Your friend on the road

HOBBY produced a new commercial for Volvo Trucks, highlighting the exceptional service they offer to drivers. Shot over three days in the most northern parts of Sweden, from outside Kiruna to Narvik in Norway, the film takes full advantage of the beautiful road and open landscape.

The 2½-minute commercial follows a truck driver who suddenly gets company from a stranger climbing into the truck from the roof. At first, the driver is surprised and confused, but as the journey continues, a friendship grows. The stranger is always there to help, symbolizing the support Volvo Trucks offers to drivers. The film is about friendship and keeping on rolling with the help of a reliable companion.
"I love shooting up in the most northern part of Sweden and Norway. The landscape offers so much production value with the mountains, open views, and the great light," says Oskar Bård, the director of the film.
Most memorable moment was clearly when I took a plunge into the freezing cold river, it was only 8 degrees warm—or cold, maybe, is a better word to show the actors that it wasn't that bad. And it worked - the actors also jumped into the freezing cold water and they loved it and we got some great shots," adds Oskar Bård.
The production was done with a very small team—maybe 1/5th of a normal-sized crew—prioritizing more shooting days over the size of the team. This approach was chosen because the landscape offered so much production value, and the production utilized a more documentary cinematic style with natural light and handheld camera to capture the authenticity of the experience.
HOBBY used very simple but effective VFX techniques due to the very tight budget. For the scene where the stranger climbs in through the truck window, the truck was completely still, and a moving landscape later composited in after some rotoscoping. The same simple technique was used when the service guy performed maintenance under the truck. For the wider shot of the guy under the truck, HOBBY used a simple but very cool solution—3D scanning him with an app called Polycam on the iPhone and generating a 3D version of him under the truck.
"It was amazing how effective these simple tricks were," says Oskar Bård. "We wanted to keep the production efficient, and using tools like Polycam allowed us to achieve that without sacrificing quality."