Truck commercial filmed in several Hamilton locations

A commercial for a Roush F150 pickup truck recently was filmed in Hamilton, showing the vehicle running in several circles on the High-Main bridge.

The 650-horsepower Roush Nitemare version, which features a supercharger, can go from zero to 6o mph in 3.9 seconds and is “the quickest production truck ever,” the company boasts in advertisements.

The ad’s narrator tells viewers, “Legend has it, a creature stalks these streets — a beast forged in fire, of engineering, and madness…. When it attacks, it unleashes an unearthly sound.”

Later, the truck is shown doing several rubber-burning donuts on the bridge, including a shot with Hamilton’s symbol, the Soldiers, Sailors and Pioneers monument, in the background.

Steve Colwell, of TV Hamilton and Film Hamilton, worked with the commercial’s creators to make it happen. He said the filmmakers, from Nashville-based Wolffhaus Studios, were impressed with how easy it was to work with Hamilton staff, particularly Aaron Hufford of the city manager’s office, and police.

“They came into Hamilton about a month ago and shot it,” Colwell said. “One of their cinematographers is from the area and he recommended Hamilton.”

That was Anthony J. Rickert-Epstein of Fairfield, who received his bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Miami University, with a minor in film studies. He returns to Miami to teach and mentor students and created the Miami Association of Filmmakers and Independent Actors, known as MAFIA.

Rickert-Epstein, the commercial’s director of photography, said he worked on the Mickey Rourke film “Tiger” in Hamilton and saw then how easy the city was to work with, one reason he suggested Hamilton to his fellow co-owner of Wolffhaus studios.

It helped that Hamilton is about midway between Nashville and Detroit, where the Roush truck came from. Jack Roush Jr., of NASCAR team-ownership fame, performs in the commercial as a mad scientist working on the vehicle.

The commercial can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53zOgxQjWQk&feature=share&app=desktop.

“We put them in touch with the city, and literally overnight, everything was locked into place,” Colwell said. “It just shows how film-friendly Hamilton is. They weren’t asking for a lot, except for the big burnout on the bridge.”

The commercial was shot between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., and the bridge and other locations, including North B Street near the former Champion Paper mill and downtown areas, only had to be shot for a few minutes at a time.

The commercial has been nominated for an International Motor Film Award.

“I guess they work in Detroit a lot, and said it can be difficult with some of these municipalities, with police, and traffic control,” Hufford said. “They said our crews were just great to work with.”

Sometimes, communities demand more police coverage be paid for than producers feel is needed. One bonus the filmmakers received was advice from police on good, industrial-looking areas to film, Colwell said.

Hufford said the producers paid full costs of the police who worked, as they would in other communities.

Tyler Wolff, the other co-owner of Wolffhaus Studios and the commercial’s director, said the crew intentionally included Hamilton’s monument in the background because “we wanted to do that for the town to get some recognition.”

He liked the city for the commercial because “it just had that old-school, Americana feel,” Wolff said.

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