Chasing Winter: Capturing the Porsche 911 Dakar in Quebec with Canada's Top Content Creators
In this frosty episode of the Content Creator Society, we join Lucas Scarfone, Viktor Radics, and Josh White on a thrilling journey to the heart of the Quebec winter. Host Bonar Bulger brings together the group to discuss their recent adventure capturing the essence of the Porsche 911 Dakar for Porsche Canada. Amidst the snow-capped landscapes of Quebec, Josh, Viktor, and Lucas share their experiences, challenges, and the creative processes behind their stunning imagery and videos. Tune in to discover the passion and teamwork that drives these creators to excel, even in the chilliest of conditions.
Show Notes: Content Creator Society Season 2, Episode 1
Host: Bonar Bulger
Guests: Josh White, Viktor Radics, Lucas Scarfone
Duration: 28 minutes
Episode Summary:
In this special episode marking the start of Season 2, Bonar Bulger welcomes back listeners to the "Content Creator Society". After a two-year hiatus, the show returns with a fresh format and an exciting discussion featuring renowned content creators.
Topics Discussed:
Introduction of Guests:
Josh White, a content creator with an evolving brand identity.
Viktor Radics, a photographer, director, and community builder known for the Motosocial.
Lucas Scarfone, a returning guest, photographer, and co-founder of Autostrata Magazine.
The Porsche Canada Assignment:
The team discusses their recent assignment in Quebec for Porsche Canada, focusing on the Porsche 911 Dakar.
Experiences and challenges of capturing "hero shots" and adapting to on-the-spot situations.
Insight into behind-the-scenes and editorial-style video production under tight constraints.
Personal Insights and Industry Reflections:
The guests and host share personal experiences and changes in their professional lives.
Discussion on balancing passion with work and the continuous search for fulfillment in creative careers.
Favourite Moments from the Porsche Shoot:
Each guest shares their favourite image or video clip from the assignment and the story behind it.
Closing Thoughts:
Bonar Bulger reflects on the significance of the podcast and the joy it brings, emphasizing the importance of passion projects.
Mentions:
Transcript
Okay, here we go. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Content Creator Society. This is gonna be a very special episode, mainly because I haven't done an episode for about two years. So that's how special this is. It's probably gonna take a little bit of a different format. In fact, it is going to take a bit of a different format. And I will say that this is going to be the start of season two. Today I have with me some content creators who've graciously accepted my invitation for the inaugural episode of season two. I will go around the horn here. To my right, Josh White. Josh, how's it going?"
"Good, good. I mean, this was easy coming in 'cause I'm coming into work anyway."
"Very. You're welcome."
"A short commute. Thank you very much, Josh. Josh is, I mean, stay wild. Like what, what, what are we talking about?"
"Oh no, that's dead. That's dead, okay. I realized there was a YouTuber who had stay wild and I just couldn't go by the same name 'cause they have like five million subscribers, so I got buried. So at some point the company will officially be called Waypoint Film Studio."
"Okay, I like that."
"Yeah, it will be that. Currently I'm still 2828187 Ontario Inc."
"I also like that. Very legit."
"Very good, very good. And to your right we have Viktor Radics. Viktor."
"Hello, hello, stoked to be here."
"So Viktor, give the audience a little bit of an insight of who you are, what you do."
"For work I'm a photographer, director, and a community builder. Take photos, direct commercials, short films, and I help people make friends with a motorcycle movement called the Motosocial."
"You also are suspiciously positive and I'm still trying to figure out why that is and it frightens me often. And that chuckle you hear to his right is Lucas Scarfone. Lucas, you've been here before."
"Well, thanks for having me back."
"You're the first time repeat guest."
"Wow, that's so special. I was on the phone last time, I think we did over the phone."
"Yeah, I think it was high. We started that with--"
"Super COVID-y."
"Super COVID-y, which is why we started it. And then COVID ended and then surprisingly the podcast ended."
"Interesting how that works."
"It is. Just for those who don't know, and I'm sure everybody probably does, but go ahead, give yourself a 30,000 foot overview of what you do and who you are."
"Take pictures of cars like Viktor. So yeah, been shooting cars in Toronto for 20 years and then co-founded Autostrata Magazine as well. So fortunately I get to play with cars for a living. So that's pretty sweet."
