Ever since the first Ranger Raptor was launched in Europe, Ford has been showcasing the off-road capabilities of its pick-up model with a series of videos that could easily be considered scenes from Hollywood action movies.
The most recent video, which is now available on Ford Europe's YouTube channel, shows the new Ranger Raptor escaping from a cargo plane, sliding underneath it and moving through mud and water to an airport. 1 The new video follows in the footsteps of the film "The Good, The Bad and The Bad-R-S-E" by Ford that pays homage to both classic Western films and the spectacular sideways slides and dust clouds of unveiling film of the first Ranger Raptor .
Almost three months of planning preceded the filming, during which the 38 members of the film crew worked for three days in controlled conditions at a secure airfield where military fighter planes used to be built and tested.
Before arriving on location, the team created an illustrated animated script for the film, also known as an animatic. More than 200 hours of work went into producing the animatic, which was then used to approve each shot, while also serving as a template for shooting in real-life conditions.
The jumps and drifts were performed by Paul Swift, who has over 30 years' experience and is world renowned in the world of precision stunt driving, in collaboration with the Australian-based Ford Ranger engineering team. Swift also drove the new Ranger Raptor at the live event organised by Ford for the European unveiling of the car, praising as part of the presentation the powerful, new 3.0-litre V6 engine and advanced suspension design that allowed it to safely perform the impressive stunts.
In fact, the Ford engineers involved in the design of the video were absolutely confident that the new Ranger Raptor could perform its stunt duties with ease - which is why every shot features a production vehicle of the new Ranger Raptor with zero mechanical improvements. The only modification was the installation of a multi-point seat belt.
Swift worked with acclaimed director Nick Piper to showcase the high performance of the new Ranger Raptor. In the past, Piper has shot commercials for global brands such as Google and McDonalds, as well as music videos for iconic artists such as Madonna and Lenny Kravitz.
The pilots featured in the film are the actual pilots of the plane, who are used to transporting goods and cargo to Africa, rather than new pick-up vehicles. According to the script, the eight-man crew had to land the aircraft on the 1,800-metre-long runway at a speed of 200 km/h so that high-speed cameras could capture the dramatic escape of the new Ranger Raptor from the 22-metre steel chain in the cargo hold.
The film crew used drones, special electric buggies, and a car-mounted "Robo Arm" camera to capture the dynamic sequences. This system uses a robotic crane mounted on the roof of the vehicle, to which a camera is attached, a setup that allows precision drivers and the film crew to perform close-up car-to-car shots. A dedicated security team - which included three airport fire trucks along with their crew - was also on standby throughout the shoot.
After filming was complete, the Imagination creative agency working with Ford spent hundreds of hours in post-production to create seven different versions of the final film for different platforms and audiences.
