The call comes in, there is an emergency and dispatchers reach out to the people standing by, ready to come to our rescue. These are first responders; trained men and women who come to our aide in a moment’s notice. They are also the focus of Peter Rodger latest commercial and print campaign for Ford.
Casting was paramount for this project, explains Peter. He staged a long call back session to make sure the real people and actors he was considering could pull of the layering and depth needed for the moving aspects and still portion of this project. “There were so many great people and everyone who we cast had previous experience of being a first responder - even the actors. That for me was very necessary. In order to pull off that look, they needed to go places only experience could take them. All they had to do is remember what it was like to serve...and voila. There was the look,” says Peter.
Having worked with the creative team in the past, production on this project was seamless and collaborative. The crew filmed and photographed the entire project on an airfield outside Atlanta Georgia. It was the perfect place to get five different looks all in one day. Peter credits his amazing art department for finding all of the right props, including the Huey Helicopter seen in the commercial, accurate yet non-descript wardrobe and perfectly staging sets, including a war zone supply center to a smoke-filled warehouse. This project was a large undertaking, but as Peter tells us, the shoot was easy and a lot of fun as his team and the agency team agreed on every detail and came to the table as a solid, unified group collaborating for the same end goal, a beautiful story celebrating the strength, poise and bravery of these exceptional human beings.
