How Mischief and Dylan Maranda Brought a New Perspective to the Devastation of Wildfires

For anyone who has spent time in the Pacific Northwest during the year’s warmer months, wildfires will need no introduction. Yet tragically, as the climate crisis reached unsettling new heights this summer, parts of the world previously unfamiliar with forest blazes are beginning to discover their brutal impact. 

It was precisely that kind of unforgettable, first-hand experience that inspired Sequoia Content’s Dylan Maranda to jump behind a camera as part of a team tasked with bringing an extraordinary film from Coors Banquet to life. 

In order to promote the brand’s initiative offering support to firefighters across the pacific northwest region, Dylan (along with the creative agency Mischief) was tasked with shining a spotlight on the work of firefighters. To achieve that, the team cast real-life firefighters and leaned on their expertise to create a piece of film which lends a visceral, human quality to a story that is so often told through far-away images. 

The resulting piece of film is sure to leave a lasting impression, telling the story of wildfires through the eyes of those who know them best. To find out how the project came together, LBB’s Adam Bennett spoke to Dylan… 

Above: The director's cut of the ad maintains a consistent focus on the firefighters’ perspectives for the full 90 seconds. 

LBB> Hi, Dylan - what was your initial vision heading into the project, and how closely does it align with the finished film?

Dylan> Initially the script was brought to me by Mischief and their head of production, Will Dempster. We’ve already worked together on a few things, including a PSA for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, and as a result we have a close relationship and find it super easy to work together.

In this case, I was pumped from the moment I saw the boards. Being from BC, wildfires have unfortunately always been a part of my life - so the idea at the heart of the project was something that rang true straight away. 

On top of that, there was also a unique filmmaking challenge packaged up in this spot which appealed to me. It became clear from a very early stage that we didn’t have the budget to shoot real fire - let alone deal with the numerous safety concerns resulting from that - and so we had two options. We could have sent myself and the DP out into a real fire for two weeks and filmed it doc-style to see what we could get. Or, my approach was that we should cast real firefighters, involve them in the process, and make the film about them rather than the fire itself. 

As someone who’s known firefighters, I know what a thankless job it can be - so I was motivated to make this film about them and keep that as our north star throughout the project. 

LBB> It’s obviously an emotive topic - not just in the pacific northwest but increasingly in other parts of the world which are now being affected by similar issues. To what extent was your approach to this ad coloured by your personal experience? 

Dylan> It certainly was - probably in ways that I’m not even conscious of. Smoke from wildfires is something that is always looming over people here in BC during the summer months. I got sick when I was 18 with a lung problem, which still flares up now when it’s aggravated by the smoke. And a really good family friend of ours was a water bomber pilot, who was involved in some serious life-or-death scenarios. 

It was so interesting to get into the mind of people who are out here, physically fighting the fires. That ultimately drove the decision to cast real firefighters, which became a cornerstone of the creative vision. My feeling is that call totally paid off, because there’s a sense of authenticity that we couldn’t have achieved without bringing them into the heart of the process. 

LBB> So how did you deal with that desire for authenticity when it came to the locations?

Dylan> It’s funny, the eventual decision on the location was also informed by that casting choice. The script was originally written as a VO, but one of the things I was really adamant about from the start was being able to see the person who’s saying this stuff on-screen. I thought it was important to make that connection with the firefighter who was talking. 

That - combined with limited shooting days and the fact we’d never get permission to film in a government park - eventually led us to shoot in Coquitlam (a city to the East of Vancouver), around the same area as they filmed Planet of the Apes, as it happened. Through sheer luck, we found a wooded area with a portable workstation which was super typical of those used by real firefighters. Full credit to ​​Spencer Foley, our amazing producer, for finding that gem. The only issue was that it wasn’t super accessible - we had to absolutely huck up this gnarly uphill ‘road’, and trucks couldn’t access it so we had to haul the equipment manually. But it was worth it - the location was absolutely spot-on. It was perfect. 

LBB> You said something which caught my eye when you previously spoke to LBB - “creativity is becoming synonymous with cutting through the noise”. What did you mean by that, and how do you hope this ad will cut through the noise? 

Dylan> I think a paraphrase of ‘cutting through the noise’ could be ‘offering something different’. What’s really important to me in anything I make is that it values the viewer’s time and tells a compelling story. I think what’s different in this ad which we haven’t seen before is the way the story is told from a firefighter’s perspective. We are used to seeing the devastation and the awe-inspiring landscape shots which have become the accepted aesthetic of the way forest fires are reported. But putting the camera on the ground, as it were, making it about the firefighters’ human stories is something different. I hope that helps this spot to cut through the noise. 

