{"id":4349,"date":"2013-11-15T11:12:15","date_gmt":"2013-11-15T19:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/?p=4349"},"modified":"2016-05-16T19:01:26","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T02:01:26","slug":"anatomy-of-a-jean-claude-van-damme-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/anatomy-of-a-jean-claude-van-damme-split\/","title":{"rendered":"Anatomy of a Jean-Claude Van Damme Split"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Volvo Trucks - The Epic Split feat. Van Damme (Live Test)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M7FIvfx5J10?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4351\" style=\"width: 330px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volvo-trucks-camera-prep.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4351\" src=\"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volvo-trucks-camera-prep-320x213.jpg\" alt=\"Camera prep for the spot. Photo via Volvo Trucks.\" width=\"320\" height=\"213\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4351\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volvo-trucks-camera-prep-320x213.jpg 320w, https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volvo-trucks-camera-prep-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volvo-trucks-camera-prep.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4351\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Camera prep for the spot. Photo via Volvo Trucks.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;The Epic Split&#8221; is one of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/VolvoTrucks\/videos\">several stunt-based ads<\/a> from Volvo Trucks, the first of which to include Jean-Claude Van Damme. Aside from this classic stunt <a href=\"http:\/\/www.grantland.com\/blog\/hollywood-prospectus\/post\/_\/id\/84679\/crotchsport-the-15-greatest-splits-of-jean-claude-van-damme\">for which he is known<\/a>, Van Damme, 53, is there to plug the vehicle&#8217;s highly precise steering feature, presumably when driving both forwards or backwards.<\/p>\n<p>How did they do it? Shot in one take after three days of prep, this spot was shot in a 15 minute span of morning daylight at Ciudad Real, a vacant airfield in Spain.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Client: Volvo Trucks<br \/>\nAgency: Forsman Bodenfors<br \/>\nProduction Company: Folke Film, Stockholm<br \/>\nProducer: Joi Persson<br \/>\nStunt Coordinator: Peter Pedrero<br \/>\nProduction Service Company: Story We Produce, Barcelona<br \/>\nProducers: Ana Laura Solis and Marc Bedia<br \/>\nDirector: Andreas Nilsson<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I was curious if they <em>shot<\/em> it backwards for the sake of ease. Despite the marketing material touting these trucks drove backwards, some comments on YouTube wondered about the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a copy of playback in reverse intentionally without audio:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jean-Claude Van Damme&#039;s Volvo Trucks Commercial Played in Reverse\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qXVTwMckHBo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/van-damme-volvo.jpg\" alt=\"van-damme-volvo\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-4362\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Today, one day after the online release in what appears to be an exclusive for them (versus bland repeats of the press release), the <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/speakeasy\/2013\/11\/15\/how-volvo-created-the-jean-claude-van-damme-video\/\">Wall Street Journal<\/a> cleared this up, quoting Anders Vilhelmsson, public relations manager for the Volvo Trucks brand. &#8220;The stunt is real and is performed in just one take. &#8230; It&#8217;s a daring stunt but we had full control. There was never any real danger involved.&#8221; It goes on to say that the actor, known also as the &#8220;Muscles from Brussels,&#8221; is actually not on the side mirrors but a small platform, plus a safety line to ensure he wouldn&#8217;t be hurt.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The trucks go backward in the video because &#8220;we all know that going in reverse is a bit more difficult than going forward,&#8221; Vilhelmsson said. &#8220;We felt that would be the ultimate test, to have the trucks go in reverse with someone standing on the side mirrors performing a side split. And we knew that if anyone would be able to do that, it would have to be Jean-Claude Van Damme.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Even with those precautions, well done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The Epic Split&#8221; is one of several stunt-based ads from Volvo Trucks, the first of which to include Jean-Claude Van Damme. Aside from this classic stunt for which he is known, Van Damme, 53, is there to plug the vehicle&#8217;s highly precise steering feature, presumably when driving both forwards or backwards. How did they do [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6089,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349\/revisions\/6089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}