- crew@bajaxlfilm.com
- somewhere in CA
The F-150 Tremor package offers a rugged foundation with enhanced suspension and traction for tackling tough desert terrain. It’s a durable build as a starting point… As for a custom BajaXL rig, well there are a few upgrades we needed for the expedition and the film. In the end, it worked out… and the story was real.
To make the F-150 Tremor ready for the grueling BajaXL Rally and Challenge, we put in weeks of work rigging the truck and reinforcing the truck’s suspension, ensuring it could handle the brutal desert terrain and off-road obstacles that lay ahead.
The vehicle, team number eleven in the event, was outfitted to endure the toughest stretches of backcountry. It was more than just our rally truck; it was our lifeline and home in the heart of baja – and our rolling production center.
The truck, which we affectionately named “Sandy Dufrane,” as a nod to Shawshank Redemption—an iconic film that resonates deeply with us both. As a geologist, Derek saw the parallels between the journey of Andy Dufresne and his own pursuit of discovery, while Ryan, felt that the struggle to reach freedom as Andy crawled through the tunnels of Shawshank to find cleansing in the river, was echoed in the challenges he faced in the fire service.
Like Andy, we set off on our own adventure to find freedom and a sense of renewal in the deserts of Mexico. The name “Sandy Dufrane” is a tribute to the grit and resilience it would take to survive the journey—a metaphor for our own aspirations to break free from the ordinary and chase something greater, and a nod to the idea…
“Get busy living. Or get busy dying.”
You will have to watch the film to understand how this philosophy became foundational to our experience and how things played out as we made our way through Baja.
We are designed a bed rail and mounting system to secure storage boxes, tools, and other equipment for Baja. We fabricated our own solution to maximize space between our donation material, our provisions and tools, and our camera gear. It was a great idea. To see the build and how it held up in Baja – check out the film.
Lost prep time compromised some of our planning. As a result the “brilliant” ideas we had during prep and planning did not all come to fruition… inadvertently this was a gift… the film became more organic and immersive. The prep we were able to complete is briefly described below:
Check out the film (coming soon to festivals near you) to see our “control panel” and got everything mounted. In the end it worked out beyond expectation!
Controlling multiple pre-mounted cameras on a moving vehicle during the Baja XL Rally presented significant challenges. From an in-cab control panel, our crew managed a complex array of hardware designed to capture unpredictable events in a dynamic environment. The vibrations, dust, and rough terrain of the rally demanded ruggedized equipment and precise stabilization systems to ensure clear footage. We didn’t always get that… which gave the film an authenticity we could never have engineered.
Additionally, the real-time switching between cameras required intuitive interfaces and reliable connectivity, all while the vehicle is in motion at high speed in brutal terrain… we may have over-estimated our ability to manage all of these dynamics. But the result was incredible!
Balancing power consumption, thermal management, and seamless operation in this high-stakes scenario required skillful execution and as each day passed, we learned more… this is not like any film you have seen before.
We abandoned industry standards and cinematic technique to create our own, organic, in-the-moment style of shooting that brings you far deeper into the grains of the earth and film than we ever imagined!
Special thanks to Bulletpoint Mounting Solutions.
Their unique solutions helped us build a control system to manage a multi-camera shoot, on the move, during an overland rally, while also maintaining our nav systems and comms. Not easy tasks.
Coming soon… build videos showing behind the scenes of how we decked out our control center, bed reck, and fabricated a custom rail system.