Another point I’d just like to add about that is the difference between the director’s cut and the agency cut. The agency cut features those awe-inspiring shots which keep me up at night, whereas the restraint we stuck with in the director’s cut was never leaving the perspective of the firefighters. We wanted to tell the story entirely from the perspective of boots on the ground, as it were.

Above: Whereas the director’s cut of the ad maintains a relentless focus on the firefighters’ perspective, the agency cut features multiple perspectives. 

LBB> In that agency cut, there are also a couple of shots where we see a wildfire looming on the horizon - how did you make that work? 

Dylan> At no point did we feel we had the money for visual effects in the shoot - we had all accepted going into the project that we weren’t going to end up seeing any real fire. But when Bryn McCashin and I saw that ridge on the horizon we both knew we had an amazing opportunity for a great shot. I don’t think it was a super-complicated VFX shot, and that’s what we ended up ultimately doing. It was the same thing for the shot with the helicopter coming through the trees - we felt that was a natural add-in when you saw Caitlin looking up through the trees.  

So those were two VFX shots that were added after which were never supposed to be in there. They popped up totally naturally and I’m so happy everyone got on board because the results are fantastic. 

LBB> You’ve mentioned how closely you worked with the firefighters throughout the project - did you learn anything which changed your perspective on wildfires more generally?

Dylan> Oh, so much. As soon as the casting process started, I was learning things. There were a number of occasions on-set where I’d stop to ask them if what we were about to shoot was actually the kind of thing they would do in a real scenario - if it wasn’t, we’d change up our plans. We really strove for that authenticity. 

One thing which I definitely wasn’t aware of before is just how much detail goes into the digging of fire lines, the kind of trenches which attempt to contain the spread of a fire. As well as getting the location right, there’s also a lot that hinges on the consistency of the soil where you dig. There’s a shot where we see one of the firefighters grabbing the dirt and inspecting it - that’s what they would do when looking to check if they’d hit mineral soil. If you’ve done that, then you’ve dug deep enough for the fire line. 

LBB> And do you know if any of the firefighters have seen the ad? 

Dylan> Yeah, I actually just posted on my Instagram about this! I was really keen to reach out to the firefighters after we launched, purely because I wanted to see their reaction. And they loved it! So that is really the only confirmation I need - as long as the firefighters felt it was authentic, I’ve done my job. 

LBB> Is there anything you’d do differently if you could have your time again? 

Dylan> It’s a cop-out answer, but nothing jumps to mind. I think it was a perfect balance of creativity within constraints. So many of the problems we anticipated heading into the project were overcome, and so given our parameters we’ve made the best spot we possibly could. I hope the whole team is as proud as I am because everyone did such an amazing job.

On which note, I have to mention how amazing it was to work with Will Dempster, Coors, Sequoia, Suzanne Allan, Bryn McCashin, Michael Barker, Spencer Foley, and the whole team. I feel lucky to have worked with a group of people who brought so much and, as proud as I was, I was also working to make that team proud, too. 

LBB> Finally, the fact that wildfire season is now over 100 days longer than before is deeply disturbing. As a creative person, does the climate crisis colour your worldview in any way? And how do you maintain a positive attitude when confronted with statistics like that through your work? 

Dylan> I don’t think there’s any doubt that it affects my worldview - it has to. My partner is a curator and she did a master's on environment contemporary art, so we tend to talk about this stuff a lot. I think every person alive right now feels a kind of pressure from the climate emergency on the everyday decisions which underpin their life. 

Existentialism is a theme I’m really interested in - why are we here, what are we doing with our time, and what will we leave behind? Whilst this may sound nihilistic, I’d actually question whether it is truly productive or desirable to have a positive attitude towards the climate crisis. What I mean by that is that allowing yourself to see this terrible stuff can be used as fuel to bring focus to the stories and issues that we need to deal with as a species. 

Bringing this back to the spot for a second, part of the drive for me to want to get involved in this project was because of my experience with wildfires and the fact it is something that makes me worried and upset. I wanted to express those feeling through this film. My hope is that through seeing this kind of stuff, the naturally negative response is what inspires us to consider our role in the bigger picture. 

So, whilst the climate crisis is unquestionably a terrible thing, that sheer existentialism of it has to be something we tap into to connect with our better selves and drive the change that’s needed.