Shooting on Location: Norway, Ten Random Thoughts

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Rodney and I just spent a little over a week shooting footage for Season 4 of Trekkit TV for Community One. We travelled from Stavanger to Trondheim in a Toyota Hybrid filming and photographing everything we could.

The following is ramblings of things we learned along the way that I wanted to share:

  1. Rain. Learn to deal with the rain. June is the driest month in Norway but it rained 75% of the time! So we adapted and used umbrellas, filmed from the car, and many times waited for a break in the weather, setup quick and just filmed the best we could. Rain sucks, but you have to learn to deal with it. It frayed my nerves but Rodney rolled with it, so glad half of the film crew was calm and adapted to the situation.
  2. Gear. Keep it simple. I still have not mastered that yet but having an SD card for each unit and a few extras was helpful. This time instead using a DSLR for filming and photos I had a dedicated video camera and a photo camera which made setup quick. Having an Action Camera mounted on the hood of the car and a camera mounted to the dash to film us while driving captured some interesting points of view.
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  4. Travelling with no reservations. Rodney planned this trip, which took a great workload off me and was greatly appreciated. The UK and Iceland trips I planned but this one was all on Dr. Dirt. The one thing Rodney did this time was to only book the first two nights and the last night. This way we did not have a schedule carved in stone. This allowed us to film more in awesome locations and adapt to the weather. Each night we would use Booking.com or just pull up to some cabins along the road. Only one night did we have a little issue finding a place but finally found a place around midnight. As we continued north in Norway daylight became longer and did not get dark until around midnight and we filmed all the way all the time, so getting a room at midnight was not so bad. Note: Cabins and hostels do not have linen or towels, these cost extra, and you have to ask for them.
  5. Heated Floors. Everywhere we stayed had heated floors in the bathroom, even the little cabins in the middle of nowhere, I now love heated floors. What is it going to take to upgrade my bathroom!
  6. Footwear. My hiking boots and waterproof sneakers were a great addition to my kit. Being so wet outside the waterproof sneakers where invaluable comfort.
  7. Kit Bomb. As I learned from Scouter Ken, keep your gear organized always, and we did. When things got out of hand, we would “reboot” our camera/cable gear. This was helpful when having to get a great shot quickly, especially when having a reindeer jump into a field.
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  9. Unlocked Phone. Not a fan of locked phones, I picked up a Telenor SIM card in Norway and had a 1 gig of data plan for $25. That rocked!!! When you put in your new SIM card, don’t lose your current one or when you get home you might be offline until you get back to your mobility store to get a new SIM.
  10. Cliff Bars. We usually ate breakfast (or a Pølse, a Norwegian Hot Dog, at the gas station), but only once did we sit down and have a real meal. I brought a box of Cliff Bars which was my staple on this trip.
  11. Seat Selection. When travelling and booking your flights ahead of time, many times you can’t pick your seats because you booked too early. Make sure you pick your seats as early as possible to make sure you get the seat type you want. Getting stuck in the middle of two people during a transatlantic flight (like I did) for 7 hours can seem even longer stuck between two people you don’t know.
  12. Traveling mates. For the Katahdin, UK, Iceland, and Norway I have been fortunate to travel with awesome travel companions. Heading out for 1-12 days with people you don’t get along with can make travel miserable. Thanks to everyone that has been on a Trekkit adventure so far, it’s been a pleasure.


Trekkit Season 4: Road trip in Norway, coming to Bell Aliant TV1 and Trekkit TV this fall.

Thanks,

RyanSig3