We once again teamed up with director Nico Kreis in a new campaign to launch GMC's all-new Yukon by FP7 McCann.

This spot was all about harnessing the power of light to tell a story with beauty, soul, and poetry, and the desert and city landscape of Dubai at night served as a stunning starting point for visual effects.

One key aspect of our brief was to create a light effect coming from the night sky that would write verses from an Arabic poem. The CG calligraphy would act as a guide throughout the film, weaving through almost every shot.

“Of course light effects don't just exist by themselves, but they light up the environment and show in reflections,” says VFX supervisor Sil Bulterman. “To help create the effect on set, we had a light drone follow the car to create contact-lighting on the environment. We later replaced the drone in post with the light streaks and calligraphy.”

Before the shoot, the Ambassadors team pre-produced a library of light effects, which were later projected on a large LED wall on a soundstage to give us realistic animated reflections on the car and talents. We also filmed driving background plates and projected them on the LED wall, which helped create most interior shots of the car in camera.