BEHIND THE SCENES with a Toyo Tires Commercial — gondirtin - Outdoor Cooking, Overlanding, & Camping

When someone asks if you want to frolic around the arid deserts in the Southwestern United States in the middle of July, the answer is always a resounding “HELL. NO.” But, if that frolicking entails being chased around with big boy video cameras attached to big boy toys, the answer will always be a resounding “HELL. YES.”

We were asked to be part of a Toyo Tires TV commercial highlighting their new Open Country A/T III tires. A quick check of the weather told us what we already knew. We were scheduled for three shoot days. We were going to fall-off-the-bone roast. A daytime high in the low 100F, and a night time low of 90F, was what was laid ahead of us. It was definitely going to hurt being out there.

Luckily, we’ve fixed our Montero’s most egregious gremlin. For years, it had an overheating problem. We tried to diagnose, throw parts at, and fix. Almost everything didn’t work. It somehow boiled down to the fuel regulator by the gas tank. The heat of the coming days in the desert still had us a little worried.

Productions are normally split into multiple different sections. Everything falls under the big umbrella that is a production: pre-production, travel days, shoot days, and post production. Since we are merely just talent for this shoot, we only experienced the travel days, and shoot days.

We left in the morning to make the most out of the drive, and to be in the car with the AC on during the heat of the day. We arrived to the first location before sunset. The production crew wanted to knock out our cooking scene a day before actual shooting would happen.

I whipped up my super quick vegetable polenta recipe for the cameras.

Even Kyia and Stella got some screen time! Karissa did her best to have them look where the director wanted them to be.

We ended the first day of shooting with a simple camping scene. We set up our camp, and production pulled out all the stops to glamp up the scene even more with string lights which we plugged directly into our in-house power supply! Looking back, it makes us wish we traveled with string lights for the massive amount of #campcute points.

That was a wrap for day one of shooting. It was short, and the light during sunset couldn’t be any more perfect.

Big boy cameras attached to big boy toys.

Day two was to be our longest day of shooting. We bore the full brunt of what the desert heat was able to dish out. It was one of those days where you are pounding as much water as possible, but no pee will ever leave your body. That’s when you know its hot out and an indication that you should not stop pounding down water.

We were greeted with this behemoth of a camera rig first thing in the morning.

The majority of the morning was dedicated to driving shots of all the different rigs. We all took turns getting our souls sucked from this mechanical dementor. It’s totally unnerving to look over and see a giant film camera inches from your car as you’re driving along.

Karissa did all the driving for all the driving shots.

The second part of the day was dedicated to getting each rig dirty. The first few shots were a play of trying to stay as clean as possible…

…but that did not last long at all.

PLEASE NOTE: That this is totally the wrong way to do a water crossing. The correct way would be to go in as gentle as possible, but with enough speed to create a bow wave over the front of your vehicle.

The director decided to go for full flamboyancy for the cameras. It may not be the proper way of doing it, but it looks damn good when shot at 1000 frames-per second on a slow-mo camera.

And that wraps up day two! Off to the car wash we go to get it as clean as possible for the final day of shooting.

Day three consisted of pick ups. These were shots that were still needed, shots that were on the director’s wish-list, or shots that were just envisioned on the spot. We met a few hours before sunset so we were not shooting in the mid-day heat. Those extra hours of letting the sun come down a little bit more helped tons. It was still hot out, but was much more bearable than the day before just because the canyons around us offered a good amount of shade.

Most of the shots consisted of driving the truck up and down a road. Some shots were taken with the cinema cameras, other shots the director busted out the drone. Karissa did all the driving. I stayed back with a radio in my hand acting as her point of contact to relay what the director wanted. I also was very close to the snacks table, so that was a bonus!

This is the final result. We were just a tiniest cog in all of this. Mere milliseconds. But it’s still rad to be a part of none the less:

Karissa and I both come from production backgrounds. Being on set is like a warm comforting blanket for us. We love the pace, being surrounded by like minded creatives, and just love the overall atmosphere of being a small part of a big cog. Normally we’re behind the cameras, but this time around we were the ones in front of it. It took some adjusting to get used to having big cinema lenses pointed at us, but luckily, most of the shots we were very much hidden inside the cab of the Montero. Hollywood ain’t ready for these mugs just yet!

Being part of such a production is always an incredible experience. But these experiences are more than just being part of something cool, for example, in this case, a TV commercial. The thing you walk away after the all the cameras wrap is the wonderful people you meet in the little bit of time you were together. We had the privilege of meeting, and connecting, with other like minded travelers like Lindsey and Doug of @the.girl.scout, Andy and Nicole of @taco_nobodys, and Mason from @pacificoverlander. And for these chance connections, we’re forever grateful to be part of the small group of people that have come together because of our love for the outdoors, and how a simple rubber object propels us pursue our collective passion.

Thank you Toyo Tires for having us on board, and a special thanks to John Pangilinan for the photos!

—Linhbergh