It opens like an epic movie, with a huge mountain vista reflected in an equally huge lake. Headlights winking, a tiny car makes its way through the dark.

Then the spot, the newest for Chevrolet’s Cavalier from Derek Van Lint and Associates, becomes more like a car commercial. Except

One, it’s night. Who shoots a car commercial at night? Wouldn’t that kinda make it hard to see the car?

Two, it’s a strange kind of night. In black and white, surreal clouds race by above a landscape as clear aswell, day.

Three, we meet the driver. Instead of a shadowy figure behind the wheel of a car that seems to drive itself, he’s a part of the story. Our hero, a lonely rebel type, is staring down the landscape as he drives like a demon tosomewhere.

A superimposed clock shows the passing of hours as he drives his Cavalier through the night. Finally, just as we’re forced to ask ourselves, ‘Where the heck’s he going anyway?’ he stops. Under a starry sky he stands and facesa field of flowers?

Yep. A big field of beautiful daisies, striking yellow against the black-and-white landscape. He wades in, is covered with them, and suddenly he’s back in the car.

Now where’s he going? Back through the night, braving the rain and the dark, he pulls up to a country home just as dawn threatens to break. A woman is silhouetted in the window. She opens the door, and there he is – big grin on his face and a bunch of the blinding yellow posies in his hand. A rich female voice with a country twang belts out the tag – ‘Tried, tested & true.’

Director/cameraman Robert Gordon faced the challenging task of taking the Cavalier on a trip through the night, while still maintaining the beauty of the vast landscape and the car. Some creative shooting techniques did the trick.

‘We called on Ansel Adams’ techniques, doing a special version of day-for-night photography. We incorporated it with some actual night photography and special effects in the field.’

Stephen Lewis, who handled the post effects at Spin Productions, used Henry to online. The skies, which obviously couldn’t be shot at night, were composited behind the scenery and motion tracking software was used to match all the shots. Using Henry’s paint program, he was able to maintain the brilliant yellow of the flowers while keeping the rest of the scene monochrome.

The Einstein Bros. gets credit for the mood music and John Hopp at Third Floor Editing made the final cuts. Jane Thomson produced for dvla. Angy Loftus produced for MacLaren McCann and the creative director was Rick Davis. Maura Macneill was the writer and art direction was handled by Stephen Blair. MEA