How Dan DiFelice Kept it Cool for Audi

If you've seen Audi's latest ad, you'll have noticed it's a little different to most car commercials. There's no pounding soundtrack, no dynamic shots of hairpin bends - just the stationary car, parked in a garage and cooling down after being put through its paces, like an exhausted racehorse.  

The stripped-back spot certainly piqued our interest, so we caught up with Pulse Films director Dan DeFelice to find out more. 

What appealed to you about the script? And did you know instantly how you were going to approach the job?

From the initial brief I connected to the simplicity of the spot... The idea of telling where a car has been and how intensely it had been driven, all through sound and context. The thought of showing kinetic speed and power through a static object really intrigued me, as most car ads are overt in the way they delict messages of luxury, power, handling, etc.

I had a rather strong inclination early on as to how I wanted to shoot the project, specifically utilizing motion control. However I wanted to leave space during pre-pro to attempt various setups and camera movements that could offer a different experience for the audience, to tie things in pre-vis and sound.

The sound element was produced ahead of the visuals; tell us a bit more about creating that specific sonic palette. 

In creating a film that flourishes because of sound, I wanted to explore sound design in the pre-vis phase with S&T. Sound design is often an after-thought, however I find it can drastically impact the pacing of a shot or sequence, and in this scenario the entire pacing of the film needed to be established early on. We utilized varying camera distances from the vehicle to give dynamics in volume and establish a pace to our film. Different sound pieces featured on various sections of the car also allowed us the opportunity to speed up or slow down this pace by how close or far apart some of these “clinks” might be spread. We agreed early on that String and Tins should do a session and record a car after it’s just been run on the track to generate unique sounds lenses through a heightened perspective. The sonic shape that I wanted to achieve in this piece directly influenced the visuals and so as we shaped the visual aesthetic and camera movement, we also did in tandem with the sonic palette.

What was the most challenging part of the job? 

It was, of course, a technical shoot and we had challenges, however we had a really great team around us so I found that any issues we faced were solved rather quickly. The most challenging thing I found was, funnily enough, that we had too much time. The way it all worked out, the lead up to the shoot was several months, so we had various phases where it was pens down for a while and then back up again. We were all so excited to shoot and make the piece, but were in and out. It’s tough to keep a team engaged... Or even find your time that long out. I’d often have conversations with James my EP, “Man, I just want to shoot this thing!”