"That is pretty sweet. And I am your host, Bonner Bolter. I run an organization called Stay Consistle. I am part of another organization called Evil Empire Studios and I am also part of an organization called The Shakedown, all of which will be linked in the show notes if there are show notes. Maybe there are, maybe there won't be. I get busy, but we'll try to link all that stuff in. Okay, so for today, this is gonna be a little short round that horn kind of discussion. Recently we sent everybody up to Quebec on behalf of Porsche Canada to photograph or support a media tour. And that media tour is for the Dakar, the Porsche 911 Dakar, which is a very, very cool, unique vehicle, sort of an off-road sports car, pretty ballsy move for Porsche to build, something like that, but also very cool because I don't see any other companies doing that. So that's kind of cool. It was up in Quebec City. They had a media tour, which consists of obviously media and I guess influencers, right? If I'm not mistaken. Josh, you were filming parts of it, correct?"
"Yeah, very last minute. I guess we needed some video content. So I joined Viktor for the last day of shooting, I think."
"You got it."
"Yeah, so it kind of turned around really quickly. When a week before, you're honored, you were saying, 'Josh, you wanna go to Quebec for a day?' And I said, 'Yep, got nothing else going on right now.' It's been a slower start to the year, but no, it was super fun getting to work with Porsche every time. And the Dakara had the opportunity to shoot for the groundbreaking event back in September, I think it was."
"For the Porsche Experience Centre to Toronto."
"Yeah, we were there for a bit."
"That was super fun."
"So it was super fun getting to shoot that car again."
"It was nice to call you and say, 'Do you wanna go to Quebec?' And there wasn't like a question of what it was. Anything, it was like, 'Yep.' That was basically, I didn't even have to tell you. It was like, 'Yeah, sure, okay, sure, I'll go.' So let's talk about this. What I wanna talk about today a little bit is just the process of this. And I know, Viktor, you and Lucas went up for the first day. And that was, we had both of you go up because what I find difficult, were there three Dakars?"
"How many? There was two between us."
"So two in total."
"Yeah."
"Right. And then so Viktor, walk me through what the brief was for you on, not the full thing, but just really for that first day."
"The first day? Not the whole week?"
"Yeah, walk us through that brief."
"Yeah, absolutely. So we were there for a week, but the first day we had to focus on capturing, let's call them hero shots, or very clean product shots of the two different styles of car."
"Or of Dakar."
"And Lucas and I teamed up. We split up to, Lucas captured the green car 'cause he really likes green. (laughing) And I--"
"There's a surprise."
"And his focus was to capture the vehicle, or his vehicle within the beautiful old part of Quebec City. And then my task was to capture the rough roads model, the really kitted out one with all the stuff and sparkles on it out in the wild."
"Farkles? I don't know. (laughing)"
"No, I believe that's the show title."
"Farkles."
"Farkles?"
"We use it a lot in the motorcycle world. I don't know."
"Interesting."
"No, no, no."
"First for everything."
"Nick Nacks bolt on things."
"No, no, no, Farkles. Much, much, much better. There was two cars, hero shots. The idea is that the journalists, we would take those hero shots and we would edit them the night before, or that day essentially really. And then we'd upload them so that when the journalists had their opportunity to follow the cars and do what they do, they had their photos, but also a nice set of professional beauty shots that they may not be able to get because the cars would be dirty, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So in doing that, Lucas, there were some specific asks with respect to locations, or at least in our minds on the pre-production side, we were very much like, we did some Google searching and saw some existing images. And we said, 'Oh, that would be nice. This would be nice.' Now, it's one thing for us to say, 'Hey, do this. This is the shot we want.' Now, walk me through a little bit that process of getting there and realizing that what we've asked isn't always exactly what can realistically happen. So walk us through, you're there. How do you sort of suss out your day with a shot list, but realizing that that shot list is challenging to sort of execute against?"
"Yeah, there's always that vision in your mind of you want the car in an old square in Quebec City. So I was fortunate I drove my car up there in the spring. And so I took some shots of the GT3 around the city. I'm like, 'Okay, I got this. I know exactly where I'm gonna put it. No problem.' And my favorite shot I took was in the middle of the square in downtown Quebec City. And we pulled the Dakar in there and there was like a big Christmas tree and like a whole bunch of people and delivery vans. So same thing, like you can always, you have what you plan for and then you have what happens, right? So we were really fortunate. Like I had the green car for the day and I think Stephan was a driver. So he was awesome. Like really, like it's such a running gun style where I've been fortunate to do this my whole life, like shooting for different OEMs. And it's like, you park the car, you jump out, you take a shot before anybody yells at you, you get back in the car, right? So you honestly don't have the luxury sometimes of really structuring that composition maybe exactly perfect or it's such an off the hip style of shooting. I really like it. Like I remember I did one in Hamilton where I parked it on the lift bridge and then I shot it before like the guy yelled at me. So it's a really, it's very fast paced. Like you don't have a lot of luxury of really setting up that perfect shot per se. And then there's, you could have the car parked. I remember we had the decker parked in front of the Chateau. The one car we had it up kind of on a bit of a raised platform there. Everything was perfect. The sun was out and then a bus tries right in front of you and then another bus and then a pickup truck and a construction thing. So you really have to be flexible. That's what for what we do all of us, like whether it's the video side or the photography side, you really have to be able to adapt and figure out the best shot you're gonna get in the circumstance. So yeah, I was really proud of everything I think that we accomplished. I was only there for I think less than 24 hours. So it was kind of a hired gun to come in and out, but it's always a special opportunity. I've grown up loving cars my whole life. So to have the opportunity to fly in for one of the premier manufacturers in the world is pretty special. So we all appreciate that opportunity from your side."
