Peloton Sweeping in the Movies
Over the last 30+ years, I have been asked to take street sweepers to dozens of Hollywood movie shoots. More accurately, sometimes it was for TV shows, commercials, photo shoots or YouTube productions.
I used to own some sweepers that could be made to look out of the 1950’s with cosmetic alterations. In one TV show, I was operating a 1969 sweeper in scene projecting the 1950’s. I tried to tell the director it was too far of a stretch. He assured me there were only a handful of people in the world that would know the difference and they would probably get a kick out of it. Whatever look the director was going for it is everyone’s job to help him/her get it just right.
Being part of a production is fun in a lot of ways. The first thing you notice is how professional and genuinely nice everyone is. They have a big job to do with thousands of details that have to come together for even the simplest shot. If you are not professional and good to work with, you just don’t get invited back.
The second thing you notice is how good the food is. It’s that good. The food truck type caterers specialize in this kind of work and the food rivals some top restaurants.
One thing that has changed is in the past we could take pictures of the cool happenin
gs to share with friends and back at the office. Now the last thing they want is a spoiler going out on social media before the launch.
The most recent project (in theory) was for Marvel Studios Ant-Man and the Wasp including the Hyundai Veloster SUV.
There are two versions each about 30 seconds long:
In preparation for this shoot, a three-person crew spent the better part of a day getting the sweeper ready. First, they took off all the decals and added what looked like a half door. Anything that included a logo had to be covered or masked, including the stitching on the seats.
When operating street sweepers we work hard to do our jobs without creating any dust. However, the commercial is about ant-sized cars trying to escape the fast approaching dust storm. To create that effect meant turning off all the dust control and took dozens of takes to get enough dust.
Though you can’t see him, the person operating the sweeper was well-known actor Bob Stephenson.
Not only was Bob an exceptionally nice person to work with, he learned all the sweeper controls in record time. It was obviously not Bob’s first time learning new equipment. We joked that if this acting gig doesn’t work out, he should give me a call.
Since we had to agree to let the crew remove all the sweeper manufactures decals, what a perfect time to get a new wrap!
Bonus: On the Amazon Prime Video show Electric Dreams, Season 1, Episode 4, It is the same model Johnston C201 sweeper, it's just not one of ours.
