How we made the Volvo 'tornado' commercial.
Tom Carty and Walter Campbell explain the concepts behind the Volvo 850 'tornado' commercial
WC:
About 18 months ago, there was show on Channel 4 about tornadoes. This was before we got the Volvo brief. We thought the psychology was fantastic. Most people in a car when they see one of these fucking things coming drive away from it - these guys were driving straight toward it.
TC:
We got to work on Volvo soon afterwards. We sent someone to America to do some field casting. We got about 45 tapes back of [storm chasers] telling their stories. One guy, Gene Rhoder [sic], was really intereseting. Two days after the shoot he was out in Dallas chasing a twister. It was going crazy out there.
WC:
What we wanted to capture with the commercial is when a storm's brewing up, somthing's suspended. The scene is set and something's going to happen. The colour values we used helped us to enhance that feeling - the wierd light levels. It's like night and day fighting each other.
TC:
We always script very tightly. The stunts have to be very controlled, and everything has been worked out to look real. There wasn't any protection for the car, if you look closely, you'll see all sorts of dents in it. It's real, the car has been through that test.
WC:
We had a huge reservoir of stuff to throw and catpult across the car. When we finished the place looked like a tornado had hit it. Tony (Kaye) has this thing about doing things for real. That is why we got hold of this machine.
TC:
It creates a vortex. It's a 75 foot high structure with a helicopter propeller on top and two aeroplane engines on each side.
WC:
We had a pipe running underneath it pumping out steam to give it density. You have to create density to get the movement, to hold the dust and create a vortex.
TC:
We found a special effects company working on a thing for a Spielberg film about storm chasers. They ahd a 12-foot prototype of a device which would create the tornado effect but by now Spielberg had decided to use computers. Anyway we saw a video of the prototype in action and told them to build a 75ft one. (Spielberg was so impressed by our 75-footer in action he's decided to abandon computers and use a similar device).
WC:
It was mental. For the hail we used sprinkler machines hanging in the air. The larger stuff was thrown down from a crane with explosive bolts. It got pretty hairy. For the explosions we found derelict houses, put glass in and a few slates on the roof, a bunch of flowers in the window. The way we blew them up was totally researched. When whind enters a house it comes up through the seams. We had to find the stresses and put the charges in at the right angles. We used gunpowder to create a specific look.
[ From an article in the Manchester (UK) Guardian, date unknown, summer 1995. Tom Carty and Walter Campbell are with BBDO London, the agency responsible for the Volvo 'tornado' spot. The actual vortex machine was 50ft tall, and somewhat more complex than Tom and Walter describe. (details about vortex machine) ]
