Stay just as you are, Iceland.
What can I say about Iceland, other than it’s a video producer’s dream location? Am I saying you can just go there to shoot some video and you’ll likely catch a great landscape shot? Actually, yes. But there was much more to this location than a few beauty shots for this video’s purpose. I say “location” in the singular form, because from a production standpoint this was one of 8 major locations for this video, although we had 6 different shoots in Iceland over the span of 7 days, and more than 800 miles logged on some rental cars that got pushed to their 4-wheel drive limits.
Why Iceland?
In this video, we start off with a storyline that follows water scarcity and take a story angle of glaciers melting for visual purposes. Iceland immediately popped in our heads for a great spot to get this type of footage. Second, we were in need of “water in nature” video footage. In Iceland, you can’t drive more than 20 minutes without running into some sort of water feature – the coast, waterfalls, rivers, etc. So it covered our production needs there as well. Lastly, this video was based on location footage from our client’s customer operations. We were able to set up shoots at two different customer locations as well, so this trip checked more than a few boxes in the end.
Come prepared.
We shot our video during the last week of February. The first few days of production were perfect. Nice weather, sun shining, snow on the ground, and not much wind, none of which ever happened according to the local crews. Rest assured we learned how true that was on the back half of the trip. Long story short – bring lens wipes for the camera. And DO NOT, I repeat, do not get a flat tire. On our drive across the country the comment was made that most European cars don’t have spare tires (picture above of when that comment was made – after the 10th “Man I hope we don’t break down” of the drive.) And for the record, no spare. When I say this place is remote – the only example I have is a 3-hour stretch of the drive where we didn’t see a building, a car, a light, or any other form of human existence. Again – don’t get a flat and you’re all good.
In the end, Iceland was a place full of friendly people with an attitude that is pretty much lost in the states. We walked on a domestic plane with video gear -you guys know what I’m talking about… way too many 50 pound pelican cases, etc. without the bat of an eye. I’m pretty sure they didn’t even check my ID as we hopped on the plane. One of our local guides, regarding the lack of “danger” signs, said it like this; "If you walk too close to the edge of a cliff with ice on it and fall, that’s your own fault". It was right then I knew we would get some great angles on our waterfall shots. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but if you get the chance to shoot or produce a video in Iceland, go do it.
Stay tuned for the video! Until then check out some of our other work here
- Impavid Digital Cinema is a boutique video production company located in Chicago, but we take our services anywhere. We're here to tell extraordinary stories with exceptional imagery. Need a video made? Holler@impaviddigital.com -
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