Vincent Laforet debuts Mountain Dew ad shot in Bali; teases “game changer” camera gear reveal at NAB

 

 

Photographer and cinematographer Vincent Laforet is always up to something interesting and lately he's been pretty busy. Laforet, who captured his groundbreaking video "Reverie" back in 2008 on the high definition Canon 5D Mark II DSLR, recently returned from Bail where he shot a spectacular Mountain Dew commercial (see it embedded below).

The ad, entitled "Nirvana," features Indian Bollywood megastar Hrithik Roshan and was captured with a host of cutting edge gear. Three Red Epic cameras shot footage at 5K resolution (!), and a Phantom camera recorded additional footage at 1,000 frames per second. Laforet also used several high definition DSLRs, a GoPro HD Hero3 action camera, and a bunch of other cool stuff including a remote-controlled X8 octocopter drone. The drone was used to fly the Red Epic and a pricey "ultra prime" lens over the surrounding sea amidst "nice (wind) gusts here and there!"

 

 

Here's how Laforet describes the shoot on his blog:

"The plan was to shoot with our star from 6 meters over the water with the Phantom and Epic (underwater.) Only a highly trained Olympic-type diver can jump from the 20 meter plus dive – a less skilled diver could come away with the risk of serious internal injuries if they land incorrectly…[t]herefore we had our stunt team do the actual jumps, we had our star dive from 6+ meters. And then we also harnessed our star from a stunt cable crane to green screen that one shot of his face with the background that we shot plates of. Not your 'walk in the ballpark' shoot to say the least."

In related news, Laforet will be speaking at the upcoming NAB convention in Las Vegas where he will help introduce a piece of new camera gear he says deserves to be called a "game changer." (The last time he said that was when the 5D II was unveiled.)

"I really don’t want to oversell this new piece of technology – but I really can’t help but imagine a hundred ways it will affect the way filmmakers approach their shooting,  regardless of their budget, in such a 'game changing' way. To be fair this new device won’t be as affordable as the Canon 5D MKII was – but once you understand what it does, you’ll see it will pay for itself in days relative to what other things it replaces and how it can fundamentally change the way you shoot."

Laforet notes that the new tech debuting at NAB is "NOT a camera" and that this is "absolutely not an April Fool's joke."

Hmmm, he's got us intrigued. Anyone have any guesses on what it could be?