"Let's talk about the video side of it then 'cause you mentioned video. Josh, you were there same kind of idea where you were in for I think one day. It's a similar situation like 24 hours in out. The MO at your particular point is behind the scenes and also not so much behind the scenes but editorial style video. So the journalists would be looking for, if you can imagine driving.ca or some of these other publications where they're not necessarily looking for cinematic, quality stuff, but really it's nuts and bolts of sometimes it's a locked off shot with the car just coming from point A outside of frame, exiting frame and that's it. So the challenge, talk a little bit about the challenge that you may have faced coming in A for 24 hours and you're just kind of joining it as it's going. And you've got what I would describe as an extremely loose kind of framework."
"So loose."
"A shot list."
"A little bit loose."
"A little bit by necessity because that program is going on and it's not centered around getting film. The film is subsequent, it's a different, it's an add on. So that tell me, let's walk through that challenge when you get there. How do you work through that kind of that problem?"
"Yeah, so I mean, when I first started packing for the trip, it kind of, it really came down to gear with me 'cause I brought my FX6, which is like a small to medium sized cinema body, which I thought would be great because ND filters are built in and everything. I thought that would make it easiest, but what I quickly realized was we were shooting out of a car most of the day, which meant that that camera was just way too big. So it literally sat in the back seat while I ended up switching to my A74, which is just like a mirrorless DSLR styled body. And then I think most of that day I was shooting on the 24 to 70 'cause then I could crop in and do all that stuff. But I said to Viktor halfway through the day, I was like, I wish I had the kit lens that had stabilization built into that as well to have even more stabilization because we're doing so much of that. Just throw the camera out the window, hold onto it. Hope you're kind of getting a shot with my hands freezing for the most part 'cause I couldn't find my gloves. They had fallen down the back. So I was sticking the camera out, hoping to get what I could."
"There was a group from Brazil, obviously, as you mentioned, that had some film requirements."
"Yeah, yeah. So those two guys, then finally there was Donut Media and I think I got a few drone shots for them."
"Oh, Donut Media was there, right?"
"Yeah, they were there as well. So they just, I think, wanted a couple drone shots. So I got those for them, but it actually turned out to be a lot less editorial and more trying to find out what the Brazilian guys needed and then doing a couple of walk-arounds of the vehicle with the one influencer."
"Yeah."
"And then just trying to capture what I could of the car kind of between each, 'cause we only had 10 minutes at each stopping point 'cause there was a lot to see, so."
"Yes, I feel like you had the hardest job, bro."
"I feel like, 'cause he had to deliver enough footage to make a recap video, so a bit of highlight reel of the day, while also serving the guests, being there to help them capture stuff that they would need. And so have your mind in these two places, I feel like you crushed it 'cause..."
"Yeah, it was definitely, it was all over the place for sure, but I mean, it still felt like it was pretty chill, regardless, I mean, it was like hectic and busy for the 10 minutes that you're shooting, and then you and I were basically just kind of shooting out of the car, getting from location to location."
"And I wanted to, you meant a couple, SDC, a shout out to those guys, because without their support, really none of this happens, and they are very, very easy to work with, and flexible, Stephane's great."
"He's like a picture guy, man, he was awesome, I was very fortunate to have him in the car, 'cause like..."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, have you seen his social?"
"It's awesome, and that's why, so as a photographer..."
"He's holding on to my turf, man."
"No, that's why I'm like, don't get too good, I'm gonna break your fingers, but he was awesome, 'cause we would turn down and like, just to have two sets of eyes makes such a big difference sometimes, and he's like, 'Oh, do you want me to stop here? This would be a cool shot from the back, with the building, this.' And I was like, to have such a valuable resource, and he's awesome to hang out with, but to have someone with another set of eyes, he was just into it, 'cause sometimes I've worked with different OEMs, and it's not always like that. Sometimes it's more of like an inconvenience, it's like, oh shit, you gotta stop again, and take a picture, like when you have someone that you just honestly just share the same passion with, it made at least my process so much more enjoyable, and a lot more efficient, so that was a big help."
