Hummer EV:
Permitting San Francisco's
Most Famous Streets.
Red Summit Productions handled the scouting, permitting, and street-closure logistics behind a GM Hummer EV shoot on two of San Francisco's most iconic, and most tightly regulated, streets: Lombard and Filbert.
Securing San Francisco's Most Iconic, and Trickiest, Streets.
When GM and agency Weber Shandwick set out to showcase the Hummer EV's signature Crab Walk, its diagonal driving capability, they needed streets steep and tight enough to prove it. Red Summit Productions was brought on to plan and produce the San Francisco shoot, starting with two of the city's most famous, and most heavily regulated, blocks: the switchbacks of Lombard Street and the steep grade of Filbert Street.
Filming on either street means navigating active traffic, pedestrian tourism, residential neighbors, and the city's own permitting requirements, all before a single Hummer EV could make its first turn.
Two of the city's most iconic streets. Zero room for delay.
Lombard Street draws thousands of visitors a day to its famous switchbacks, and Filbert Street's steep grade makes it one of the most physically demanding blocks in the city to shoot on. Both are residential, both are constantly in use, and neither can simply be shut down without extensive coordination with the city and its residents.
The production called for picture cars performing the Hummer EV's Crab Walk maneuver on public streets, aerial drone coverage overhead, and a full film crew, all inside permitted windows measured in hours, not days. Every minute of access had to be planned before the crew ever arrived.
A dedicated scout day, before a single permit was pulled.
Production began a full day ahead of the shoot with a dedicated tech scout, walking Lombard Street and Filbert Street block by block with our location manager, AD, and DP to map camera positions, drone flight paths, and picture car routes against the realities of each street's grade, turns, and sightlines.
That scout became the foundation for the permitting and street-closure plan that followed: coordinating directly with the San Francisco Police Department for traffic control on both blocks, securing a dedicated security officer, and locking in the exact filming windows the production would need to get the shot without disrupting the neighborhoods around it.
Lombard Street and Filbert Street don't get shut down for just anyone. Every minute on those blocks was planned, permitted, and accounted for before we ever rolled camera.
A hard out, a moving company, and one shot at each street.
Shoot day moved in tightly scheduled blocks: rigging the picture cars at base camp, a company move to Lombard Street for a locked two-hour filming window, a hard out at 12:30 PM to reopen the street, then a second company move to Filbert Street to capture the Hummer EV's crab walk and additional driving shots before wrap.
Three SFPD officers managed traffic and street closures across both locations while our drone and rigger team captured aerial coverage overhead, all coordinated against a schedule with no flex built in. With sixteen crew on the ground and a locked window on each street, the production had one pass to get it right.
Every shot secured, every street reopened on time.
The production captured the Hummer EV's Crab Walk on Filbert Street and its signature driving footage on Lombard Street, on schedule and within every permitted window, without disrupting the residents, traffic, or tourism that make both streets what they are.
What made it possible wasn't just a good shot list, it was a full day of scouting, a coordinated permitting plan with the city, and a production team that treated logistics as seriously as the footage itself.
