Directors Film Company’s Robert Quartly created a retro ’70s look in two spots for Chrysler, which takes car buffs 30 years into the past and asks, Remember your first car?

The spots, through bbdo, are a mosaic of clips featuring young, proud, bell-bottom-clad, long-haired Chrysler owners, washing, piling into, and cruising around in their oversized automobiles to the tunes of an eight track.

Shot entirely on location in Toronto’s west end and on Highway 7, the spots are all-original footage, made to look like it was shot way back when these vintage cars were fresh off the line.

Quartly says a combination of things, including the look, performances, Super 8, and 16mm reversal film stock (which he hasn’t worked with in 25 years), take viewers back in time and make them believe they are seeing authentic ’70s footage. The Mike and the Mechanics’ song Spirit In The Sky adds to the emotion.

‘There are so many different looks from that era it became really trying to put together a mosaic of clues to say you were in the ’70s,’ says Quartly. ‘There is a feel of the stock, which changes as you look at the spot – each scene feels a little different. Hairstyle, wardrobe, locations and props lead the way and specifics in wardrobe were critical.’

A lot of the ‘real guts and feel,’ according to the director, came out in the film-to-tape transfer, at which point they played around with color and light and removed some information from the film to make the clips look older and the whites hotter. Everything was underexposed by almost a stop.

The challenge for the director was to remain organic in terms of the texture and make sure that a weave existed throughout the spot so nothing seemed forced, says Quartly.

‘It was about capturing somebody in a range of performance. You need a certain kind of looseness in terms of how you ask the actors to perform, how you compose and how you deal with the art direction.’

Robin Miller was the dop, Teri Walderman was executive producer and Suzanne Allen was production house producer. At bbdo, Jack Neary and Michael McLaughlin were the creative directors, Steve Denvir wrote the copy, Mike Smith was art director, and Cathy Woodward produced. Mick Griffin edited at Flashcut.