LUKE FRATER
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY - CAMERA OPERATOR VIDEOGRAPHER - EDITOR
DOCUMENTARY - COMMERCIAL - CORPORATE - INTERVIEWS
NZ Police 'He Ain't Heavy 2025'
By Luke Frater
In mid 2024 Frank Productions was tasked with recreating the well known 1990's NZ Police 'He Ain't Heavy' advertisement. I was on board as the Cinematographer, what follows is how we approached recreating the piece.
Firstly, here's a few frames from the original ad.
With 35+ Scenes, 50+ shots to capture over 7 filming days, and with a small crew of 4 (Director, DP, Sound, and an Assist) this shoot became an ultimate balance of filming on locations at the right time of day and making them work with small lighting setup. Often we shot with just 1-2 lights and a silk/bounce.
Wellington Central Police Station - The first setup of the shoot. The original took place in a small office, so by setting the new version in a modern open plan station it immediately felt refreshed. With most of our office shots we found it was best to use the lighting that was there, turning off/disabling any overhead fluorescent panels we could, and adding a colour matched panel and pushing that through a diffusion frame to create a nice soft key light.
This shot called for a quick gimbal shot tracking backwards through a locker area while a couple of officers walked past. Our goal here was to again remove any overheard fluorescent lights and push in some light from the sides… which we achieved by craning some small LED Panels over the lockers, and gelling them to match the existing fluoros. On an amusing note; you’ll also note that there is actually nowhere for the officers to go once they have passed camera… We originally intended to film back into the U-shaped locker area, but looking back towards the office looked far better on camera and gave more depth to the image. Credit Sam Worsp for suggesting this on set.
Wellington South Coast - This was a shot that we originally wanted to film closer to sunset (to match the original and to make lighting easier) but with a packed schedule on the day this one ended up being filmed early afternoon. We had a general idea of where we wanted to film this (the carpark to Princess Bay) but we didn’t lock the final spot until our talent + car had arrived, choosing this angle as it captured the contours of the coast in the background nicely. Thankfully there was only a light breeze so we were able to backlight and use a 8x8 bounce to provide some fill/wrap light for the harsh afternoon sun. A suitably retro 90’s yellow Toyota helped complete the homage.
Ponsonby, Auckland - Our shooting schedule included a day and half filming in Auckland to capture a few required shots; Harbour Bridge drone, the Police Eagle Helicopter, and this beat team in Ponsonby. Again, we knew the general area of where we wanted to film mainly from scouring google maps. A quick walk after lunch found this spot, with the late afternoon sun creating some dappled light through a tree and no obvious or distracting shop signs in the background this was perfect. One of the more simple setups; low tripod, 85mm lens, and a handheld 4x4 bounce off frame left provided a bit of wrap light.
Police Eagle Helicopter, Auckland Harbour - When we first went back and broke down the original ad this was the one shot that had us at Frank going ‘How the heck will we get that?’. In the end the answer was the most obvious one; film out one helicopter with the door open, and have another one do a close fly by and peel away at the right moment. It took four passes of the Eagle to line up the angles, and get the choppers close enough together, and to then get a nice peel away with the city in the background. From here the crew stayed aboard the chopper, we headed out West, and I switched seats to film the pilots shot for the search and rescue scene.
Te Ore Ore Settlement Road, Waiarapa - Our biggest setup of the entire shoot; a crash scene with a car on it’s side, fire and ambulance appliances on set, along with our police offers running in to help. The scene in the 90’s ad was shot at night which suited the day to night chronology of the ad, but it did make the scene very dark. We wanted to be able to see more of the surrounding area, but to do this and shoot at night would have required an LX team which the budget couldn’t quite stretch for. Our compromise was to shoot the entire scene at dusk, while there was still a bit of light and colour in the sky, meaning our only lights would be from car headlights, emergency lights, and the practical fire. The one caveat with this was that we had to nail 4x shots (incl. a lens change), and capture them in roughly the same time of day for continuity.
We arrived on location in the Wairarapa at 2pm to position the vehicles on our traffic managed road. From here we rehearsed the scene multiple times (the main component of our reset time being a practical fire that was provided by the local Fire Service… which added a sense of realism to the car fire). With two runs of the scene filmed as a safety (if req’d) we could gamble to let the sun go down to balance the light more. About 10mins after sunset at 6pm, we ran the scene in our ‘hero light’, again moving from station to station, we also had Sam Worsp on B cam to get any details that may be needed for the edit. For the final shot our of the officer back at their car, we used a 1x1 panel here to simulate car head lights reflecting back in. We grabbed any extra pick up shots we thought we may need, and then called it a wrap just before dark. A huge effort from all involved; FENZ, St John ambulance, a local car wrecker who brought a car along, and of course our police officers/comms team.
We knew nailing this scene was crucial as it provides the action high point of the ad. Seeing our meticulous plan come together to pull it off was exciting for the whole team!
Masterton - This shot is where two officers arrive at a house to inform the occupants of a loved ones death. The actual location was outside Masterton Police Station. We chose this spot as it gave us some flexibility to be well off the street, it also had a good spacing of streetlights. Originally the house in the background was dark, but after a quick visit from the police comms team they were happy to turn on their interior lights, which boosted the background. The last piece of lighting was a 1x1 RGB panel on a tall stand…. We originally had this orange to match the street lamps, but having it blue (as a sort of faux moon) looked better.
Search and Rescue Team - Kaitoke Regional Park - When you don’t have time to scout a location, sometimes you just come back to the locations you know (thanks Dean Zillwood for the original find). Having shot a few projects here over the years, I knew Kaitoke would provide a number of different looks depending on where the sun happened to be when we arrived early morning. The local SAR team arrived, and we found a spot along the river, with some nice backlight coming through the trees, put the 85mm lens on, and again a 4x4 ultra bounce helped with some fill light.
Pub Scene / Brawl, Chapman Taylor Cafe & Inn - We managed to have the top floor to ourselves to set up the pub scene. We had 2hr window for setup and to capture our 2x shots; a general happy pub vibe, followed by a scuffle broken up by two police officers. Again, trying to keep it simple we had 2x Diffused LED Panels (colour matched to the practical bulbs) pushing through a loosely hung 8x8. For the scuffle being broken up we cheated with continuity a bit and removed the bar leaner… mainly due to space, and with these two shots not following each other we gambled that people wouldn’t notice.
If you made it this far, thanks for following along! I always enjoy reading these types of posts, so I figured it best to pay it forward somehow :)
I'll close this out with some final comparison frames from the original ad and our updated 2025 versions.
Big shout out to the whole crew and Frank Productions team who brought this project together!
'He Ain't Heavy 2025 - NZ POLICE
Client: Frank Productions / NZ Police
DoP: Luke Frater