, fun risks with the spot — pushing against viewers’ expectations of a typical auto ad and surprising them with a bit of a twist ending, while also reminding them that the Hyundai Santa Fe is always looking out for them,” McCulloch told Reel 360.
He adds, “As humans we are interesting creatures. We long for adventure and thrills, but we also need to feel a bit of comfort and safety. You know — Linus dragging his blanket to the pumpkin patch at midnight! This was a two-day shoot an hour north of Toronto. I had a specific time of day look that I wanted to capture in camera, so all exteriors were shot in a 60-minute dusk window over the two days.”
According to the director, the interiors were shot at night on a process trailer. DP Chris Mably and his team rigged small sliders with a paired-down Alexa Mini LF to get the angles and movements we needed.
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McCulloch worked with Mably to shoot the horror shots on 16mm film. “It was important that we made the horror footage look and feel different from the main spot footage, we wanted to make sure there was a clear distinction between the two worlds.”
CREDITS:
CLIENT – Hyundai
AGENCY – Innocean
- Producer – Sharon Nelson-Bailey
- Art Director – Kevin Bélanger
- Writer – David Strasser
- Creative Director – Ian Mackellar
- Account Group Director – Jennifer Green
- Account Director – Dino Vacca
PRODUCTION COMPANY – Radke
- Director – Ed McCulloch
- Line Producer – Amalie Bruun
- Production Manager – Tony Phibbs
- Production Coordinator – Helen Carroll
- EP – Dan Ford
- DP – Chris Mably
EDIT – School Editorial
- Editor – Jon Devries
- EP – Sarah Brooks
- Animation/Conform/Transfer – Fort York
- Transfer/colorist – Eric Whip
MUSIC – Vapor
- Managing Partner/Producer – Lindsey Bates
- CD/Director – Ted Rosnick
The project began airing on December 21.
