BMW BLOG

Days ago, a BMW M3 film made waves all around the internet, gathering 400,000 views only on Youtube itself. “BMW Living in the Lights” was produced by Bandito’s Garage, a media company based in California.

Some of you that watched the film had additional questions – equipment, camera used, surroundings – and we decided to reach out to “Mouse” McCoy and his team for a quick look behind the scene. Sumer Friedrichs, producer on the “BMW M3 Living in the Lights” walks us through the production process.

“Mouse (Mike) McCoy, CEO and Director at Bandito, drives a BMW M3. He loves driving the car and the idea of “Living in the Lights” comes from the boost that the car gets with a push of a button. When you have hit that certain RMP, the inner dashboard lights up – such a rush.

Starting with that, he came up with this concept, along with the love of new technology. The execution of the job was all done “in camera” using a mix between the Cannon 50D and the Nikon D3. We went out on a weekend to Long Beach, California, and LAX airport. We pulled permits for LAX and Long Beach, aka Terminal Island. We did play it safe and followed process.

Our team pushed the envelope to a new approach in filming. The images are all print/billboard/theater ready, the resolution is like no other.

We rigged the still camera to a pursuit arm camera car for the drifting scenes, the rest are pretty much rig shots on the M3. The car is so pretty in itself, it just took a little street lighting to show off its sexy side.
In a nutshell, the whole things was done out of Mouse’s passion for his M3 as well as the extreme passion he has for filming and creating media….whichever medium is shall be.

All of us at the Garage are tied to the automotive/racing industry in more than one way. Between Mouse’s successful racing career, Greg Tracy’s racing and stunt acknowledgments, Vic Huber’s automotive print photography, my history as a producer for CART series and INDY Lights, as well as being a producer in Detroit – Motor City. We formed The Garage to offer up a scale of solutions to any automotive outlet. From video, print, theatrical, social media, content and brand integration to which we parcel out our experiences and resources that best fits the task at hand.

We all loved the BMW film series, we would love to see a comeback. It was an inspiration, a familiar channel for Mouse to express his love for the car. We would love to do more BMW-related content. We are talking about it.”

There it is, we hope some of your questions have been answered and we are already looking forward to the next episode.