Last year we came up with a great idea for a client, they loved it. Unfortunately it meant creating a motorbike crash, on a budget.

Have a look at the film here and the full case study here.

So how do you think we did it?

It worked!

• Over 4 million views
• Generated discussion on the key messages on countless motorcycle forums
• Generated interest (and participation) in motorcycle training

SPOILER ALERT

 I am happy to say that no one was hurt in the making of this film and there wasn’t even a damaged motorbike (we would have had a police motorcyclist with a baton to contend with if there had been!).

The film was carefully storyboarded and a test was done (with a bicycle!) before we started arranging things for shooting on location. The film was shot at Millbrook Proving Ground in the UK in two parts.

Firstly we shot the presentation to camera, ending with the bike pulling away and driving off to the left. The camera was then locked off and we prepared for the second part. When we were ready, the van drove in, skidded to a halt and we then froze everything again. We put our rider in position on the road along with some debris before running the camera back up and panning around quickly to reveal the crash. The delay was then cut out in the edit suite.

The noise of impact was recorded separately, the revving of a bike and me slapping my arm on the van bonnet! This was added to the point of impact along with some clever CG to bend the rider over the bonnet of the van.

Even the number plate was fake. The bike is registered in the UK so we had to superimpose a German plate in postproduction. We have had plenty of comments about the debris too. The glass that shoots out on impact is computer generated (CG) but the debris on the road after the crash was donated by a kind motorbike garage. We also removed all the branding from the rear and side of the van for obvious reasons. There are empty black cases on the bike and the riders helmet to represent the ‘computer’ and fake CCTV cameras on the bike representing the ‘eyes’ of the system. We know from our significant experience of making films ‘go viral’ that attention to detail and making things ‘real’ dramatically increases chances of success.

Did you notice the little hints we put in? The name of the channel RTC (Road Traffic Collision) and check out the logo on the microphone...