Crownhealth BTS
In May 2019, Crownhealth approached us and asked that we would create a series of short films and photographs for their website and social pages covering the following three sports; Trail Running, Road Biking and Open Water Swimming. We needed to capture a variety of their products based on pre-workout, during workout and post workout nutrition.
Taking this brief on board we came up with the concept to shoot 2 x 30 second films per sport, capturing the beginning, middle and end of an athlete’s training regime, whilst incorporating their products in the most natural way. The first film would finish where the second film would begin. This allowed us to give each product the breathing space it needed whilst keeping the energy of the films vibrant and engaging.
Starting with Road Biking we chose Monte Bar as a location, shooting towards the end of June 2019. We aimed for a dusk and dawn shoot for the best light. Having scouted and planned each shot days before we met around midday to get ourselves sorted and prep our cyclist Philip. Starting low on the mountain, we worked our way up, timing so that we arrived at each of our locations in the best light. Our aim was to shoot the sunset at the top of the pass and to finish up by a mountain hut, in order to get out pre-dawn the next morning to shoot some night sequences.
Everything went as planned except the weather... The joys of outdoor shoots, it doesn’t matter how much you plan or what time of year it is, you can never count fully on the weather! The skies were still clear and beautiful but a freezing northerly wind came. Despite the harsh conditions Philip powered on through, thanks to his resilience and high spirits (good acting) you would never tell how cold it was or difficult it was to cycle against the strong icy wind in the finish film.
Next up was trail running shoot with Alex Borsuk. A little later in the summer just when the heat wave hit Europe, we decided to take this shoot to one of Switzerlands’s most beautiful trails in Lauterbrunnen - and bivvy on what we all agreed was one of the most epic spots we have ever slept!
A lot different to our cycling shoot, the intense heat meant we needed a couple of cold beers to congratulate ourselves in managing to get through a sweat fest ! Again we planned for a dusk and dawn shoot, prepping all our locations for the best light. In terms of scenery and sleeping location it was definitely the best out of the 3 shoots!
Finally we finished our last part of the series with the lovely Laurent on another hot day. We managed to shoot this in one day, on Lake Lugano.
We chose a forest, a meadow and of course the open lake as our locations. All great locations within a close proximity which enabled us to be quick on our feet. Our only hiccup was when Milo had “the hay fever attack” (I don’t think we will forget it)! Shooting gimbal sequences through a meadow, a cloud of pollen sent him into a massive fit of sneezes. We had to pump him with anti histamines, and throw him into the lake to clear him of the pollen. Nothing like a little bit of drama to keep the energy high on a shoot ! We finished with a nice bonfire and some food and lots of laughter. Despite the attack it was not a bad way to end a fun summers shoot.