John Deere : Gator – Storyboards – Max Forward

You’re a manly man, and you need a manly ATV to help with all your manly tasks. John Deere’s Gator is for you.

I worked on this project late in 2013 as I was moving into my house- I remember that time vividly as it was extremely cold in my ~~workshed~~ studio and I didn’t even have internet access hooked up yet, so I was completely focused on the work at hand.

This project was 3 spots, :30 each. That’s a lot of work. But when projects are grouped together like this, I tend to work at greater efficiency, and get more frames done per day than I normally might if say, I was working on three unrelated spots.

What else… I found the ATV’s very forgiving to draw, on account of their boxy-wireframeish design- not like say, a corvette, which has complex curves and an iconic silhouette. And drawing landscape/wilderness backgrounds are pretty forgiving as well, since you don’t have to worry about perspective as much, and the locations can be much more vague. You can see how I simplify my forests in the background using broad strokes, and even instill a sense of speed into the shot, using strokes that not only describe the product but also its kinetics.

This client (the director) always does a great job of writing detailed shot lists and describing the camera angles and compositions, and even specifies the focal lengths, which I strive to achieve in my storyboards, and the result is a very cinematic feel that most commercial boards wouldn’t quite have. I really appreciate it when the directors I work with are passionate about the shots and the visual storytelling, and recognize the storyboarding process as an important step in realizing their vision. The more precise they can describe what they need, the better the boards will be.

Below, you’ll find the storyboard frames alternating with the final commercial videos, for all 3 spots. Enjoy!

“RANCH”: