Forge was designed to mark the debut of the $2.9M Zenvo Aurora hypercar’s running and driving prototype at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. As director, my goal was to shape a film that would not only honor the Aurora as an engineering achievement but also continue to redefine Zenvo’s cinematic identity. I wanted to build something that carried the emotional weight of a hero brand narrative while delivering the authenticity and intimacy the brand deserves.
The film was produced in parallel with two companion documentaries — one exploring the Aurora as a true “blank sheet” hypercar, the other focused on the creation of the most powerful production V12 engine ever built. Balancing three films at once meant keeping a single creative vision that could flex between high-concept visual storytelling and candid, observational moments, all while serving Zenvo’s brand narrative.
From the start, I envisioned the Aurora’s arrival as inevitable — a moment where the world seemed to respond to the car. We revealed it in controlled fragments: a flare of light across carbon weave, a pulse of taillights in the dark, molten metal forming around sculpted bodywork. To achieve this, I based production at Nordisk Film’s 360° volume wall in Copenhagen. This space let us design entire environments — from a Scandinavian void to a sunrise-to-desert night — and flow between them seamlessly. Using the TechnoDolly and Alexa 35, we executed repeatable camera moves to merge practical footage, CGI, and location plates into one continuous cinematic language.
Because the prototype was still in final build, I directed a hybrid approach that paired CG assembly shots with tactile, in-camera elements. We flew aerials over Norway’s fjords for sweeping plates, then brought those into the volume wall for controlled lighting and composition.
The V12 engine was filmed on a robotic 3D arm, capturing deliberate, macro sweeps that revealed it as both mechanical masterpiece and sculpture.
Forge continues the visual storytelling I began with Zenvo in Thrill of the Hunt, bringing back Jens Sverdrup as the Architect and introducing Vara, the Gatekeeper — a Norse mythological character who determines who can cross into the real world. Filming across Denmark, Norway, and the UK, I worked closely with the crew to coordinate brand film and documentaries on the same schedule, ensuring consistency in tone, color, and emotional arc across all deliverables.
The result was a multi-format launch that bridged myth and reality. Forge became the cinematic and emotional centerpiece, while the documentaries deepened the story with design-led aspiration and engineering insight. For me, it was the kind of project I’m most passionate about: high-stakes creative work that asks for both scale and precision, blending narrative world-building with technical execution — and delivering a story that lives beyond the moment of its release.
I love projects that let me build worlds around humans and incredible innovation — not just show them, but make them feel alive. Forge was a chance to push that idea further, balancing a high-concept brand film and supplementing with honest, documentary-style storytelling. The challenge was in making it all feel seamless, so the audience experiences one coherent vision no matter which film they’re watching. That’s the kind of work I want to keep doing: stories with ambition, emotional depth, and the craft to match.
- Jeremy