Project Story

REI and FORD Bronco Sport formed a partnership in early 2021 to highlight the Bronco’s unique off-road capabilities as they were beginning to re-launch the legacy truck. They wanted us to create a 6-part web series (10-minutes each) with social cutdowns and a digital image library that felt fun and entertaining, informative, and fit the ethos of the REI customer. In total we had less than two months to deliver the first episode, with a new episode being released weekly thereafter. 

We pitched the idea of a 220-mile bikepacking route through southern Arizona called the Sky Islands Odyssey Route, using the Bronco Sport as the ultimate SAG wagon and homebase as the team made their way through the rough terrain. Each episode was conceptualized and roughly scripted within two weeks, all while Davis was working to secure permits, build the team of cyclists, and make sure all of the necessary gear made it from Seattle to Tucson.  

The main issue we faced was keeping computers and batteries charged while being fully self-sufficient and offline for five days of riding through the desert. With two additional trucks to support the picture car (and haul all of our gear), we had two camera operators capturing the full days from sunup to sun down. Each day consisted of interviews, timelapses, riding alongside the bikes on an e-bike (more challenging off road than you’d think), photo assets, and cooking all meals for a team of 9 out of the back of a truck. At the end of each day, all footage was dumped across multiple drives and batteries were charged off of solar + inverters that were running nonstop in the trucks. For the batteries that were full, they got to sleep with us in our sleeping bag to keep them warm. 

Once we wrapped the shoot, Tim had a draft of episode one nearly ready to send after a 10-hour drive from Tucson to Silverton, CO on our way to shoot our first feature length ski film. The timing was tight, but we kept constant dialogue going with REI and they were quick to approve the cuts we had shared. As one episode would get picture locked and move on to sound and color, another two episodes were in the queue for editing. 

In the end, we delivered over 60-minutes of finished content within 6 weeks of post production. REI was able to provide all of these assets to their teams earlier than expected and successfully launched the series both on YouTube and their journal, Uncommon Path. The films surpassed all of their expected benchmarks and the images were used on both email marketing and e-commerce.