"Absolutely, the team that you put together is more important on these events than, obviously quality is important, it is, but you could be the best photographer, best videographer, cinematographer in the world, but if you're not a team player in the sense that, A, you can deal with the stress of the go, go, go, and then those quick communication points with like, 'Hey, I need to stop here to get this shot,' which intrinsically is annoying to all of us at some point, there's like this little twinge of like,"
"Jesus."
"But those people who are able just to be like, yep, okay, we got this, and it's so much more important than hiring the person who's got the perfect panner, or whatever, you know, and I know it's difficult, I know, I'm sure a lot of people will be like, yeah, same as Harry Ferry, but I don't know, man, I can look at photos, and there's something about, well, especially when we're dealing with a set, not an individual, but if I'm dealing with a set of images, I can almost tell you what the vibe kind of was, and I don't know why, but I always feel like, oh, it's translated through a gallery of images."
"Yeah, vibe is key."
"Yeah, so, okay, so let's talk, we're gonna wrap this up, because we don't have all the time in the world, and this is just a short one, I think we kind of forget, or at least I do, that it's an international brand that's on the top."
"It's a huge deal, man."
"What are your friends in the world, or whatever, yeah, yeah, it is, really is."
"At the very base of it, like, we all are around it a lot, like, I'm sure a lot of people listening to this, like, their life goal would be to do the kind of work that we're fortunate to do, right? So it's like, even from my perspective, someone told me when I was 13, when my mom took me to the auto show, and I saw Yellow Curr G.T., it's like, well, fast forward 15, 20 years, and it's like, you're gonna be kind of hired to fly in and out and shoot a brand new Porsche in, like, Quebec City, right? So that's always the balance, I think, that all of us have is, it's keeping that passion alive, but also it's a job, right? So it's that balance, but it's super cool, and you take kind of that 30,000 foot perspective of it, like, it's a really neat opportunity, right? So we're grateful that you trust us to capture that."
"Yeah, thanks for sending us."
"No, no, and it's, I was in Germany recently, last week, and you and I were just talking about this, and I didn't want to sound like I'm not grateful, but he was like, well, how is Germany? I was like, well, you know, it's like, so I've been to Stuttgart a number of times. To me, it's a little bit like going to Mississauga at this point, like, but just like, it's not super exciting place."
"Way better pretzels."
"Yeah, it must be."
"Munich, Munich is amazing, but like, it's nuts and bolts in Germany. It is manufacturing Mercedes is there, Porsche is there, and we were there to do this project, which is a pretty special project. And then we were in, you know, there's an exclusive manufacturer in an area that you're not allowed to be in, filming things that we're not supposed to ever talk about."
"Super jealous."
"Then we had the director, the guy who designed the car, come in to do the interview, and then, you know, so I'm over there doing that, and then I get back up, you know, flight back. I don't know, man, I don't really work."
"It's a whole nother podcast, honestly. 'Cause like, same thing, I struggle with that too, 'cause it's, you're so busy, even with this, like, we have the auto show coming up, and I vent to you guys about it, and then it's like, okay, well, that 13-year-old kid, like, did you ever think you'd have like, your own booth with all the cars? And it's hard to separate them sometimes. Like, I struggle with that a lot, just because it's so busy and hectic, but then when you're there and you step back, it's like, okay, well, we've all accomplished pretty special things, right?"
"Yeah, it takes a long time. I had an absolute feeling of emptiness, because, you know, as a 10 years ago, if you said, hey, Bonner, you're gonna be in Germany in whatever it is, filming this, doing this, you're like, well, no, it was crazy. And there's this moment where I'm like, I didn't feel the fulfillment, I guess, it just like, okay, it happened. And I did feel kind of like, sure, I've got to go here, I got to go here. And I didn't feel like the excitement that maybe my 10 years ago would have felt. So there was this sense of like, maybe I need to find the next."
"It's interesting, yeah, I struggle with the same thing, 'cause like, you think about that first time you went to Stuttgart, that kind of thing, right? And then your recent trip felt like a job."
