Visually exhilarating imagery anchored by documentary-style productions grounded in narratives that resonate. That’s a lot of descriptors to say:

Josh Carrasquillo and the team at Taproot Pictures know how to tell a good story.

Josh, the executive producer at Taproot, and Karl Koelling, founder and director at Taproot, exercised their technical and creative physique with the new Chevy Silverado “Silverado Presents” campaign, a three-part campaign shot in six days across three geographically unique landscapes.

Josh is an Executive producer of both commercial and documentary work at Taproot Pictures. Taproot’s “REI Presents: 1000 Mile Dream” won an AAF National Gold Addy award and Josh’s clients have included REI, Mercedes-Benz, and Coca-Cola, among others.

Josh spoke with us about developing the Chevy campaign, the creative process, his team’s brilliance, and taking the project from storyboard inception all the way to capturing epic landscapes across the country.

Chevy Silverado Wind River Tiny Homes campaign

Josh Carrasquillo
Executive Producer
Taproot Pictures @taprootpictures
Project name: Silverado Presents

You’ve discussed in case studies written on the Taproot Pictures website, the importance of capturing the mood and tone of each spot. In the Chevy narrative, there’s a theme of freedom and following through with the urge to fulfill a wandering spirit. What was your creative process like in developing a storyline that spoke to a sense of adventure?

“During the bidding process, we had multiple calls with the agency creative team to discuss what was in their mind’s eye. They really helped steer us in the direction of adventure/outdoor filmmaking while also staying true to the iconic Chevy brand. The ask was to bring an authentic story feel to the Silverado brand. We knew we would be shooting three stories in three different locations across the United States and have a limited timeline to produce them. This type of doc-style storytelling is something we’ve worked on dialing in for several years. Karl Koelling, the director for this campaign, has spent much of his career on this type of filmmaking and his process really pays off in these projects.

As with most projects, the pre-work and prep to dial in each story while also honoring the agency and client requirements, is where the real magic happens. We’re talking hours of pre-interviews with talent, planning for locations, and dialing in the shots with our DP’s before even stepping on set. This is what helps these things come to life.

I should mention that projects like this often come with limited location and tech scouting opportunities. Oftentimes the scout happens the day before the shoot or the team flies in a day earlier to take a look at the locations. There really isn’t a true location scout for this type of project. Which means a lot of the work that our Director and producers are doing is virtual scouting via Zoom, Google Maps, videos from talent, and images of the area. You have to be pretty scrappy to pull these off.”

In that same line, what kind of choices did you make in the actual shooting techniques to achieve the tone and atmosphere you wanted to accomplish?

“With this particular project an arm car (U-crane) was outside the scope of the budget. With that constraint, and having some very impressive trucks at our disposal, we still wanted to get moving vehicle footage that was more than just your standard drone work. Karl and I sat down and discussed options on what we could provide to bring more dynamic footage to life in this campaign. We landed on an FPV Drone operator. Tonally, we knew this would bring excitement to the footage we shot with the vehicle moving. While the traditional handheld doc-style techniques were used to connect with our characters. Chris Naum, one of the Directors of Photography for this campaign, referred us to Jay Christensen and Jay was able to provide a unique look using his FPV Drone operator skills.

We also decided that the camera package should provide a soft highlight roll-off with interesting flares that could be replicated in each story. For this look, Karl worked with our DP’s and landed on the Alexa Mini LF paired with rehoused Canon FD vintage lenses and 1/8 pro-mist filter.”

What was the most challenging aspect of production?

“Every shoot has its challenges and this campaign was no exception. We shot three stories in three locations over five production days. Each story had its own challenge, but the one that stands out was our road closure in the Los Angeles area. We worked with Film LA and the California Highway Patrol to shut down a canyon road in Santa Clarita. The challenge was with the amount of time this road was able to be permitted for the road closure. We technically only had one minute and 30 seconds of road closure before letting vehicles through. It was an extremely tight window to get the shots that we needed both exterior and interior vehicle driving shots. We had to be highly coordinated with the crew, police, and talent. It was definitely a challenge and a bit stressful, but we got it done. The footage and the end result feels like we had unlimited road closure time.”

Chevy Silverado Dream Big campaign

Was there any aspect of production that felt most rewarding?

“There were many rewarding moments on this project and each story had its own set of rewards to offer. There is a lot to be grateful for when taking these projects on and it’s easy to fall into the trap of, “this is work.” As filmmakers it’s important to remember that we get to do this for a living. That said, the most rewarding parts were the people. Because this was a multi-city shoot, we had the chance to source our crews locally from Los Angeles, Chattanooga/Nashville, and Denver/Boulder. It was great getting to know 30-40 new people as part of this campaign.

Another rewarding part of this project was fulfilling all of the deliverables. We had over 80 deliverables from cutdowns, re-sizes, and photography stills. It felt great to deliver each story and see it out in the wild.”

This production required a lot of angles, a lot of difficult shots, and equipment that could make that happen like FPV drones, cameras on micro gimbals, etc. Do you have a favorite shot that you could talk about where going into it, you were thinking, “this is going to look so cool”?

