Fredrik Callinggard Directs Worldwide Campaign for Volvo

Director, represented in the U.S. by Bully Pictures, also directs new campaign for Toyota.

LOS ANGELES— Fredrik Callinggard, represented in the United States by Bully Pictures, has directed a new, international campaign for Volvo re-launching its mid-sized, luxury, crossover SUV the XC90. Filmed in Norway’s spectacular fjordlands, the 60-second launch spot offers a rich and deeply affecting montage of landscape imagery and scenes of families traveling and enjoying life. Farmlands populated by ancient wood structures, quaint hamlets, gorgeous beaches and snow-swept mountains, all appearing under a cool autumn chill, float by as a young girl sweetly recites the words of “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”

Callinggard and two camera crews spent eight days traversing rugged, sparsely populated back country, collecting cinematic visuals with RED Epic cameras. The production, which included shoots via helicopter and camera cars, yielded more than 12 hours of source material representing more than 20 locations. Most scenes were captured with available light, including cloud fields blowing gently over mountaintops, kids running with sparklers and a twilight scene of headlights on a rural road. Callinggard’s aim was to relate the Volvo brand, and the XC90 in particular, to the poetry of Scandinavian nature and to the desire of viewers’ to escape from urban stress. The campaign’s tagline is “Made by Scandinavia. Design Around You.”

“We pre-selected locations and cars, but we remained open-minded and things began to fall into place,” explains creative producer Mads Nørfelt Marstrand. “Norway is an amazing place to shoot cars. In summer, it never gets dark. Everything is beautiful and everything is possible.”

Volvo XC90 - Scenic / Directors cut - (2012) :90 (Norway)

Callinggard has also directed a campaign for Toyota in which crowds of people throng to dealerships to take advantage of its great deals. Each of the three spots has a comic twist. In MPG, people at a gas station stare as an attendant alters the price of gas on a large sign-board. As soon as the new, higher number appears, the onlookers take off running. Longevity suggests that it may be the right time for owners of older cars to think trade-in. In it, a man is incredulous when his car’s door handle breaks off and a crowd of car buyers sprints by. In Dependability, a similar experience befalls a man whose broken down car is about to be towed. Each spot ends with a Toyota salesperson who is pleasantly surprised by the arrival of the scampering horde.

Callinggard’s recent work also includes a Tuborg spot featuring a sprawling night club scene revealed as a “frozen moment.” Scores of young people are gathered around a stage where a band performs—all of them arrested in an instant of time. Chips, articles of clothing, cocktail glasses and, of course, plenty of Tuborg beer hang motionless in midair. The camera flies over the scene in 360-degree space while graphics mark out individual revelers the way one might “tag” friends on a Facebook photo.

Turborg / Frozen

There is some digital trickery here, but the vast majority of the scene was captured in-camera by Callinggard (who was assisted by director Gaute Hesthagen). It was shot over four days in Vilnius, Lithuania with a cast of several hundred extras and a huge set. The finished piece is composed from dozens of shots captured with a motion control rig mounted to a gantry crane. The crane had a 15-foot arm and rested on track that allowed it to shoot the scene from all angles, including overhead.

Soon after completing those two projects, Callinggard was tapped by Deutsch, New York, to direct a project for Degree. It hits the airwaves soon.

About Bully Pictures:
Bully Pictures is a full-service commercial broadcast, web viral, branded content production company located in Santa Monica, California. The company’s roster includes Javier Aguilera, Dustin Lance Black, Juergen Bollmeyer, Fredrik Callinggard, FRAME, Gaute Hesthagen, Daniel Kaufman, Dave Klaiber, Franco Marinelli, Greg Maya, Luke Savage, Michael Shapiro, Craig Tanimoto, Morten Tyldum and Eric Will. For more information, write info@bullypictures.com