Stride ‘Webcam’
Agency - JWT New York

Role - Director

Doing some early research when receiving the agency script we found out it was actually possible to ride an ostrich. This discovery lead to a ‘let’s do it for real’ pitch to the agency. They couldn’t quite believe it was possible, assuming it would need to be a CGI approach. A couple of weeks later and the agency and client have flown to London from the US to watch three ostriches being chased around a grubby London studio by a film crew.

We shot multiple passes of action for a lot of shots to stitch together in post. This meant we could capture the natural erratic movement of the giant birds being ridden by the actors, but also combine the best moments of each ostrich and add some pyro SFX as they storm through walls, all heightening the chaos.

The client loved the result so much that a year later I found myself in LA for the next Stride ad and wrangling live Rams, stunt driving and animatronics.