Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) was lauded for many reasons but none more so than his dedication to specifics of place. It was a masterclass in visual storytelling and a love letter to Italy.

I often think of him when working in Italy because if a vignette fails to emphatically convey a sense of place, there is very little chance of it registering with others. In a car series, I think you need not just a sense of place, but also a sense of journey. In other words, I am drawn to locations where I can see the road behind the car.

In Val d’Orcia, we know the key roads to work from and if they are private roads - which they tend to be - we will have the farmer on board long before we shoot. The best light to work with, against the geometric harmony of the Tuscan countryside, is first light and logistically that demands early starts for all the crew.

The visual marriage of Ferrari and the black stallion was a common theme in this series and gives a helpful nod to the iconic Ferrari brand. Our lead asset was the 1955 Ferrari 121LM that was driven by Piero Taruffi at Mille Miglia in its first year. In the Mille Miglia he drove from Rome to Brescia at an average speed of 189 kph - a record that stands to this day. Taruffi drove just past where this photograph was taken in this exact car. If that failed to excite me, or indeed any of my tea, we are manifestly in the wrong job.

For hundreds of years Italy has cast a spell on creative artists. Everyone will bring their own interpretations and style and there is no definitive prescriptive path or formula. But I do need a sense of place as a building block and I think this photograph has it.