Behind the Scenes of “Zero Chance”
First Date
Before our phone rang one November evening in 2017, we had never heard of a company called Nikola. Of course we’d witnessed the smashing success of another electric vehicle startup bearing the surname of that historically revolutionary inventor, but neither company’s goals were necessarily in conflict, not yet at least. With bitter hindsight on the years that would follow, our hopes and prayers for the company to succeed were indeed met with more challenges than you can imagine, and all of that is a story for another day. For now, suffice to say that November phone call left us *electrified* with excitement. 😎
“You guys ready to travel a crew out to St. George, Utah to film an electric off-road vehicle prototype race against a few gas powered side by sides.. next week?”
Furious Prep
Running on a pre-production timeline compressed down to a single week(!) with Thanksgiving smack dab in the middle of it, prep was a tornado of big questions leading to much bigger questions, answers that led to breakdowns (spreadsheets–the good kind of breakdowns), and ephemeral ideas taking shape and finding form in tangible objects
Remote Production
Creating a temporary home for a dusty, windswept crew in the middle of nowhere always starts as an intimidating puzzle. But after bringing together every type of wilderness event rental (RVs, portable telecoms, dust-resistant walled tents, and extremely sensitive optical and electronics equipment) it really felt like glamping! Production is all about creature comforts so we make sure every last one of our talented and creative professionals are fully charged, invested, and focused on the day’s objectives.
Shh…it Happens
Even the most tightly coordinated endeavors (which any well-executed production must be) are subject to the unseen force of entropy. While every last detail should be as perfectly defined as can be, time and space will find a way to butt in. In our case, we’d prepared ourselves for the contingency of possible downtime for our hero vehicle, given its status as a one-of-a-kind prototype traveling complete with its own set of around-the-clock engineers. Gratefully, our contingency paid off and what felt like unimaginable sums of money riding on the success of our production held safe and sound for another rainy day.
Magic in the Madness
For all imaginable worst-case scenarios, plans B, C, and on down to Z, magic hour waits for no one! I’ll never forget the final day as the sun came near the horizon and looked ready to drop out of sight, the rocky valley glowed in its incredible deep orange and this silent banshee of a vehicle comes zipping across the horizon. The looks on my crewmates’ faces carried a certain glint of wonderment as if a collective chill had crept up upon each of us and slipped away just as quickly. We knew that what we’d been watching was more than just a machine. It represented a hopeful glance toward a future long overdue. For that one brief glimpse, all the spreadsheets and sleep-starved nights gave way to a quiet pride and unshakeable optimism, that what brought us all together there might have looked like a flurry of emails, but felt a lot more like a genuine purpose.
This project taught us more about team resilience and remote coordination than we could have expected and forged a partnership that would lead to even greater, more electrifying challenges down the road, but we’ll keep a pin in that for another day. Until next time, dear framily– stay charged!
