Ferrari 812 Superfast: Filming Disaster

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ith the weather perfect, it all seemed so promising! It was a quick drive, and we arrived on a long stretch just past the entrance to Zaarour Club. Parking the cars on the shoulder of the road, first we set up a table and arranged all the camera equipment for easy access. I then configured the Phantom 4 Pro, and after everything was set up, including my new DJI Ronin S gimbal, we were ready to start the work!

I pulled out my storyboard – I had spent days preparing that thing, meticulously planning every shot and even assembling similar clips in a sequence to guide us in capturing the footage I envisioned.

I knew it would take several hours – even longer in the event things didn’t go as planned– to capture the minute or so of footage that I wanted for my video. My plan was to stay focused and efficient, and so I instructed my friend Gaby to drive the 812 around the corner and come back when prompted, speeding toward and beneath the drone, once I had it properly positioned.

So Gaby took off, I launched the drone and guided it toward where it would optimally capture the 812 as it came around, planning to pull it back as the car headed down the road.

Easier said than done. As soon as I had the drone perfectly positioned, a gust of wind grabbed the aircraft and wouldn’t let go. I watched in horror as my $2,000 drone careened toward the side of the hill, refusing to respond to commands, before it crashed into the foliage out of sight a few hundred meters away, at an elevation of several dozen meters above the road.

Now you would think I would be distraught about my drone, and I was, but the thing is that many of my planned shots involved aerial footage, and the thought running through my mind was: ”What am I going to tell Abir about the promised video!”

Two hours! It took exactly two hours to find the bloody drone, after I and half the people in the group combed every inch of the hillside, our arms and legs bloodied from all the thorns, till we found the white Phantom resting innocently in a bunch of bushes with the propellers broken.

So much for aerials shots. They say God laughs as we make plans. It’s true; I can still hear his laughter ringing in my head! But I wasn’t about to give up. I was determined and decided to switch to the gimbal shots.

For the sake of efficiency, I first affixed the GoPros to the front and back of the convertible. Then, after referring to my storyboard yet again, climbed in with the new Ronin S in hand and instructed Bahaa, my friend and chase-car driver, to follow the 812. The plan was to get shots of the Ferrari from the front and rear as well as passing side shots, all in carefully choreographed maneuvers, in order to capture the footage that I hoped would look phenomenal in the final edit.

We had practiced the sequences beforehand in other cars, and everyone knew exactly what to do. I even had a mock clip with stand-in cars in hand and hoped I could improve upon it. But when it rains it pours, and this time the Ronin S decided to defy me. The stupid gimble, which moments ago had been perfectly balanced, would not stop panning! I’d get the shot perfectly set up, and without being prompted the damn thing would pan right on its own. Yo, DJI, we need to have a talk. Your gear let me down twice within a matter of hours. What gives?

Every shot came out with the 812 appearing only for a fraction of a second before the scene would shift to bushes, or road, or sky. Now if I was filming a mystery film called “Guess the car,” it might work, but this wasn’t that, and I was in trouble. I had to go back to our makeshift base, reconfigure the gimbal and figure out what was wrong with the settings.

But once again trouble struck. Gaby’s kids were getting antsy and hungry, and he declared that he was leaving. This is the same Gaby that showed up hours late when I was filming the Lamborghini Aventador S. I never learn.

That’s it, I was going to lose my driver, I had no aerial footage and the gimbal shots were loony tunes. All I had were a few GoPro shots and on their own those would be repetitive – 812 from the front, or 812 from the back … not very exciting.

I decided to at least try to get shots of the 812 with the GoPros mounted creatively on the Superfast itself. So I proceeded to systematically affix the cameras to capture footage of the rims, the wings, the long hood, the haunches, etc. as the marvelous car flew along the lovely asphalt. Then I thought of getting some shots of the exhaust tips ( and the sound!) from above with my brand new GoPro Hero 6 Black.

That proved to be a very, very bad idea. I mounted the camera, started the car, and took off. Five minutes later I stopped, got out of the car, and discovered the camera was no longer mounted on the car. In a panic, I hopped back in, did a U-turn and sped back in the other direction. I finally located the GoPro lying in the middle of the road, a bit scuffed up but otherwise seeming OK, that is until I tried to check the footage. It wasn’t there. Nothing would play back.

In a matter of hours, over $3,500 worth of equipment had been damaged or otherwise rendered nonfunctional. This was the moment when I considered throwing in the towel and admitting defeat, especially as the sun was getting low and I still hadn’t even photographed the car in high resolution for print.

I figured I could still get away with writing a proper article, but I still needed images, so I got the entourage to pack up, and drove to a more picturesque location to do a proper photoshoot just as the sun was setting.

With a few of us doing the photography at the same time, we got some nice images, which would look even better in post, but video was bust so we glumly climbed back in the cars and headed home, after which, at around 9 p.m., I delivered the 812 back to Scuderia, where the guard was waiting for me as planned.

The next day I went over the footage, trying to see whether I could salvage what I had and make it into something that wouldn’t be too embarrassing. Try as I might, I couldn’t get it to work or do the 812 justice. I lacked both continuity and diversity, and at best I had five or six barely useful shots of the Superfast, which weren’t even enough for a 10-second trailer.

But the folks at Scuderia, especially owner Hassan Haidar and his extraordinary marketing manager Abir Haidar, are monumentally patient and supportive, and I decided to explain the situation. Upon hearing about my bad luck, Abir promptly agreed to make the car available again. Seriously, those folks really amaze me – I could sit all day with Hassan, Abir and their spectacular team talking about cars, and not only to they listen patiently at my ramblings but offer insight at every turn. We need more people like that in the world!

Gilbert Rahme demonstrates his skills behind the wheel!

And I decided I wasn’t taking any chances this time, so I reached out to my friend Gilbert Rahme of Autoliban fame and asked him to help out with the driving part while I handled the filming.

Gilbert, as many of his numerous fans know, is a very decent sort who is always ready to lend a hand. He didn’t even hesitate, and immediately agreed to help out a fellow car journalist, sacrificing the greater part of his day so I could complete the task I had set for myself. That is called selfless. Bro, you’re a gentleman. Thank you!

And so early on a Saturday morning we loaded the back of the Superfast with all the gear – it easily swallowed the drone, the gimbal, all the cameras, the tripods and assorted bags and cases – trust me, this car has a sizeable luggage capacity – and we drove up to Zaarour one more time.

Thankfully, this time everything went according to plan. We scored the perfect drone shots (new propellers), the gimbal (now repaired) worked like a champ and the GoPros were an absolute dream. All that was left was for me to film my sister Stephanie from the interior while she drove, so Gilbert took off to tend to his own affairs as we went through the list of footage we still needed.

And then the weather changed. What had started as a bright sunny day gave way to dense fog. I started fearing more continuity issues so we started filming right away, trying to stay ahead of the fog as much as possible. It turns out you can’t outrun fog. It materializes out of nothing as much as it rolls.

So now I had some brilliant footage, except some of it looked like it had been shot in the Bahamas and the rest in Alaska. Oh, the trials and tribulations of filmmaking in Lebanon. But I had the answer: Do the B-roll on a sunny day without the car, use video editing software and After Effects to match the sequences, and presto! OK, it was more complicated than that, especially as I had to teach myself advanced video editing and learn After Effects in one weekend. But it worked, and I managed to produce one not-too-shabby 812 Superfast video with a twist. I hope you all agree, and if not, suggestions are always welcome! Be nice please!

What matters is that I didn’t give up, and with the help of true friends I managed to execute my idea. I also learned a hell of a lot about videography while filming that beast, primarily that you can get a lot more done by collaborating than you can on your own.