Olly Williams & National Express Have Soul

Rob [Fletcher] and Dave [Alexander] at Isobel  came up with this cracking idea. What was not to like? David Soul driving a National Express coach, singing his number one hit single Silver Lady, and shot in the golden sun-drenched style of a California road trip - all well and good but it’s April in the UK.

It was very important that we got the balance right with the surreal humour and tone, I shouldn't have worried; David never had to try too hard, he always came across as cool. TV Producer Denise [Robinson] at Isobel had David wrapped around her little finger, I knew that we had a great team here.

We were sat talking through the boards with David before the shoot - he had pretty strong opinions on how he wanted to come across. I got to the bit where i wanted him to salute a bald eagle that flies alongside the coach like his magical spirit guide and he just looked at me - stony faced for a minute.

The tension was horrible, then he broke into this fantastic story about when he was a kid growing up in the badlands of South Dakota, he had to go out into the desert for three days and three nights with no food on his own before he saw the eagle. It was his Sioux “Vision Quest” and it was the point where he knew he’d become a man! 

The first shot with David was at Heathrow Terminal 3 Departures at 7am. The place was packed - we had no ability to lock off areas, and David had to be sat on his own on a bench in the middle with the crew hidden behind a kiosk. We had no music playback except for an earpiece for David playing at 33fps so when we started filming he would have looked like this guy on his own suddenly bursting into song - singing at 33% faster than normal, with no visible accompaniment. It was a pretty hard task for the first shot, but he nailed it.

We had Sam Goldie [DP] who managed to take a grey day in Bedford and work an amazing summery look. The coach was way too heavy for a low loader so we used a standard tow truck. 

A lot of these driving shots allowed a much more guerrilla style of shooting, so we were spoilt for choice in the edit, Leo King at Stitch put it all together in a way

 that fitted the vibe perfectly. Absolute Post gave it the final visual sparkle in the grade and online. There are so many shots I love in this ad, but the dissolve cuts of the building reflections in Davids Aviators has to be one of my favourites.

Olly Williams is now repped by Another Film Company.