Stockland Martel

What do you do when you need to photograph a Porsche in the snow, but your location is sunny L.A.? This past February, Cramer-Krasselt commissioned John Offenbach to shoot a 6-ad print campaign for the German automaker featuring the glossy car in various setting, including a snow-blanketed neighborhood. Here, John fills us in on how he got the shot.

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Who says it never snows in L.A.? Photo by John Offenbach for Cramer-Krasselt and Porsche USA.

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Agency: Cramer-Kasselt. Art director: Luke Partridge. Production: Michael McClellan.

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We had to shoot five ads that required sunny L.A. locations and one in the snow. It turned out to be too costly to send cars and crew to the snow, so we went the Hollywood route and created our own on a Universal Studios backlot.  

Creating snow may have seemed extravagant, but put into context, relocating to a snowy location for the one shot would have been too problematic and too expensive, with vehicle prep and transportation, cast, production, lighting, and grip, styling, props, overnight stays for the whole unit, etc. Plus, it was very hot, and nearby snow locations were proving hard to find.

Of course, we shot on what seemed to be the hottest day of the year, and the snow we put down was real ice, ground down. We had to race against it melting. The whole thing was surreal—besides the snow, we had the Spider-Man set on one side of us and Desperate Housewives’ Wisteria Lane to the other! —John Offenbach

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Click here to watch a behind-the-scenes video of John and his crew creating the shot above. Below, three of the other images John shot for the campaign:

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Photo by John Offenbach for Cramer-Krasselt and Porsche.

Photo by John Offenbach for Cramer-Krasselt and Porsche.

Photo by John Offenbach for Cramer-Krasselt and Porsche.

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