deep in the heart of texas: matthew turley for ram
Matthew Turley recently spent three weeks in Texas shooting Ram’s entire line of trucks. Because each truck, from the Sport to the Big Horn, the Rebel, and the Laramie, appeals to a different demographic, a considerable amount of thought went into how and where to shoot.
In contrast to many campaigns where the background should be no one particular place, the images would have a decidedly Texas theme. The team spent a week in Austin, a few days in Dallas, and another week out in Marfa near Big Bend National Park.
“We overtly shot the architecture in Austin and Dallas, the new freeway in Dallas, the Texas high school football field, which was kind of a Friday Night Lights shot. It was a much more location-driven project than most jobs I’ve ever done before,” said Matthew.
The Friday Night Lights truck was the Lone Star, a true Texas truck marketed exclusively in Texas. “That was supposed to be the most ‘Texas’ of all the shots,” explained Matthew.
Matthew says the most interesting location was shooting up and down Dallas’s new LBJ freeway with a half-mile rolling lock-up, that is, a police escort that opens up a half mile gap in the traffic. “Our camera vehicle had a platform mounted six feet off the road that I had to lay down on; it was pretty crazy when we were in traffic.”
Other shots include the Rebel, shot with ATVs out of Big Bend, and the more upscale Laramie shot pulling a massive horse trailer. There was also the Ram 1500 against the Stella building, which is actually the Ballroom building but the team couldn’t get the licensing to use the original signage. “I was doing some retouching and it needed some kind of a name, so as a placeholder I named it Stella after my Airstream—and the agency really liked it.”
Coincidentally, Matthew had spent a month and a half in Texas last fall, living in his Airstream and inadvertently scouting nearly all of the locations they ultimately chose to shoot. “The Airstream picture that’s part of the campaign, that’s the spot where I stayed. It was kind of fun to do a shoot in another state but to still know the locations so well,” Matthew recalled.
It wasn’t his trailer and truck pictured in the shoot, although it could have been—Matthew has almost an identical setup.
Matthew said his producer Steven Currie did a fantastic job of keeping everything running smoothly and the schedule as simple as possible, but it was still a lot of driving every day. “Texas is just such a big state.”
Matthew collaborated on the project with Creative Directors Jimmy Bonner and Rob Baker, and Art Directors Natalia Fredericks and Parker Bell of The Richards Group.
A big thank you to Jimmy, Rob, Natalia, Parker and Julie for the amazing project, it was tailor made for Matthew.