"Yeah, yeah, it didn't feel nearly as- Yeah, so what's next? So now I had to, now I want to sit down and like think, well, what should I set my sight on now? 'Cause maybe I've, even though I don't feel like I've achieved anything, like maybe, and I have, I think if you externally people say, oh, you've achieved a lot, but I don't feel it. But so now I want to go and like, because I didn't feel a sense of fulfillment or anything else, which I know sounds, you know, I don't know, stupid, but-"
"No, it's funny 'cause I, it's interesting 'cause same thing from the outside, I've been really fortunate to do a lot of things, but yeah, I struggle with that too. And especially once I have my son, it's like, okay, well, how can I get in and out as fast as I can and get home?"
"24 hours in Quebec, that's how you do it."
"You guys have been amazing with that, I appreciate it. But it's very similar, like I have a lot of the same kind of thoughts with that 'cause from the outside, it looks great, you see it on social, it's a highlight reel for everybody, but it's interesting how you can have one experience like that and it's like, okay, well, what's next, right? It's that whole fulfillment side and it's all another conversation, but it's really interesting."
"I mean, you just started this podcast, I feel like that's the next step in the terms of like, you will always have the jobs, but then you have something like this, like I have started to branch out just doing my own thing too, where it's a project that I just wanna do, right? And that's how you kind of keep it going, I think so."
"It is in this, I'm gonna end it here as 28 minutes, but this, talking to you, I've been looking forward to it. And is this going to Germany? No, is this, like all the stuff we've just been talking about, way more exciting, this has been my total focus for like two weeks since I was sending out those texts and we should do this. And it seems so tiny, but this is so much more soul satisfying for me right now. And I do intend to do it more and more. And I wanna thank Neon Demon Studios, see I'm pretty good, I keep looking at the thing over there, but it's written in your writing."
"Shout out, bro."
"Oh, there you think it's in Neon Demon Studios."
"Giant glowing neon demon studio sign."
"Eliminating your face."
"And yet you look at this tiny sign right over here. Good for you."
"I'm not the brightest person out here, but I would like to do it again here because this seems like a pretty, yeah, yeah, yeah, it really is cool. Justin, you're gonna have to edit out at least 20 minutes of this. So good luck."
"The last 50 minutes, you probably--"
"Guys, one last thing around the horn and then we're gonna close it down. I wanna ask each of you from the shoot at the Dakar, which was your one favorite image and you have to pick one. You can't say all of them, just pick one and tell me why."
"So we were in like this random little street in Quebec City and there was, Viktor was there too. It kind of went up a hill and you could see all the beautiful architecture, but then on the right hand side was like a window. Like I think it was like whatever, a 12 pane window. And I got like a cool shot showing like the reflection of the Dakar with like the architecture. That one really just instantly stands out on my end."
"Amazing, Viktor."
"For me, it was a Stefan called us. We were traveling from point A to point B and Stefan from SDC calls our car. He's in another car up ahead at this meeting point. And he's like, guys, I think I found a really sick photo spot and it was, we were in a parking lot. There wasn't gonna be anything really cool there other than this waterfall to look at, which was really cool. But he's like, there's a snow bank here where the snowplazas have just pushed all this snow together and they've, it looks really gnarly. Like it looks like a mountain. And I'm like, no, bro, it's gonna be a snow bank. (laughing) Whatever, let's check it out. But my favorite photo was putting the 911 Dakar in front of the snow bank with a large ball day. And it literally legit looked like a mountain. It was really like the light was perfect. It was soft, it was backlit. The car really popped. The larger was wearing a red jacket with this cool swagger. And it just looked like we were like in the Antarctic or like somewhere like really cold and snowy where the car couldn't get. And a lot of photographs as well. Yeah, yeah. Josh, I wanna clip on the video side, anything in particular that stands out."
"I'm taking two 'cause I had to do like three projects. So drone shot was chasing the cars into the ski resort that we went into. That was super fun to get. And I only had one shot at it basically. And I think it turned out. And then my other one was just getting the shots out of the back of the car when the sun finally started poking through. And I think we were driving to the ski hill at that point. And we actually had a film director from LA that was a part of the experience. Oh, wow. So he knew what we were trying to get without talking to him. So he kind of pulled a bit of an illegal move and just like rode up on the line, just came up right like next to us pretty well. And it was like some of the most epic shots at like 120 frames and 60 frames to slow it down with like just a bit of snow in the air, but it was sunny and it was just poking through the trees. Yeah, it was that magic hour kind of shot. And that was super fun to get, especially since we had this commercial film director that just-- he already knew. He knew in his head what we were doing. And I was like, well, this is perfect. So yeah, we were spraying that scene quite a bit. Thank you very much, everyone, for coming out. I will not record a end statement because I'm going to do that later when I can think about what I actually want to say. So for now, I'm going to press Record button.