Why Hollywood’s top car ad director bolts his cameras to a Ford Raptor

Tim Damon grew up in Detroit, in the heyday of the muscle car and Motor City madness, when his neighbors would bring home the latest big-block Mustang or Trans-Am for the weekend. Today, Damon works in Los Angeles as the go-to director for automotive advertising — and his drive to find the perfect shot of a car has led him to help build a level of equipment unique in the industry. When you need to mount a camera on a boom arm that can travel off-road at 60 mph, only a Ford SVT Raptor will do.

After graduating from Detroit's College of Creative Studies, Damon built a career as a photographer, cinematographer and eventually director. While he's shot more than 100 commercials, his footage can be seen in hundreds of other projects for automakers and other clients. It's not just a business; Damon's car enthusiasm extends to his own collection, which includes everything from a high-output Cadillac CTS-V to the first car he owned, a '67 Pontiac Grand Prix convertible.

That Detroit grounding, Damon says, makes him particular about capturing a car's design with precision, a task that's only grown more important in the digital era.

"Every time I put a lens on a car I know it has to be perfect, because it's going to live a long time," Damon says. "I take every shot very seriously...it isn't like the old days when there was a body change or grille change every year. There’s stuff of mine that’s five or six years old that I see in new ads."