The Royal Enfield Service Campaign film was a first for Slate Studios in many ways. Royal Enfield reached out to us with a brief where they wanted to show the analogy of “machine love” from both the rider and mechanic’s point of view.
Moreover, the entire film was going to be in the form of a music video - something none of us had attempted till then.
We decided that the best way to showcase the analogy was through match cuts that shift between the rider’s and mechanic’s perspectives. Once the treatment was locked, we quickly moved into pre-production, which took us roughly three weeks.
Since match cuts were crucial for the film, we brought on Bharath Parashuram, an acclaimed Mumbai-based DoP. We'd been wanting to work with him for a while, but the dates never aligned before. This time it worked out, and his technical expertise and problem-solving proved crucial to the project.
Day 1 was all exteriors, five locations, and a race against the clock. Akash on the Himalayan set the tone — fast, focused, fully in. We wrapped the first location ahead of schedule, but the camera arrived late at the last, and Bharath went guerrilla to keep pace, even pulling off a few experimental shots in the chaos. The Venice 2 with the Rialto rig made it possible. As director Darshan put it: "The Venice with the Rialto came in super handy for all the guerrilla shots — it kept the footprint to a minimum." Every shot on the call sheet — done. Day 1, wrapped.
