The brief

The project was a four-episode branded short-film series for the 2026 Toyota bZ. The story brought together romance, suspense, and action, with one clear priority: the car had to remain the hero.

My role

I directed the campaign and led the development of the treatment and screenplay, working through production planning and post-production. InterTrend was the agency, and iTalkBB brought me onto the project through a friend at NuVision.

The client’s brief arrived as a structured scene outline. My job was to understand the intention behind it and turn it into a screenplay the crew could execute. That meant thinking about how the story would play onscreen, what each scene needed, and how we could deliver it with the resources available.

Creative approach

For this kind of project, the story needs to be simple enough to follow and effective enough to make you care. The Toyota bZ was central to that thinking. I approached the scenes with the car’s role in mind, while keeping the performances and action connected to the story.

The action also had to work within Toyota’s family-friendly image and our production budget. We had three antagonists and a limited fire element to create a sense of danger. How much tension could we build with those ingredients?

I used Dutch angles, camera movement, blocking, and precisely timed cuts to shape that tension. The directing work was in how we staged and revealed the threat, and when we moved from one shot to the next.

Making the driving scenes work

Indoor virtual-production driving scenes were part of the plan from the beginning. I developed the shots with our DP, who brought the lighting and coverage to life.

We used rigs that allowed the actors to turn the steering wheel during their performances, and filmed driving footage for projection onto the virtual screen. Shot design, the actors’ movements, and the projected footage all had to work together to make the car appear to be moving.

The production also included a third overnight shoot on a backlot with a rain rig, fulfilling the client’s requirement for rain.

Finishing the campaign

During post-production, the agency requested greater logo visibility. We found a better shot to address the note, giving us a visual solution for the requested brand exposure.

The finished campaign comprised four episodes, alongside promotional pieces and social cutdowns. Across the project, my responsibility was to connect the client’s intentions to practical creative decisions, then carry those decisions through to the finished work.

Big shout out to our producer Vincent Wang and DP Tannie Tang, this project wouldn’t have come to life without their sacrifice and extraordinary dedication and hard work.

Brand: Toyota
Agency: InterTrend
Production partner: iTalkBB, NuVision & Bad Kids Production
Director: Jun Kuang

For production inquiries: [email protected]