E-175 IN ASPEN
FLIGHT TEST CAMPAIGN
Embraer Commercial Aviation 2024 - Video Campaign.
Creative Direction · Documentary Storytelling · Interview Direction · Film Direction · Editorial Direction · International Stakeholder Management
Credits:
Creative Direction & Editorial Direction — Leandro Dourado & André Machado
Interview Direction — Leandro Dourado
Production & Cinematography — Motion Adrenaline
Editing — Motion Adrenaline
Marketing / Production Coordination — Embraer Commercial Aviation
Flight Test Team — Embraer
CONTEXT/BREFING
A conversation with a salesperson revealed the importance of an upcoming flight test campaign for the E-175. The test would demonstrate the aircraft's ability to operate under the high-altitude and extremely cold conditions required for operations in Aspen, one of the most challenging airports for commercial aircraft.
A successful test campaign would support the aircraft's certification for these conditions, opening new opportunities for the E-175 and helping enable conversations with customers for whom Aspen operations were particularly relevant.
What initially looked like a highly technical test became an opportunity to tell a story about challenge, precision and pushing the aircraft beyond its limits.
APPROACH
Unlike a traditional campaign film, the story was not fully defined before production.
The first stage was about discovering the story.
Together with the marketing team, we developed the interview approach and questions to uncover the context behind the test: Why was it necessary? What was at stake? What could go wrong? What would success mean? And what made the conditions so challenging?
Instead of scripting predetermined answers, the interviews were designed to give us the material we needed to understand the story as it unfolded.
Once the interviews and test results gave us a clearer picture, I felt that the editorial direction of the film around a more heroic and cinematic tone, in order to turn a highly technical aviation procedure into an accessible and engaging story.
PRODUCTION OBSTACLE
The mission took place in Gunnison, Colorado, over approximately one week. I travelled to lead the creative direction on location, working together with multiple teams involved in the flight test, Embraer's US film supplier (Motion Adrenaline), pilots, flight and operational engineers.
Because the flight test was the primary operational objective, the marketing production had to work around the technical schedule.
On the first day, the official test flights progressed faster than anticipated, creating a situation where the core testing activities could potentially be completed before our production had fully started. At the same time, our equipment and production resources were still being mobilized.
The conditions themselves added another challenge. Working outdoors in extremely cold temperatures, with early starts and a constantly changing operational environment, required the production plan to remain flexible throughout the mission.
I had to quickly realign expectations with the different teams and find ways to create additional opportunities to capture the testing process without interfering with the operational requirements of the mission.
The key skills for this mission was definitely: communication and adaptation. The ability to negotiate and adjust across teams with very different priorities, to make sure the investment, time, people are not wasted and the mission, accomplished. Which it was.
STORYTELLING CHALLENGE
Besides all the production constraints, one of the challenges was translating a highly technical subject into a story that could engage an audience beyond aviation specialists.
I conducted the interviews and developed questions designed to make the participants explain the test naturally rather than simply repeat technical information.
Many of the people involved were engineers, pilots and specialists who were not used to being in front of a camera. The interviews therefore became an important part of the creative process: finding the right questions and creating enough space for genuine, human answers to emerge.
Their stories ultimately became the narrative backbone.
It was a success, we had our story.
EDITING
The final edit was developed collaboratively with Motion Adrenaline.
Based on the interviews, test footage and the story that emerged from the campaign, I felt and directed the editorial approach toward a heroic, cinematic and high-stakes narrative.
The intention was to make the audience feel the challenge of the environment and the importance of the test, how hard and specific it was, while keeping the technical information understandable and connected to a larger story.
I worked closely with the editing team throughout post-production, shaping the structure, pacing, tone, music and overall storytelling until the final film reflected that heroic vision.
OUTCOME
The project required coordination across technical, commercial, marketing and production stakeholders, each with different priorities and responsibilities.
My role was to act as the bridge between the creative objective and the operational reality of the flight test: communicating what we needed, understanding what the operation required, and negotiating solutions that worked for both sides.
This became particularly important when production opportunities changed unexpectedly. By maintaining a collaborative approach and building alignment with the teams on site, we were able to secure the access and footage needed to tell the story needed without compromising the test itself.
The film repercussion tell us it was a success case:
2,1 mi views
1,8 k likes
51,6 mi views
60,9 k likes
The full campaign film surpassed
2 million views on YouTube, becoming one of Embraer’s most-viewed aviation films on the platform. The documentary-style + hero storytelling approach helped turn a technical flight-test story into engaging content for a global and aviation audience.
The campaign’s Instagram teaser surpassed 51 million views, generating significant reach and driving attention to the full film on YouTube. The result made it the most-viewed piece in Embraer's social media and one of the top in aviation brand content on Instagram.