Dartmoor Media Shoot - Behind The Scenes

This shoot was to capture some rolling photos and videos of the vehicles to help promote them, as well as to gather some new content for our business marketing. To be able to capture these photos and videos, its not quite as straight forward as most other camera angles. I called in some of my friends to help, Max Trafford and Tom James, who both work in the photography and filming industry, to help achieve exactly the results I was after.

To capture exactly what I was after, we needed to use some high quality gear. Here is a breakdown of our main filming rig. 

• Sony FX3
• Sony 35mm f/1.4
• DJI RS4
• NiSi ND & CPL filters
• DJI Mic 2
• Viltox Monitor

For the photography, we were using a blend of Sony cameras, an A6100, A7 Mk.IV and A7 Mk.III. with Sony and Sirui lenses. 

The vehicles, why did we choose these two? Well, Otter Vale Motor Services are constantly expanding. Originally starting out as a car dealership, to then becoming the largest commercial vehicle dealerships in the South West, as well as being a main Isuzu dealership, to recently opening up a brand new dedicated car dealership. We wanted two vehicles to represent this properly. 

Starting with the Mini Cooper S 2017. If you haven't driven a Mini before, I could easily say the cliche wordings of "go kart handling' etc, however I won't fall into that trap! A Mini being a very iconic British car, was one of the first choices to come to mind. Everytime I get behind the wheel of one, it just has this charisma which you don't get in other cars, it makes you want to drive it, especially with the 2L turbo petrol engine, putting out 190bhp and 300nm torque. This power coupled with the close range gearbox really does make twisty roads fun to drive. Not many hot hatchbacks these days have fully independant suspension all round, usually its a rear torsion beam. The suspension makes the handling stand out from other hot hatchbacks, and it really does cement why this is an exceptional car to get behind the wheel of. 

Going from the Mini, we wanted to have a vehicle which was the other way around. We chose the latest Isuzu D-Max V-Cross, which has been featured on here before, with the Peders Lift kit raising the ride hight along with 20" Predator alloys. The V-Cross also had a closed canopy on the back, with the usual high spec list of features, including the bonnet protector and wind deflectors. You can read all abouit this vehicle on the link below! 

Check out a more in depth review of the V-Cross here -> Pedders Suspension Review on Isuzu V-Cross

We are all seriously pleased with the results from this shoot, and are all looking forward to ther next one already! Below is a final video of the foortage we got from this shoot, however it will be used in other adverts for Otter Vale Motor Services as well. Check it out on Youtube, along with our other videos on there too! 

Article written and photos edited by Tom Stroud