Toyota GR86

The brief

In 2024 I shot track work for Toyota's GR86. Two cars were in front of the lens: the number 86 GR Cup race car, in GR Cup livery, and a white street GR86.

My role

I was the director of photography on the Toyota GR86 track work.

How we shot it

The coverage was built around a few specific moves: rolling tracking shots, low rear angles into the sun, and drone passes along the curbing. Vehicle work is a logistics problem before it is a picture problem, with chase positions, drone windows, and light that lasts twenty minutes. I plan rolling, chase, and drone coverage around one lap and one pass.

The frames on the page show how that came out. There is a rear three-quarter of the number 86 car on the racetrack, a headlight close-up on the white GR86, an overhead drone view of the GR Cup car rounding a curb, the GR Cup car pulling away down the track with the paddock building behind, and the white street GR86 rolling toward camera under an overcast sky.

Vehicle days add drone coverage to the plan, and on this job that meant the drone passes along the curbing. I brought my own camera package.

I put low angles on the tires and long lenses on the straight. Paint and metal read best when the sun is low, so a low rear angle into the sun is a way of working with the light the day gives you.

Where it sits

Toyota is one of the clients on my automotive page, next to Kubota, Chevrolet, Living Vehicle, and Gatik. This job is a clean example of one vehicle subject on one piece of track, planned around a lap and a pass.