“Ha! Yes! There is one in particular that Jay Christensen and I worked on while Karl and the rest of the crew shot b-roll for the tiny home story. Jay’s talent really comes from being able to execute long one-shots with the FPV Drone. We were able to block out a sequence with the Wind River employees that shows them working on a tiny home as the FPV Drone flies in, out, and around the tiny home. It provided a really cool perspective and it was all coordinated for the shot. You can watch it here and it happens at the 29s mark.”

You shot in three very diverse locations: L.A., Chattanooga, and Boulder, Colorado over a five-day shoot. What was it like managing such a geographically diverse and time-sensitive shooting schedule, and why did you choose these locations?

“Our lead producer for this shoot, Shannon Strange, did a great job at scaling up this production in order to quickly shoot at these locations. There were a lot of hurdles to go through including road closures in each location which our local boots on the ground helped us with. This meant permitting and working with each city to get the proper sign-off to film there. We couldn’t have done this without experienced local production managers and coordinators. On top of that, each location provided interesting visual opportunities that Karl and our DP’s used in order to help the story progress. Overall, we were able to manage the locations and let the unique settings help our visuals flourish.

You can watch all three stories here:

Silverado Presents: Dream Big Urban Farms

Silverado Presents: Wind River Tiny Homes

Silverado Presents: The Joey Schusler Story

Chevy Silverado Dream Big campaign

Taproot Pictures has an aesthetic and a running theme of creating visually dynamic, documentary-style narratives grounded in journeys that any ordinary human could encounter. What’s the process like in first seeking out or finding that compelling story, where it sparks and you might think, “this both resonates and I see it visually”?

“Like many filmmakers we’re always connecting, researching, and generally on the lookout for interesting stories. That is the process. These stories can come about in those three ways. You’re either meeting new people, researching a story you have a vision for, or hearing about it from a friend/colleague. Karl Koelling, founder and director at Taproot, has really set a direction of telling meaningful stories in our personal and long-form work. We believe that everyone has a story to tell and it’s our job to find the most interesting part of that and turn it into film. The hope is that this bleeds over into our commercial work as much as possible. The process of finding characters in the wild is incredibly difficult AND even when you do have a good story, there is no guarantee you’ll be able to tell it. To tell great doc-stories you have to have some capital and you have to have the right people on board. Those are hard things to come by, but when this happens it’s magical.”

Anybody you’d like to shout out that helped develop such a dynamic campaign?

“Yes!

Special thanks to our agency friends and client for trusting us with this vision.

Agency: @webershandwick
Group Creative Director: Liz Newman
Senior Producer: Cassie Kline
Senior Art Director: Tim Rocklage

Client: Chevrolet

LOS ANGELES, CA CREW

Director: Karl Koelling
EP: Josh Carrasquillo
Producer: Shannon Strange
Production Manager: Mike Venezia
DP: @chris_naum
Drone Op: @jaybyrdfilms
1st AC: @spencer_aston
Stills Photographer: @loganzillmerphoto
Gaffer: Brandon Musselman
Key Grip: Chris Walters
Swing: Robert Libbee
Location Sound: Jake Robinson
HMU: Courtney Housner
PA: Sarah Kulas
PA: Aaron Brumback

CHATTANOOGA, TN CREW

Director – Karl Koelling
Executive Producer – Josh Carrasquillo
Producer – Shannon Strange
Production Manager – Mike Venezia
Production Coordinator – Daniel Gonzalez
Director of Photography – Tyler Grimm @tylerscottgrimm
1st Assistant Camera – Israel Garcia
Still Photography – Logan Zillmer @loganzillmerphoto
Aerial Cinematography – Jay Christensen @jaybyrdfilms
Gaffer – Nathan Airey
Swing – Christopher Herod
Key Grip – Robert Fedusenko
Mixer – Levi Carter
HMU – Jessica Eubanks
PA – Richmond Chaffin
PA – Devin Payne
PA – Benjamin Perlstein

BOULDER, CO CREW

Director: Karl Koelling
EP: Josh Carrasquillo
Lead Producer: Shannon Strange
Production Manager: Andrea Nordgren
DP: Phil Briggs @photophilbriggs
FPV Drone Op: Patrick Conroy @jaybyrdfilms
Stills: Thomas Woodson @thomaswoodson
Gaffer: tyler Kashcke
Key Grip: Eric Julian Fulcher
Swing: Trevor Tietjen
Sound Mixer: Dave Schaaf
HMU: Paige Miller
PA: Louis Fehlig
PA: Scottie Peitzman
PA: Alicia Kain
PA: Matt James
PA: Vince Nett

POST-PRODUCTION CREW

Lead Editor: Karl Koelling
Assistant Editor: David Boeckell @boeckell
Sound Mix: Kyle Campbell
Colorist: Cody Strout @codystrout
Title Design / Graphics: Josh Reed @bluepicstudios

Do you have a dream project or collaborator?

“Our mission is to tell meaningful stories. There are so many talented filmmakers that it’s really impossible to pinpoint one. However, the dream is to create work that moves someone’s emotions. Awards are great and film festivals are great, but there is nothing quite like a stranger telling you that the film you created truly moved them, made them think, or brought them to a different state of consciousness. That is where we want to be, and we want to work with people who want to do the same.”